Filming with the stars
After years of wanting to tell the story of Blue Ventures' integrated Population-Health-Environment approach in a visual and personal way, the opportunity has finally arrived.
What is biodiversity?
by Winnie Courtene-Jones, Field Scientist, Belize What is biodiversity? That was the question for grade 5 of the Sarteneja Roman Catholic school. We started the day with a trip to Shipstern Nature Reserve, home to a hugely diverse array of...
Tsy veloma fa mandra-pihaona! (It’s not goodbye, but see you next time!)
By Shawn Peabody, Former Country Director, Madagascar It took me 30 hours to get to Andavadoaka the second time I went there. I took the octopus truck – and I was lucky in that I got a seat at the...
Sustainable tuna fisheries management in the southwest Indian Ocean
by Charlie Gough, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, UK Flying into Maputo, Mozambique in November 2013 I was excited and a little apprehensive. I was representing Blue Ventures at the 4th annual forum of civil society organisations (CSO)/private sector (PS) for...
My medical elective with Blue Ventures in Andavadoaka, Madagascar
By Lousie Collingwood, medical elective student, Exeter, United Kingdom Madagascar is an incredible country, full of endemic wildlife and fringed by beautiful coral reefs. However, this wasn’t the only reason I decided to travel there for my medical elective… Blue...
Tsy manavaky: female fishers find strength through learning
By Olivia Kemp, Sustainable Fisheries Programme Manager, Toliara, Madagascar Andavadoaka beach, 6am. As our team loaded up the comarine pirogue with our gear, we scanned the cloudy skies for signs of what weather surprises might be in store for us...
Staff Q&A with Aude Carro, Blue Forests Coordinator (NW Madagascar)
In the nineteenth instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Aude Carro, Blue Forests Coordinator (NW Madagascar), some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers…
Greetings from the Pacific Northwest
by Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst & Manager – Blue Carbon Science, Vancouver Update from Blue Ventures’ newest branch in Vancouver, Canada. Greetings from the Pacific Northwest! After two exciting and fruitful years in Madagascar, I have moved to Vancouver, Canada to...
How can rice sacks help prevent diarrhoea?
By Mahasoa Lahatse, Health Education and WASH Specialist, Velondriake, Madagascar It makes us, the Safidy community health team of Blue Ventures, happy to share with you this short story about sand-bag latrines. This story takes place in our village of Andavadoaka, where...
The Geo for Good Summit: putting cutting edge mapping technologies in the hands of non-profits
By Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst & Manager, Blue Carbon Science, Vancouver What happens when you spend a week with representatives from dozens of non-profits, educational institutions and research institutes learning about recent advances in mapping tools and technologies at the...
Family planning festivals sail into Belo sur Mer
By Lison Garrel, Safidy (Community Health) Programme Coordinator, Belo sur Mer, Madagascar Last month the commune of Belo sur Mer was in a party mood! And no, it wasn’t because of the rallies preceding the presidential election, it wasn’t because of...
Development of a community aquaculture project: going beyond for real sustainability
by Minnie Lanting, ex-Velondriake Programme Coordinator, and Antoine Rougier, Aquaculture Consultant, Madagascar This is Blue Ventures’ approach to promoting sustainable alternative livelihoods through our community-based aquaculture programme. Instead of giving one-off donations or handing out money to local fishers, the...
BV Belize’s conservation Christmas cracker
by Siim Maaten, BV Volunteer, Belize A couple of weeks before Christmas the weh di gwan (agenda) board in Bachalar Chico Dive Camp announced that while others are doing data entry and dives, Santa’s fellow-countrymen Kaisa and neighbour Siim (me)...
Spicing up aquaculture: experiences from our regional workshop in Zanzibar
by Jo Hudson, Conservation & Communications Officer, London As I stepped off the plane in Stone Town, Zanzibar, the heat hit me like a slap the face and I was dazzled by the sunlight – I thought to myself “Toto...
Staff Q&A with Frances Humber, Conservation Programme Manager
In the eighteenth instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Frances Humber, our London-based conservation programme manager, some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers… What is your professional background? Despite the cliché, I had decided...