Blue Forests

Aina Celéstin left the southwest of Madagascar for the first time in his life to attend a training retreat in Andasibe with his colleagues from the blue forests team. Read the full post: Looking at the big picture: a blue forests retreat in Andasibe

Globally, hundreds of millions of coastal people rely on mangrove forests for food security, fuel and livelihoods. The vast majority of these people are living in low-income countries in Asia and West and Central Africa. Mangrove fisheries, particularly high value species such as shrimp and crab, are a lifeline for families and economies, and underpin ...

When I started working with mangroves four years ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into... Read the full post: From trepidation to appreciation: my experience with Madagascar’s mangroves

Madagascar’s Ministry of National Education awarded Blue Ventures a “Certificat de Reconnaisse”, acknowledging the contribution of our thriving environmental education programme to the Ambanja region in the island’s northwest. Our Environmental Education Officer Alban Aoemba (third from left, above) proudly received the certificate during Ambanja’s “School Day” celebrations, part of an annual event that occurs across ...

The value of mangrove forests was celebrated in the village of Ampondrabe Mahamanina in northwest Madagascar, as local communities, school children and representatives from the public and private sectors came together for the International Day of Forests. This two-day celebration in March was the first time that an official event had been hosted in Ampondrabe ...

Lalao Aigrette, our Deputy National Blue Forests Programme Lead, tells the story of her ten years supporting communities with mangrove conservation in Madagascar. Read the full post: Ten years of wading through mud with BV

The Nature Conservancy published a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "Natural climate solutions" which calculates the scientific and economic potential for global lands - forest, grasslands, agricultural lands and wetlands to serve as a solution to climate change. It also finds that better land stewardship could have a bigger role in fighting ...

Volunteer Amanda Millin recounts her experience of Madagascar’s annual mangrove festival. Read the full post: Replanting mangrove forest in the Bay of Assassins

From village meetings to mangrove mud, this is the story of three years of effort from coastal communities to protect the mangroves of the Bay of Assassins in southwest Madagascar. Read the full post: Conserving the Bay of Assassins: the story so far

Our Research and Learning Manager Steve Rocliffe was recently interviewed by Devex about blue carbon credit schemes, and how they should be taken to scale. Mangroves store up to five times more carbon than other tropical forests, meaning these trees could provide great value on the voluntary carbon market, where businesses, governments, nonprofit organisations and individuals ...