Blue Ventures is expanding its work in southern Madagascar as it implements an ambitious African Development Bank-funded project aiming to promote the sustainable development of traditional marine fisheries along more than 300km of coast.
July 2008 Lamboara: The first hatching of Green Turtles recorded as a direct result of efforts to protect the species in southwest Madagascar has been witnessed by marine conservationists working for British charity, Blue Ventures Conservation.
Blue Ventures Conservation has been chosen as a finalist in National Geographic and Ashoka’s Changemakers Geotourism Challenge Competition.
Andavadoaka received visitors from national, regional and local government recently to make the official presentation of the UNDP Equator Prize.
Blue Ventures took centre stage this week, at the 5th Biennial Environmental Youth Conference at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ).
Blue Ventures’ innovative non-profit carbon offsetting programme has been highly rated by companies watchdog Which? in its new report on the UK carbon offsetting industry.
Three of the UK’s most respected marine conservation groups – Coral Cay Conservation, Blue Ventures and Project AWARE Foundation – announced today they have joined forces to promote coral reef conservation during the International Year of the Reef 2008.
Aqua Lung becomes exclusive supplier of diving gear for Blue Ventures’ expeditions
Blue Ventures, the award-winning marine conservation group, and Aqua Lung, the oldest and most respected name in Scuba diving, today announced they are joining forces to protect some of the world’s most threatened coral reef systems.
Blue Ventures is “Highly Commended” for eco- trips that protect threatened coastal habits
Blue Ventures Expeditions today was “Highly Commended” by the Responsible Tourism Awards in the Marine Environment category, recognised for its eco-tourism trips that bring volunteers to Madagascar to protect threatened ocean resources.
24-25 November conference brings leading scientists to present latest trends in exploration
Blue Ventures’ Director of Scientific Research Al Harris and Managing Director Richard Nimmo will speak at the Royal Geographical Society’s Explore 2007 conference this month to discuss the important role exploration plays in finding solutions to global environmental threats.
This following letter was sent to The Times newspaper in response to a front page article published on Tuesday, August 14th, quoting Judith Brodie, director of VSO UK, expressing her concern regarding the regulation of the gap year market, and whether some gap year projects only profit the companies which run them:
As part of the London Aquarium and the BBC’s ‘Saving Planet Earth’ month Blue Ventures will be running a weeklong marine scientist workshop for children visiting the aquarium.
From Monday 25th June to Sunday 2nd July Blue Ventures scientists will teach children about diving and marine life, as well as conservation and the work being carried out by Blue Ventures in Madagascar.
Blue Ventures’ co-founder Tom Savage won the 2007 Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Edge Upstarts for his work to create businesses that have a positive social and environmental impact.
The awards, started in 2001, showcase businesses that offer innovative and sustainable solutions to social issues, such as Blue Ventures, that have a socially beneficial purpose.
Village leaders honoured for conservation work with Blue Ventures and other NGOs
The village of Andavadoaka, Madagascar – location of Blue Ventures’ conservation research centre – was announced a winner of the prestigious Equator Prize at the United Nations headquarters in New York today in recognition of the village’s extraordinary work to diminish poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Andavadoaka recognized for community conservation work with Blue Ventures and others
Andavadoaka village in Madagascar was named as one of 25 finalists for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Equator prize, which recognizes initiatives that help reduce poverty through the conservation of biodiversity.
Survey reveals how conservation can benefit business and biodiversity
Marine protected areas may hold the key to keeping global fishing industries healthy and profitable, a new scientific study in Madagascar reveals.
Former staff member provides background voice to Casino Royales’ Madagascar fight scene
The new James Bond flick, Casino Royale, brings 007 to Madagascar for his first mission, and a former Blue Ventures staff member to the big screen.
London – Blue Ventures Founder and Director of Science Alasdair Harris yesterday received the “Highly Commended” award from the Enterprising Young Brits competition which recognizes young entrepreneurs who have turned their ideas into successful businesses.
Harris, who was selected from more than 1,000 entries across the UK, won the award for social and environmental ventures that combine the principles of a successful business with an emphasis on social and community benefits.
Blue Ventures was honoured yesterday by the First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards for its work with volunteers to protect threatened marine habitats in Madagascar.
