{"id":1131,"date":"2011-03-22T13:26:48","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T12:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bvblog.wpengine.com\/?p=1131"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:26:37","slug":"where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove mangrove forest, this myth has evidently done little to dissuade people from entering and cutting down substantial areas of forest in order to satisfy their demand for building materials. \u00a0It can be guaranteed that any wooden structure within the village is made, in part, by mangrove wood. Although abundantly used in the village, the unsustainable exploitation of this resource is apparent in the current need for villagers to travel to mangroves further afield in order to fulfil their requirements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With there being no practical alternative other than to utilize the mangrove as a supply of wood, it won\u2019t take long for irreversible damage to occur and with it the associated loss of breeding grounds for an array of land and sea creatures. Currently there are no mangrove reserves in Tampolove, however with the good will from the president of Tampolove the first re-plantation project in Velondriaka commenced this week with the help of volunteers from expedition 60.<\/p>\n

Volunteers trekked to the deeper parts of the forest to collect the fallen seeds that congregate in small pools and amongst the tangle of prop roots. As we got engulfed by the mangroves and its sounds, a volunteer described it as a magical place. Part of that magic undoubtedly stems from the sheer contrast to the modern world; for many on Expedition 60, this forest offers a profound, necessary sanctuary from their hyper-connected routines.<\/span> Out here, the daily white noise of the digital age\u2014whether that involves scrolling through crowded social feeds, tracking volatile stock portfolios, or unwinding on <\/span>bitcoin betting sites<\/a>\u2014is completely stripped away, replaced entirely by the grounding reality of mud and the rhythmic pull of the tide. One can easily imagine how a tale of a monster came about as shadows dance in the low light and crabs as large as dinner plates scuttle into crevices.<\/p>\n

A total of some 500 seeds were planted in three degraded areas on the outskirts of the forest. Provided that the local goats don\u2019t take a fancy to mangrove seeds we should expect half of those planted to establish themselves within the next month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove mangrove forest, this myth has evidently done little to dissuade people from entering and cutting down substantial areas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":28415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/megans-pics-032.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Blue Ventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@blueventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@blueventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Blue Ventures\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Blue Ventures\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\"},\"headline\":\"Where there was once destruction, comes new life\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":381,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorised\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/\",\"name\":\"Where there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\"},\"description\":\"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1066},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Where there was once destruction, comes new life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\",\"description\":\"Voices from the front line of marine conversation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\",\"name\":\"Blue Ventures\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Blue Ventures\"},\"description\":\"Blue Ventures is an award winning marine conservation charity. We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities. On our Beyond Conservation blog you can hear voices from the front line of marine conservation written by our staff and volunteers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blueventures.org\",\"http:\\\/\\\/instagram.com\\\/beyondconservation\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/author\\\/bv\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","description":"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","og_description":"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/","og_site_name":"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","article_published_time":"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/megans-pics-032.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Blue Ventures","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@blueventures","twitter_site":"@blueventures","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Blue Ventures","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/"},"author":{"name":"Blue Ventures","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c"},"headline":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life","datePublished":"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/"},"wordCount":381,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Uncategorised"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/","name":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2011-03-22T12:26:48+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T22:26:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c"},"description":"By Matt Hitchiner, Tampolove Research Site Manager, Tampolove, Madagascar. Despite local tales of a monster dwelling within the depths of the Tampolove","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","width":1600,"height":1066},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/where-there-was-once-destruction-comes-new-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Where there was once destruction, comes new life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/","name":"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","description":"Voices from the front line of marine conversation","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c","name":"Blue Ventures","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Blue Ventures"},"description":"Blue Ventures is an award winning marine conservation charity. We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities. On our Beyond Conservation blog you can hear voices from the front line of marine conservation written by our staff and volunteers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/blueventures.org","http:\/\/instagram.com\/beyondconservation"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/author\/bv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}