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New research published today in Global Environmental Change highlights the value of a holistic approach to community-based marine conservation – integrating family planning and other health services with livelihood diversification, gender equality and local marine management initiatives. The mixed methods study was conducted in the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) in coastal southwest Madagascar ...

Our oceans are in crisis. The effects of overfishing and climate breakdown are pushing marine life, and the communities who rely on fishing for survival, to the brink.   Yet the crisis of overfishing is both unnecessary and entirely reversible. Fisheries are amongst the most productive resources on the planet, and through local marine management, communities ...

Against a backdrop of extreme poverty, personal loss and a marine environment changing beyond her control… Kokoly lives on a knife edge. Kokoly is a short documentary film, produced by Blue Ventures, and supported by Stories of Change: a project of Sundance Institute, supported by the Skoll Foundation. It gives a snapshot into the life of Madame Kokoly, a ...

The Tahiry Honko project is helping to tackle climate breakdown and build community resilience by restoring and protecting mangrove forests. A celebration at the heart of a protected mangrove forest in Madagascar this week marked the formal inauguration of the world’s largest mangrove carbon conservation project. The forest, situated in the Bay of Assassins in ...

Today the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a landmark report setting out the catastrophic threat that climate breakdown poses to the world’s oceans and the people that rely on them. The report highlights that 90% of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the oceans. This warming, ...

In a positive stride forward for Madagascar’s mud crab fishery, stakeholders from across the sector have joined forces to work towards a more sustainable and secure future.  In Morondava – a coastal town in western Madagascar and an important hub for the local mud crab fishing industry – crab fishers, government representatives, civil society organisations, ...

Blue Ventures has released a new Explore Photo Story with photos and text by Louise Gardner. Madagascar’s mangroves are in trouble, and finding a viable alternative to mangrove charcoal is crucial if they are to be saved… Discover the unlikely saviour in this fuelwood dilemma in Greener charcoal. This project was funded by UK aid from ...

When communities establish temporary fishery closures, the impacts they experience go far beyond improved catch rates. The process can also build skills, leadership and cohesion within communities, improve relationships with stakeholders, formalise community rights to fishing areas, and increase the involvement and representation of women in fisheries management. Discover more in Beyond catch: the broader ...

Blue Ventures has released a new Explore Photo Story with photos by Leah Glass, and text by Cécile Schneider and Leah Glass. It tells the remarkable story of the annual Indian mackerel fishery closure in northwest Madagascar, and the hope, questions and challenges that surround it. See for yourself whether the sacrifices made by the Antafiambotry ...

The community in Popisi village, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, took a bold step towards sustainable management of their octopus fishery by deciding to close a highly productive fishing site for three months. This is the first time the temporary fishery closure approach has been used by a community in the Banggai Laut regency.   Blue Ventures ...