During ceremonies at the Excel Conference Centre in London, Blue Ventures was Highly Commended in the category for Best Volunteering Organization.
Funding from the Project Aware Foundation and the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund will help protect threatened shark populations
Blue Ventures today announced the launch of a new project that will monitor and protect threatened populations of shark.
Scientists urge protection of surviving corals to reseed damaged reefs and provide clues for preventing destruction of corals around the world from climate change
A new survey of reefs along Madagascar’s southwestern coast found massive damage from coral bleaching, including some reefs that lost up to 99 percent of their coral cover.
In just three years, Blue Ventures has won numerous awards for its work with local communities to create marine protected areas across Madagascar
Blue Ventures will celebrate its third anniversary this month, capping off its most successful year since its founding in 2003.
The Social Enterprise Coalition and the First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards have shortlisted Blue Ventures for awards recognising their work to protect marine resources and improve the lives of communities in Madagascar.
The First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards – sponsored by Responsibletravel.com, The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine – celebrate tourism ventures that make a positive contribution to conservation and the economies of local communities. They are the largest awards of their kind in the world.
Understanding of local culture is essential to protecting threatened marine resources
Blue Ventures has completed the first study of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the nomadic Vezo people living in the village of Andavadoaka, located along the southwest coast of Madagascar.
Study finds region provides critical habitat for threatened species
Ornithologists from the University of Bath (UK) have completed the first guide to birdlife in the Andavadoaka region, location of Blue Ventures conservation research site in Madagascar. The guide features colour photos of more than two dozen birds documented in the area.
Research looks for ways to protect coral reefs against climate change
Blue Ventures’ founder and science director Alasdair Harris has been working for the past two months as part of an international team of scientists studying the coral reefs of the Chagos Archipelago, the remotest and most isolated group of islands in the Indian Ocean.
Blue Ventures founder and science director Al Harris traveled to Montreal Canada this week as part of a Global Youth Delegation that is participating in the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations.
During the meeting, the Youth Delegation issued a declaration calling on governments to protect the Earth from climate change.
Exciting news for Blue Ventures as its founders Tom Savage and Alasdair Harris received Special Commendation in the Social and Community category of the Enterprising Young Brit Awards.
Twenty-four finalists from across the UK gave presentations to the judges in ‘X Factor’-style, as part of Enterprise Week run by the Make Your Mark campaign which recognises young people who have turned their ideas into reality.
Blue Ventures volunteer Gabrielle Johnson has initiated a letter exchange programme between her students at the Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara, California, and the students at Ecole Sainte Famille school in Andavadaoaka, Madagascar.
The letter exchange is part of Blue Ventures’ ongoing educational projects that have been launched in Andavadoaka, home of Blue Ventures conservation research site.
Blue Ventures team members Richard Nimmo and Kit Gillibrand presented a workshop on community conservation in Madagascar during the World Youth Congress held in Scotland.
The workshop discussed the conservation projects that Blue Ventures has developed in Madagascar and explored how other organisations and countries could benefit from lessons learned by Blue Venture’s partnerships.
Fishing and the collection of shellfish is central to the lives of most coastal dwellers in Senegal, and seafood is part of almost every meal in Senegal. Massive overfishing by both industrial and artisanal fleets, as well as an increasing export of fish meal for aquaculture, is threatening a way of life and food security in the country, as fish stocks dwindle.
The work of Blue Ventures in Senegal is focused mainly in the southern Casamance region of the country, home to hundreds of thousands of hectares of fish-rich mangroves. We have teamed with Kawawana, Senegal’s oldest LMMA, to help protect the 15,000 hectares of mangroves under its community management, and to help monitor and manage the rich fisheries and oyster collection in the mangroves. We are also working with other communities to put in place community-based fisheries management systems, focusing particularly on the oyster and shellfish collection that is a primary economic activity for many women in Casamance.
The West African country of Guinea-Bissau is home to the unique Bijagos archipelago, a network of some ninety mangrove-fringed offshore islands and extensive mudflats supporting large amounts of migratory bird species, as well as megafauna such as manatees, dolphins, and sea turtles. The Bijagos people continue to live a very traditional lifestyle, where the collection of marine invertebrates plays an important role in food security and cultural traditions. The country is also home to extensive mangrove-fringed river systems that support rich fisheries.
