Shawn Peabody

Madagascar Country Director Toliara, Madagascar

Shawn leads Blue Ventures' team in Madagascar as Country Director, a position he has held since February 2012. Prior to his current position, Shawn was BV' Madagascar Conservation Coordinator, responsible for oversight of BV' conservation programmes at field sites in Andavadoaka, Belo-sur-Mer and Maintirano. From January 2009 to August 2010, he managed the Velondriake LMMA initiative. Before joining the BV team Shawn was Project Coordinator for the conservation NGO ReefDoctor in Ifaty, Madagascar from 2007 to 2009. Shawn served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer from 2005 - 2007, in the remote coastal village of Antsanitia near Mahajunga, Madagascar, where he worked on agriculture and public health.

"I see BV as a tech company, developing and diffusing community conservation 'innovations'. And BV' portfolio takes innovation to the extreme - from temporary fishery closures, to sea cucumber aquaculture, to integrated reproductive health projects, to the application of customary law to marine resource management – across all our projects we're breaking new ground time and again. As a small NGO we aim to maximise our impact through the development of new ideas and approaches that work and then through the diffusion of these through our publications and our partners."

Shawn has a passion for creating educational tools, especially comic books for coastal communities. He was the primary author and producer of a 12 book series of handbooks and comics which can be found here: http://livewiththesea.org/handbooks/

Publications at Blue Ventures:

Peabody et al (2011) Handbooks for Community-based marine conservation. Blue Ventures Conservation.

Peabody, Shawn, Benbow, Sophie (2010) Velondriake Management Plan: A 5 year management plan for the Velondriake Community-Management Marine Protected Area. Blue Ventures Conservation.

Click here to contact Shawn.