Nearshore fisheries along the coast of Kenya have been heavily overexploited because local fishers’ rights are not respected and use of gear like beach seines (nets) is a destructive and unsustainable way to fish. Overfishing depletes biodiversity, degrades ecosystem resilience to climate shocks, and reduces the abundance of reef resources essential to the well-being of poor rural families dependent on fish as a source of food and income. Starting in 2005, WCS began working with local communities all along the coast to help them secure rights to their traditional fishing grounds and to manage them sustainably. Drawing on the successful WCS model to reinforce and modernize traditional tambu closures of fishing grounds in Fiji, WCS worked closely with local communities to revitalize the use of closures (tengefu) and gear restrictions within fishing grounds over which they have legitimate, hereditary claims. Starting with a few communities, WCS now helps to manage 13 tengefu along the whole coast of Kenya. As each tengefu moved from planning to operational, WCS has helped the communities monitor their fish stocks, landings, and income from fishing. Results clearly show that implementation of tengefu fishing closures increase fish biomass, catch-per-unit-effort (i.e., the weight of fish that can be caught in a given time period), and fishers’ incomes.