Blue Ventures is working with Tiniguena, one of the oldest conservation groups in Guinea-Bissau, in supporting the first community-led MPA in the country, UROK, in the Bijagos islands. Together with Tiniguena, we are also supporting the establishment of new community-led conservation initiatives in the Rio Grande de Buba, a vast mangrove ecosystem with a long history of community-led fisheries management. Our focus is on data-driven community-led management of fisheries, which are of enormous importance to coastal communities, in particular women.
Thailand’s small-scale fisheries are the cornerstone of social, economic and nutritional health for the communities living along the majority of the country’s nearly 3,000 kilometre coastline.
In the southernmost Trang province we are supporting communities reliant on nearshore fisheries − in particular for crab, shrimp and squid − in partnership with the Save Andaman Network (SAN). The region is renowned for its vibrant seagrass meadows and vast mangrove forests, which provide essential ecosystem services to coastal communities. We’re providing training and tools to aid community- led fisheries monitoring and ecosystem management, and building community-owned social enterprises that fund and sustain local conservation efforts.
Since 2016, our work in Timor-Leste has evolved into a dynamic movement supporting community-led marine management and coastal livelihood diversification in Asia’s newest country. From our origins on Atauro Island, considered to harbour the most diverse coral reefs on earth, we’re now working with numerous communities on the island and the mainland to help improve management of critical coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems.
We’re helping communities reinvigorate traditional community governance practices − known as Tara Bandu − to support marine conservation, in particular through the use of temporary and permanent fishing closures, and community-led monitoring of marine ecosystems and fisheries.
We’re helping communities come together to exchange their experiences of conservation across their shared coastline, building a new movement of local support for systems change in the management and conservation of Timor-Leste’s coastal waters.
Alongside our community conservation efforts, we have also pioneered Timor-Leste’s first homestay association, which has provided income from visiting ecotourists on Atauro Island.
Our team in Timor-Leste’s capital Dili works closely with government, civil society organisations and NGO partners.
Like its neighbours within the Northern Mozambique Channel marine biodiversity hotspot, Tanzania harbours some of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the Indian Ocean. These habitats are facing unprecedented challenges from overfishing and climate change.
Our Tanzanian team has worked with communities and local organisations to support locally-led marine conservation since 2016. Our work has expanded from Zanzibar to mainland regions of Tanga, Lindi and Kilwa where our technicians work with local partners to help communities strengthen co-management systems, working through beach management units (BMUs), Shehia Fishing Committees (SFCs), marine parks and Collaborative Fisheries Management Areas (CFMAs).
Our partners Mwambao Coastal Community Network and Sea Sense have spearheaded a remarkable acceleration in the uptake of community-based fisheries management and conservation in recent years, notably through the use of short term fisheries closures to catalyse broader community conservation.
In Kilwa we are working with Songosongo BMU to manage octopus closures and marketing, with the district authorities and NYAMANJISOPJA CFMA to help BMUs strengthen financial management capacity, and with Kilwa BMU Network to revive and expand the network.
Following the conclusion of the SWIOFish project in 2021, we are working with partners on a follow-up initiative to support the establishment and functioning of a fisheries co-management forum. The forum will facilitate engagement between national and local government authorities and NGOs involved in fisheries co-management initiatives along the Tanzania mainland coast, with the aim of enhancing networking and strengthening management and governance.
With one of Africa’s longest coastlines, Somalia’s diverse marine environment supports enormously productive coastal and offshore fisheries. Decades of conflict have undermined the country’s capacity for fisheries management, with many foreign industrial vessels fishing with impunity, and little regard for the critical importance of Somalia’s coastal fisheries for local livelihoods and food security.
A period of relative political and social stability unprecedented in recent decades is now presenting new opportunities to address past challenges, and to realise the considerable opportunities that well-managed coastal fisheries and conservation can offer Somalia. We are forging partnerships with community organisations in Somalia to build their capacity and skills to help coastal communities manage their fisheries for food security, livelihoods and conservation.
