Category: Madagascar
A Muddy Mangrove Experience for Expeditions!
Mere hours after the annual conference for Blue Ventures had ended in Andavadoaka, our eighth, and final, expedition of 2014 began! Typically, when the cars arrive on-site, volunteers have the chance to unpack, shower and get acquainted with their new...
Through school I know that I’m capable of achieving much more…
I know that staying and finishing school will help me get somewhere where I’m fully satisfied. Doing something other than living day-to-day, doing small jobs, hauling cement or moving rocks. Through school I know that I’m capable of achieving much...
Girl power
My goal in completing school is to become a midwife. I see the need for women to have someone they can go to and trust with anything, especially young girls.
Dreaming of university
I don’t know of anyone else who had dreams of going to university as a kid. It isn’t something that many people from here do. No matter what happens, I have to keep trying, I have to find a way...
Education filled me up almost more than a bowl of rice…
Something magical happens. When I’m at school or studying in the youth clubs with Blue Ventures, it’s like learning is the medicine that cures my hunger.
Uncovering the hidden power of Population-Health-Environment programmes
Have you ever wondered how offering family planning to communities in Madagascar might be affecting the size of fish in the Mozambique Channel? Or how working with octopus gleaners may be impacting women’s use of contraception? Or how seaweed farming...
Putting Madagascar on the (Google) Map
by Leah Glass, Blue Carbon Project Manager, Madagascar I’m writing this blog whilst drifting down the Sambirano River in northwest Madagascar on a traditional pirogue. On a ‘normal’ work day I’d be on my way to visit one of mangrove...
Mandeha magnarato: a weekend fishing in Nosy Marify, Barren Isles
by Cecile Fattebert, Barren Isles Conservation Officer, Madagascar This summer I set foot in Madagascar for the first time in order to work with Blue Ventures, where we’re moving towards creating Madagascar’s largest protected area and the Indian Ocean’s largest community-run marine...
Making a living from the forests between land and sea
by Kitty Brayne, Country Coordinator, Madagascar I’m in a fishing village, but I can’t see the sea. Ankazomborona is perched on the edge of a muddy channel separating land from a forbidding forest of twisted mangrove trees, their roots veering...
Increasing choice for women in Belo
Community health agents in and around Belo sur Mer are trained to offer contraceptive injections to women in their villages.
Octopus opening day: ten years on
by Olivia Kemp, Fisheries Programme Manager, Madagascar In August this year, coastal communities in the southwest region of Madagascar celebrated their 10th periodic octopus fishery closure season. Since 2004, villages along this coastline have been annually closing off parts of their fishing sites,...
Project integration: expeditions meet aquaculture
By Madison Kane, Expedition Manager, Madagascar On a Friday afternoon, after some beautiful morning dives, the expedition volunteers eagerly await their ride to Tampolove; a trip I have always said is one of my favourites. Jaws drop and gasps of...
Catching up with shark data collectors in Madagascar
by Fran Humber, Conservation Programmes Manager, UK Managing a project from afar can have its pros and cons.Whilst I have access to fast internet and 24 hour electricity and can help to move the technical of the project forward; emails,...
A Madagascar Phenomenon: Baobab Trees
by Madison Kane, Expedition Manager, Madagascar Anywhere you go you’ll see trees; from palms in the Caribbean to snowy pines in Canada,from redwoods in California to eucalyptus in Australia. You name it, they’re all over. However, never had I seen...
The most valuable marine resources in Madagascar
by Fran Humber, Conservation Programmes Manager, UK I have just visited NW Madagascar, speaking to shark fishers and community members to explore the potential for expanding our mobile phone data collection on shark fisheries to this region. Up to this...