by Kame Westerman, Velondriake MPA Project Coordinator, Madagascar Although located hundreds of miles away in the Mozambique Channel, villages within the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) felt the effects of cyclone Funso’s outer edges last week. A recent report estimated … Continue reading
by Shanta Barley, Field Scientist, Madagascar When Ryan Walker, a biologist based at the Open University, and his team crawled on their hands and knees through 60 kilometres of clothes-shredding, hair-plucking spiny forest between Toliara and the Mangoky River, racking … Continue reading
by Shanta Barley, Field Scientist, Madagascar With 57 of the world’s 131 species of chameleon, including the largest and the smallest, Madagascar has a monopoly on the family’s diversity. This unusual individual (see photo, below) was spotted clinging to a … Continue reading
by Shanta Barley, Field Scientist, Madagascar What constitutes a duvet day for a Vezo shark fisherman? Not the threat of capsizing in seven metre waves, it turns out. Yesterday, Andava bay was peppered with pirogues en route to the Mozambique … Continue reading
by Jo Hudson, Science Intern, Blue Ventures Head Office Connecting Classrooms is the joint project between UNICEF and Blue Ventures, which will enhance our community-based conservation programmes through innovative, technological teaching tools for the youth of coastal southwest Madagascar. By using … Continue reading
“A dead whale? Washed up in Antsanaranasoa bay?” Within minutes, a mob of villagers, armed with axes and buckets, was sprinting through the spiny forest, effortlessly hurdling knee-high thorny shrubs, in a race to procure enough fish bait to last … Continue reading
The Velondriake Management Committee works hard to keep the community informed about its many conservation activities, and how these benefit the community. In September 2011, Velondriake began producing a bi-monthly radio show in partnership with Blue Ventures, called Feom’Bezo (The … Continue reading
By Christi Turner, Education & Youth Outreach Coordinator Does anyone remember the cartoon movie Ferngully: the Last Rainforest? I’ll never forget watching it as a child, and starting to think about the disappearing forests on the other side of the … Continue reading
By Shawn Peabody, Locally Managed Marine Area Coordinator, Toliara – Madagascar I didn’t know that clown fish could be so cocky, at least not outside their protective sea anemone. If I were a clown fish, I would be cocky only … Continue reading
by Jon Schleyer, Blue Ventures Film Maker, Madagascar Three years ago, on my first trip to Madagascar, I settled in for an exceptional adventure as I embarked on a pirogue (dugout outrigger canoe with a large square sail rig) to cruise … Continue reading