The Philippines forms part of the ‘coral triangle’ epicentre of global marine biodiversity, with unparalleled diversity of marine species. Over half of the country’s 107 million people live in rural areas, and approximately three quarters depend on agriculture or fisheries as their primary source of livelihoods.
Through our partnership with People and the Sea, we are supporting communities in the eastern Visayas to set up and utilise participatory data systems to monitor and understand the status of their fisheries, in a way that is meaningful for them. Through provision of access to strong data systems and training in data collection this year, these communities will soon have access to real time fisheries data and visualisations that will enable them to make informed decisions around the management of their fisheries.
Indonesia comprises almost 17,500 islands stretching across three time zones. This archipelagic nation has the 2nd longest coastline in the world − and the largest coastal fisheries resource − of any country on Earth. More than ninety per cent of Indonesia’s seafood production comes from small-scale fisheries, which are underpinned by the planet’s most biodiverse marine ecosystem, known as the Coral Triangle.
We have supported community-led marine conservation in Indonesia since 2016. Our team works in close partnership with 17 Indonesian organisations supporting community-based approaches to coral reef and mangrove conservation across 74 communities in fourteen provinces. Our support across these communities is customised to each context − the local fisheries, community stakeholders, seafood supply chains, legal frameworks and customary traditions governing fisheries management and conservation.
Since 2019 we have brought these partners together within a peer learning network of Indonesian organisations specialised in supporting community-based marine conservation. The network is based on the shared values of the organisations, including a commitment to promote the rights of traditional fishing communities in conservation. Thirty-two of the villages represented in this group are enacting local marine management through customary management regimes and traditions. This group, largely comprising sites in Eastern Indonesia, provides an important opportunity to share learning in traditional marine and fisheries management practices.
In Sumatra and Kalimantan we are strengthening our work in community conservation of globally important mangrove forests. We are supporting and strengthening community-forest management and supporting local partners who are adapting our catalytic model for temporary fishery closures to mangrove-dependent fisheries like mud crab.
We are working closely with our local partners Forkani, Yayasan LINI, Yapeka, Yayasan Planet Indonesia, Foneb, Komanangi, JARI, Ecosystem Impact, Yayasan Tananua Flores, Yayasan Baileo Maluku, AKAR, Japesda, Yayasan Citra Mandiri Mentawai, Yayasan Mitra Insani and Yayasan Hutan Biru, Yayasan Pesisir Lestari and Lembaga Partisipasi Pembangunan Masyarakat (LPPM) Ambon
We continue to work in India with our long term partner the Dakshin Foundation. We are collaborating in three distinct locations; the archipelago of Lakshadweep, coastal regions of Odisha and the Andaman Islands.
Overfishing has led to a reduction in fish catches, challenging the future of many traditional fishing communities.
Our partnership is working to build the capacity of communities to manage coastal fisheries, and improve the health of fishing communities, for the long-term wellbeing of both the communities and their fishing grounds.
Kenya’s coast supports an extraordinary diversity of tropical marine and coastal habitats. These waters are threatened by a proliferation of destructive fishing practices and over-harvesting within the artisanal and commercial fishing sectors.
Our approach in Kenya focuses on strengthening Beach Management Units (BMUs) to improve fisheries management. Since 2016 our Mombasa-based technical team has provided support, mentoring and assistance to local partners including Coastal and Marine Resource Development (COMRED), the Lamu Marine Conservation Trust (LAMCOT), and Bahari Hai.
These partnerships have seen notable achievements in community-led fisheries management and conservation, including training and mentoring BMU leaders in eighteen communities in Kwale and Lamu Counties.
The Comoros islands are located in the northern Mozambique Channel, a region home to the world’s second highest marine biodiversity after the Coral Triangle. This globally important biodiversity underpins coastal livelihoods and food security, but is at risk from climate change and overexploitation of inshore fisheries.
We have maintained a permanent presence supporting locally led marine conservation and fisheries management in Comoros since 2015, providing support to local partners, governmental institutions and communities.
On Anjouan, the second largest and most densely populated island in the Comoros archipelago, we work closely with national NGO Dahari. Our partnership has developed a replicable blueprint for community-based marine management, which has seen the creation of the country’s first locally managed marine areas − including temporary and permanent marine closures − designed to safeguard the coral reef ecosystems underpinning the archipelago’s coastal economy.
