Category: Madagascar
A song of change in Madagascar brings goosebumps and tears
As a marine ecologist and self-acclaimed nerd, I get excited when I see a graph, especially one charting fish abundance or coral cover. But there are myriad ways to share tales of change beyond data, especially where numbers don’t convey...
Improving community health to boost engagement in conservation
I sat down with Edith Ngunjiri, our Technical Advisor, Health-Environment Partnerships, to get her insights on the health-environment approach following the 15th anniversary of the Blue Ventures Safidy programme. The community health programme has integrated health activities within marine conservation...
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...
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...
Sustainable living from the sea through community-led seaweed farming.
In Madagascar, members of the community of Belo-sur-Mer – primarily women – have taken up the challenge of village aquaculture. I had no future before seaweed farming. My sons had left the village, and I could not support myself because...
Adopting LMMAs – selfless actions for the security of future coastal generations
As we headed out on the bumpy road to Ambolobozobe in the northeast of Madagascar, there was a sense of anticipation. We were going to meet the coastal communities who are successfully managing multiple Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) as...
When the students became the teachers: a new locally led ecological monitoring team in southwest Madagascar
In June, the local ecological monitoring team from Velondriake travelled to Manjaboake to pass on its skills to its first set of students It was an early sunny morning in June as we packed our kit into the boat on...
Guardians of blue carbon
Ahead of International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, hear from a Blue Ventures blue carbon scientist about how communities in Madagascar are working to protect these precious forests – and the climate
Voices from Tsimipaika Bay: local solutions to community management
Fisher voices: Madame Véronique and Franklin Velotody share local solutions to marine conservation and explain why it’s so important for their village
Catalysing community engagement: lessons learned from the Barren Isles
In 2018, communities in the Barren Isles established their first temporary octopus fishery closure. Now, they are taking the lead in local fisheries management efforts.