Gambian youth group championing green initiatives for a healthier environment
In an effort to make a real difference in their community and address issues related to the environment, members of the Sanyang Youths for Environmental Protection and Development (SANYEPD) are making waves with their hands-on approach to mangrove restoration and...
Our first-ever peer-to-peer learning exchange on blue carbon ecosystems in Madagascar
Holly Elgar joined Blue Ventures in 2022 as a Senior Scoping Officer for blue carbon ecosystems. Holly uses her expertise to identify potential sites to expand our community-led mangrove management projects around the world. Here she talks about her recent...
Supporting women in Mozambique to protect their marine areas
Last night, on the eve of International Women’s Day, Mozambique organised a ministerial-level UN debate about how the security council can work together for the common good of women’s empowerment. We asked Habiba Mussa, our colleague in Mozambique, to tell...
Celebrating fishers on the Kenyan coast
In January this year our partner Bahari Hai organised and hosted a conservation festival in Watamu, a small town on the northern coast of Kenya. They invited us to help with the planning and execution of the activities. Our fisheries...
The Barren Isles – living on the edge of the world
Supported by the Blue Action Fund (BAF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Blue Ventures and its implementing partners, the Aga Khan Foundation, Abalobi, MIHARI, and OSDRM recently began delivering a conservation and community engagement project with communities on the...
Putting communities at the heart of coral reef monitoring in Timor-Leste
Our Conservation Officer in Timor-Leste, Armindo Marques, talks about his journey with BV and training a team of Timorese reef monitoring volunteers.
Voices from COP15
The end of the year brought two major events to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, and to decide the fate of humanity, and the future of all life on earth. After Egypt hosted the climate COP27...
Voices of young community leaders
Speaking up for change in Antsahampano village through mangrove conservation. This is the final piece in a four-part series on the voices of young community leaders from Madagascar. Joséphine Besonoa, the community mangrove management association (VOI) technician, speaks on how...
Voices of young community leaders
Encouraging youth to care more for the environment This is the third piece in a four-part series featuring the voices of young community leaders from Madagascar. Fisherwoman Yolande Soamihaja describes her journey as she inspires fellow youth to take on...
Voices of young community leaders
Changemaking through the art of ‘kabary’ speechmaking in Madagascar This post is the second of a 4-part series featuring the voices of young community leaders from Madagascar. In this second part, Landry Jaofasy, a farmer, tells us how he gradually...
Voices of young community leaders
Marie Gorettie; my public commitment to the environment as a youth leader. This post is the first of a four-part series featuring young leaders in Madagascar who are using their voices to protect their communities and the marine environment. Josephine,...
Shrimp return to the locally managed bay in northern Madagascar
By Nantenaina Ardo NIRISOA, Site Leader (Ambanja, Tsimipaika Bay, Madagascar). More than seven years ago, when I was working as a fisheries and aquaculture technician in Ambanja in Madagascar’s northwest, I set up a network of fisheries data collectors. I...
Improving the health status of coastal communities through health-environment partnership forums
Soon after joining Yayasan Pesisir Lestari (YPL) in 2021, I had the opportunity to meet our partners integrating health interventions into their conservation work at a forum. I was both excited and nervous to host such a forum with YPL...
Nantenaina: Advocating for collaboration, my journey, and hope from COP26 to COP27
Madagascar is my home, and we have just lived through Cyclone Batsirai. More cyclones came after, and there are more to come. We are all affected by climate change, but coastal communities and exposed to diseases. Capping global temperature increase...
Is HIV a hidden epidemic in Madagascar?
Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV through a Health-Environment Partnerships approach I recently joined Blue Ventures as a Technical Advisor on Health-Environment matters, and I was amazed by the strides the team had made. For nearly two decades, Blue Ventures has...