Category: LMMA
We’re supporting coastal communities to develop their own locally managed marine areas, designed to sustain local fisheries and safeguard marine biodiversity.
Declare your support for our oceans!
Here at Blue Ventures we work hard to help conserve the marine riches of Madagascar and Belize, but did you know that there are problems in the developed world too? Once upon a time Europe’s seas teemed with fish such...
Mangrove madness and reserve success in Antanimanimbo
by Jérémie Bossert, Belo sur Mer Conservation Coordinator, Madagascar It’s the 23rd of September 2012, and dawn is breaking on the fifth reserve opening in the Belo sur Mer region, today in the village of Antanimanimbo. After six months without any...
BV lovin
by Taylor Mayol, Communications and Programme Development Officer, Madagascar August is a particularly special month for Blue Ventures’ (BV) Madagascar based staff. Each year the entire team journeys across the expanse Madagascar to our main base of operations in the...
BV’s science informs and engages at the International Coral Reef Symposium
By Dr Tom Oliver, Scientific Advisor to Blue Ventures, Hawaii and Dr Al Harris, Research Director, London. Every four years, the world is brought together by not one, but two kinds of summer Olympics, that build the international ties that...
Kayaks (and kava) to Korea: an insider’s perspective at the IUCN’s World Conservation Congress
by Brian Jones, Conservation Coordinator, Madagascar We’re seated on the floor in a circle at the Blue Planet Pavilion on the 3rd floor of the International Conference Centre in Jeju-Do, South Korea. Confused passers-by bump into each other and turn...
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s bat fish and sea robin! The bemused wanderings of a marine biologist lost at sea…
by our anonymous contact with BatFish & SeaRobin, Madagascar During a post dinner discussion with a colleague in Belo sur Mer, he mentioned that during his trip to the islands of Kirindy Mite, approximately 20 km west of the village...
War and peace: talking about the Barren Isles
by Olivier Raynaud, Maintirano & Barren Isles Project Coordinator, Madagascar I’ve just arrived in the little town of Maintirano as the new project coordinator for the Barren Isles Marine Protected Area (MPA). My first impression is most definitely that Maintirano...
Nosy Hara: the coral island
I was exceptionally excited to be asked to join a team of scientists to help undertake marine resilience surveys in the Nosy Hara archipelago.
Addressing gender differences in natural resource management
by Kame Westerman, Velondriake MPA Project Coordinator, Madagascar Octopus is the most commercially valuable species within the Velondriake LMMA (locally managed marine area), bringing in a substantial portion of household income. Traditionally, women harvest octopus most frequently, venturing out on shallow...
Velondriake’s first permanent mangrove reserve officially closed
by Kame Westerman, Velondriake MPA Project Coordinator, Madagascar The Bay of Assassins, in the southern area of the Velondriake LMMA, is home to vast tracts of mangrove forest. These forests provide local communities with building materials and daily food supplies...
Climate change adaption in southern Madagascar
by Paubert Mahatante, Roger Samba and J. Paul Getty Scholar, Toliara, Madagascar (introduced & adapted by Jo Hudson, BV Science Intern, UK) In this blog entry Paubert Mahatante, Roger Samba and J. Paul Getty Scholar discusses proposed research in the south of Madagascar, to study...
The patsa express comes to Antanimanimbo (though I would have never noticed it)
By Brian Jones, Belo-sur-Mer Project Coordinator, Madagascar If the village of Antanimanimbo had a street, they’d be dancing in it. The annual migration of patsa (Acetes erythraeus for you sciency types), a tiny shrimp sometimes referred to as “paste shrimp”, has...
Setting sail: a brief look at migration in southwest Madagascar
By Kame Westerman, Velondriake LMMA Coordinator, Madagascar Human migration can be influenced by a number of factors – political, social, economic, physical, and even cultural. In southwest Madagascar, where Blue Ventures works, migration is an important factor to consider when...
Sustainably developing the environment? Oxfam says it’s possible
by Jo Hudson, Science Intern, London Often it seems that poverty reduction and environmentalism are at loggerheads – as one is in direct competition with the other, often for space, funding and support. But a new report by Oxfam, published...
Weathering the storm
by Kame Westerman, Velondriake MPA Project Coordinator, Madagascar Although located hundreds of miles away in the Mozambique Channel, villages within the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) felt the effects of cyclone Funso’s outer edges last week. A recent report estimated...