In 1991, German development worker Sibylle Riedmiller invested her savings in an uninhabited island; three years later, its reef became a protected sanctuary.

In April 1991, Sibylle Riedmiller was sailing around Zanzibar when she came across an uninhabited island surrounded by a shallow coral reef. What she saw was unusual for the region: a largely intact marine ecosystem at a time when destructive fishing, including dynamite fishing, was damaging reefs along the Tanzanian coast. Rather than seeing Chumbe Island as an untouched paradise, the German development worker saw an opportunity to protect it. She put her own money into the idea of creating a conservation project that could eventually support itself through carefully managed tourism.

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