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.
A summer of youth-led activities in Velondriake
By Paul Antion, Velondriake Education Coordinator, Madagascar Our education team has been busy facilitating an expanded range of extracurricular activities during the long summer break in Velondriake, as this is a vital time to continue engaging our scholars in...
Coast-to-coast fisher exchange: from reef octopus to spiny lobster
Lobster fishers from Sainte Luce travelled almost 1,000 kilometres across southern Madagascar to learn from Velondriake’s experience of temporary octopus closures Blue Ventures is working to support some of Madagascar’s most isolated coastal communities to manage their fisheries and marine resources. Starting with a...
Happy Birthday Blue Ventures and Happy Birthday Safidy!
By Vik Mohan, Medical Director This year, my annual trip to Madagascar coincided with two important anniversaries. Not only is Safidy, our community health programme, six years old, but we are also celebrating ten years of Blue Ventures’ work in...
My village outreach tour experience with the Safidy team in Velondriake
By Lison Garrel, Safidy (Community Health) Programme Coordinator, Belo sur Mer Last month the Belo sur Mer team travelled to Andavadoaka to attend the annual Blue Ventures conference. We spent four productive days catching up with colleagues from all over Madagascar,...
Blue forests: progress made and looking forward
By Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst and Manager, Vancouver If someone had told me three years ago that I would come to work in Madagascar’s mangrove forests, I wouldn’t have believed them. Fast forward to July 2011 and I found myself commencing...
Building reef resilence: my experiences from Zanzibar
by Rado Lebely Botosoamananto, Terrestrial & Fisheries Scientist, Madagascar I was told the first time I travelled outside of Madagascar, that while this may be a first for me, it won’t be the last time I leave; and it must...
Fisher exchanges to change fisheries
by Shawn Peabody, Country Director, Madagascar Examples of coastal communities coming together to take on overfishing and reduce destructive fishing aren’t too hard to find. In nearly every region there are good examples of these “positive deviants”, as the literature...
Staff Q&A with Sylvia Paulot, Mangrove Carbon Scientist
In the seventh instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Sylvia Paulot, our Mangrove Carbon Scientist, some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers… What is your scientific background? I studied Environmental Science at Sebelas Maret University, in Central...
Staff Q&A with Annabel Bennett, Expedition Manager
In the fifth instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Annabel Bennett, our Expedition Manager, some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers… What is your scientific background? I have a degree in marine and...
Journey to the centre of BV
by Jo Hudson, Conservation & Research Assistant, UK I left London very early on a cold and damp morning towards the end of April – both excited and a little apprehensive of what was to come. Having worked with BV...
Tuck School of Business students study aquaculture in Madagascar
In March, five students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth came to Madagascar to work alongside Blue Ventures’ community-based aquaculture project as part of their First Year Project. These highly experienced business students came to Madagascar, and got...
The choice is yours: Safidy reproductive rights training
By Brian Jones, Conservation Coordinator, Toliara, Madagascar While in Andavadoaka a few months ago for the Velondriake Association’s election and first general assembly of 2013, I was lucky enough to catch the Safidy programme’s quarterly review and reproductive rights training...
24 hours of aquaculture site visits
In March, five students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth came to Madagascar to work alongside Blue Ventures’ community-based aquaculture project as part of their First Year Project. These highly experienced business students came to Madagascar, and got...
Aquaculture in Madagascar by the Tuck School of Business
In March, five students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth came to Madagascar to work alongside Blue Ventures’ community-based aquaculture project as part of their First Year Project. These highly experienced business students came to Madagascar, and got...
Playing hide and seek with tortoises
by Rado Lebely, Terrestrial & Fisheries Scientist, Madagascar After six very long months of tortoise hibernation, the Blue Ventures tortoise monitoring team was more than ready to see how abundant the spider tortoises (Pyxis arachnoides) are in the rainy season. We...