Category: Velondriake
Velondriake is Madagascar’s first locally managed marine area, established in 2006 by a network of communities located around the village of Andavadoaka on the southwest coast. Our work in the Velondriake area encompasses sustainable fisheries management, sea cucumber and seaweed aquaculture and community health, as part of our integrated approach to marine conservation.
Record numbers of critically endangered tortoise counted by Blue Ventures
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...
One coffee and a warty chameleon, coming right up!
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...
Shark vs Cyclone
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...
Connecting the dots…
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...
The boy who cried whale
“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...
Feom’bezo (the Voice of the Vezo) radio show
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...
Another generation of sea cucumbers for Tampolove!
The 26th of September was an eventful day in Tampolove with the delivery of juvenile sea cucumbers for the 12 farming teams.
Life as an independent researcher
By Sam Wragg, Independent researcher, Madagascar Safe in the knowledge that I have plenty of time to write up my third year project when I get back to the UK and with my data collection occurring on a week-on, week-off basis, I’ve...
Blue Ventures ‘Love-In’: A warm and hearty welcome to the Blue Ventures team
By Christi Turner, Education & Youth Outreach Coordinator, Andavadoaka, Madagascar It is quite extraordinary to be back in Madagascar. This is my adopted home, filled with my extended family, a place that has brought me tremendous personal and professional growth. Madagascar...
A week to remember in Victoria – representing Velondriake at the IMCC II
By Gildas Andriamalala, Velondriake MPA Project Manager, Andavadoaka, Madagascar. Once again I set off across the world from Madagascar to Victoria, Canada, battling with time zones and airport transits, in order to share work experiences from southwest Madagascar’s Locally Managed...
Fano Lany, Vezo Manegny (if turtles disappear, the Vezo will regret)
By Fran Humber, Research Coordinator, Andavadoaka, Madagascar. Over the last week in Andavadoaka there has only been one thing on our minds – turtles! A festival to raise awareness about marine turtles and their conservation in Velondriake has kicked off...
NGO Honko visits Velondriake
By Kame Westerman, Velondriake MPA Project Coordinator, Andavadoaka, Madagascar. The success of Blue Ventures and the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area has attracted a great deal of attention from other organizations implementing community conservation activities. In late May, Velondriake members...
From southern Madagascar to Rodrigues: promoting dialogue to share lessons learned in fisheries management
By Alasdair Harris, BV’s Founder and Research Director, Antananarivo, Madagascar Throughout southern Madagascar, temporary closures of octopus fishing grounds are emerging as a popular management tool for this economically important fishery. In southwest Madagascar alone, over 100 such fishery closures...
An update from former BV Scholar, Mirana Razafindramboa
By Mirana Razafindramboa, Former BV Scholar, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York State, USA. The zoo in Antananarivo was a strange place in the 1980s. As a child, the lemurs and birds imprisoned in tiny, rusty cages seemed perfectly happy,...
Young conservation leaders attend national workshop to discuss implications of climate change
Youth of today, although often under-represented in policy and decision making, are playing a critical role within global efforts to conserve biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change. Within Madagascar, a thriving network of young conservationists is already at...