Mohéli island 

Mohéli, also known as Mwali, is one of the three islands which make up the nation of Comoros.

Mohéli is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is by far the smallest of the Comoros islands.

On 19 April 2001, the first protected area in this country – Mohéli Marine Park – was gazetted. This was the culmination of a unique process by which the local communities in the ten villages around the park boundaries negotiated a collaborative arrangement with the government for the establishment and management of the park.

Not surprisingly therefore, the marine park programme was among the 27 finalists selected from nearly 500 nominations by the Equator Initiative, a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), IUCN, the UN Foundation and four other international groups, to promote community-based initiatives aimed at furthering sustainable development.