This approach, which is expanding rapidly across the Comoros, is also demonstrating the importance of inclusive conservation in empowering women − through local women’s fisheries associations − to play a leading role in fisheries monitoring and decision making.
Belize’s marine environment encompasses some of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the Caribbean Sea, including vast coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds. We have maintained a permanent presence in Belize since 2010, supporting diverse fisheries and conservation efforts.
We work in close partnership with the Belize Fisheries Department, MPA managers, fishing cooperatives and fishers’ associations, and championed the establishment of a national scale domestic fishery targeting the invasive lionfish. We are actively promoting community led fisheries management, building on the success of our pioneering work with management of invasive lionfish.
We’ve led a decade-long MPA monitoring and evaluation programme in Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve, and provide regular training in coral reef monitoring methods to MPA authorities across Belize, including helping establish management targets for Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, Belize’s largest MPA.
Our team supports and strengthens fishing associations that advocate for the rights of their communities to be involved in decision making around access and use of coastal fisheries and to be key members of MPA management groups. Across the country we are working to ensure that fishers interests are mainstreamed in the design and implementation of marine conservation and fisheries management, improving the effectiveness of co-management of coral reef, mangrove and seagrass areas.
Our Mozambican team has worked with communities to develop locally led approaches to fisheries management and marine conservation since 2015. This build on the success of the Our Sea Our Life project, when in 2015 and 2016 we ran a series of exchange visits to Madagascar to support temporary closure development in Cabo Delgado. First in Quiwia and then in the Quirimbas Archipelago, these helped encourage the development of local management approaches in Mozambique.
Today our approach is focused on supporting and strengthening local organisations and Community Fisheries Councils (CCPs) to better understand their local fisheries, make informed management decisions to rebuild fisheries, and assess the impact of management actions. This work is developed in close collaboration with our partners Oikos- Cooperação e Desenvolvimento in Nampula province and Love the Ocean in Inhambane province.
Ongoing security challenges have afflicted coastal communities and emerging marine conservation efforts in several areas of Cabo Delgado, where our work is regrettably now on hold.
As in Madagascar, given extremely high levels of coastal poverty and a pervasive lack of access to basic services, alongside our work in conservation we facilitate partnerships with specialist health providers, through an integrated health-environment approach.
Blue Ventures’ journey began in Madagascar in 2003, and we’ve been supporting communities in marine conservation across the country ever since. We have five regional field programmes along Madagascar’s west coast, as well as regional offices in the towns of Ambanja, Mahajanga, Morondava and Toliara. Our national headquarters is located in the capital Antananarivo.
Across all these sites we support communities with the establishment of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs), and work with government partners to secure national recognition for community conservation initiatives. First developed in Madagascar by Blue Ventures in 2006, the LMMA concept has since been replicated by communities at hundreds of sites over thousands of kilometres of coastline, now covering almost one fifth of Madagascar’s inshore seabed. Our research in Madagascar has demonstrated globally important evidence of the benefits of LMMAs to fisheries and conservation.
Our work focuses on strengthening community institutions in marine management and governance, and pioneering new approaches to catalyse community engagement in ocean conservation. These innovations have included establishing community led ecological monitoring and the country’s first mangrove blue carbon project.
At the national level, we partner with the LMMA network MIHARI, which brings together 25 partner conservation organisations supporting 219 LMMA sites across the country. Our policy team is also actively involved in advocating for more robust legislation to safeguard the rights and interests of fishing communities, and to remove destructive industrial fishing from coastal waters. In 2022 we supported the launch of Fitsinjo, an industrial fisheries watchdog organisation. The network highlights industrial fishing and IUU activities in Madagascar and the broader Western Indian Ocean region.
Given the lack of basic services in remote coastal regions in Madagascar, we also help communities access basic healthcare through training and supporting women to serve as community health workers. We do not replace government health systems, but work to strengthen existing structures in close collaboration with government health actors and specialist NGOs. We also incubate Madagascar’s national health-environment network, which brings together 40 partner organisations to address the health needs of communities living in areas of conservation importance across the country.
