Category: International

In addition to our field programmes in Madagascar and Belize, we regularly share our learning at international conferences and we’re supporting various partners to adopt our conservation models in other tropical developing coastal regions.

Women octopus gleaners and loan sharks in Mozambique

The second update from my time in northern Mozambique, advising local NGO AMA and their Edinburgh-based partner Bioclimate on community-led octopus fishery management… Walking around the small and quiet village of Quiwia with a group of fisherwomen, we see racks of drying octopus lying in...

/ Mar 19, 2014

‘Polvo’ and participatory mapping in Mozambique

It’s a good job I don’t mind getting my hands dirty! I’m standing on an island in the bay of Mocimboa da Praia in northern Mozambique with the sun beating down, and a group of about ten fishermen crowded around...

/ Mar 13, 2014

Celebrating women who inspire change

I'm currently volunteering with the Safidy programme in Andavadoaka, and was offered the opportunity to write this special blog post for International Women’s Day...

/ Mar 8, 2014

Sustainable tuna fisheries management in the southwest Indian Ocean

by Charlie Gough, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, UK Flying into Maputo, Mozambique in November 2013 I was excited and a little apprehensive. I was representing Blue Ventures at the 4th annual forum of civil society organisations (CSO)/private sector (PS) for...

/ Feb 26, 2014

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest

by Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst & Manager – Blue Carbon Science, Vancouver Update from Blue Ventures’ newest branch in Vancouver, Canada. Greetings from the Pacific Northwest! After two exciting and fruitful years in Madagascar, I have moved to Vancouver, Canada to...

/ Feb 6, 2014

The Geo for Good Summit: putting cutting edge mapping technologies in the hands of non-profits

By Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst & Manager, Blue Carbon Science, Vancouver What happens when you spend a week with representatives from dozens of non-profits, educational institutions and research institutes learning about recent advances in mapping tools and technologies at the...

/ Jan 30, 2014

Spicing up aquaculture: experiences from our regional workshop in Zanzibar

by Jo Hudson, Conservation & Communications Officer, London As I stepped off the plane in Stone Town, Zanzibar, the heat hit me like a slap the face and I was dazzled by the sunlight – I thought to myself “Toto...

/ Jan 16, 2014

Staff Q&A with Frances Humber, Conservation Programme Manager

In the eighteenth instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Frances Humber, our London-based conservation programme manager, some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers… What is your professional background? Despite the cliché, I had decided...

/ Jan 10, 2014

Making an IMPAC at the International Marine Protected Areas Congress

by Olivier Raynaud, Maintirano & Barren Isles Project Coordinator, Madagascar Following Geeling, Australia in 2005 and Washington DC, USA in 2009, the third International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC3) was held in Marseilles, France in October 2013. Jointly organised by the...

/ Jan 7, 2014

A meeting of minds at GCFI’s lionfish sessions

After attending the recent launch of the Regional Lionfish Strategy at the International Coral Reef Initiative general meeting one month earlier, I was excited about taking the next step in collaborative efforts to control invasive lionfish. This time, it involved...

/ Dec 12, 2013

From imperilled parrotfish to invasive lionfish – the ICRI GM28 was (almost) all about the Caribbean

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), formed of 60 members comprising governments, international, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, held its 28th General Meeting (GM28) in Belize City, October this year. A year ago, Blue Ventures joined this global partnership, which strives...

/ Dec 11, 2013

How is your climate literacy?

by Sylvia Paulot, Blue Carbon Scientist, Toliara – Madagascar I recently attended a training on climate change and marine protected areas in South Africa, part of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

/ Dec 3, 2013

PHE is alive and kicking: inspiration and endorsement from Addis Ababa

By Laura Robson and Caroline Savitzky The excitement was palpable as we gathered with almost 200 of the world’s finest Population-Health-Environment (PHE) practitioners, researchers and advocates in Addis Ababa for the International PHE Conference earlier this month! With all of...

/ Nov 28, 2013

Reaching the hardest to reach with reproductive health choices

Two boys splash across the shallows as the tide goes out in the channel by Begamela, a small fishing community on Madagascar’s southwest coast, chasing after their model pirogues, adjusting the sails and setting them off in a race towards...

/ Nov 8, 2013

Three cities, five days, six presentations: lighting fires in the US

By Vik Mohan, Blue Ventures’ Medical Director I recently returned from a whistle-stop one-week tour of three US cities, where I was working to raise the profile of Blue Ventures’ integrated Population-Health-Environment (PHE) approach, sharing the results of our work,...

/ Aug 14, 2013