Plastics affect Mozambique’s fisheries directly through damage to ships, plastic in fishnets and the impact of ALDFG. Direct and indirect impacts on marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity further increase the negative effects of plastic pollution.

This not only negatively affects the economy, but also impacts individual households’ livelihoods and food security, especially in coastal communities. Overall, marine plastic pollution plays a crucial role in marine ecosystem degradation and the services these ecosystems provide. This is not only a problem for the fisheries sector, but can also impact other sectors of the economy, such as potential losses in the tourism sector or increased costs of beach clean-ups to avoid these losses (Galgani et al., 2019), and increases in the costs of marine transport

Small-scale circular economy projects specifically targeting coastal communities and assuring the inclusion of women can play a key role in these interventions. The projects could be linked with some of the ongoing decentralisation and co-management of marine resources. For example, the issuing and charging of licenses, as well as enforcement of fisheries regulations and collection of fines are now starting to be managed by district administrators (ASCLME, 2011). Likewise, co-management committees have been integrating local chiefs from fishing villages into the administrative process as a means of sustaining traditional management techniques (Samoiylis et al., 2017). Thus, the inclusion of small-scale fishers in the management of marine resources, including waste management, can support further development of the fisheries sector and the blue economy, while assuring that Mozambique’s marine biodiversity is conserved.