Over the last three years the Darwin Initiative-funded Sustainable Livelihoods Programme has been a huge part of Reef Doctor operations, and seaweed and sea cucumber farming are now part of everyday life in the seven villages where the project is run.  Aquaculture was introduced to these villages in attempt to alleviate poverty and to reduce stress on an ecosystem that is coming under increasing pressure from dwindling biomass and increasing migration of people to the coast from inland areas of southwest Madagascar as living conditions become more and more difficult in the semi arid drought prone land.

Initially sea turtle hunters and beach seine fishers were approached for inclusion in the project over people engaged in other fishing activities because of the destructive nature of their fishing practices and damage these practices cause to marine ecosystems. By targeting turtle hunters the project had the two fold affect of engaging the hunter in a project that could lift them out of poverty and could work towards turtle conservation in the area by providing an alternative income generating activity.  By reducing the number of beach seine fishers in the area, the project helped to allow time for juvenile fish who live in seagrass near the shore to reach maturity and reproduce, and to limit damage to the seagrass itself.

Indeed, protecting seagrass, an important foraging habitat for turtles, in the Bay of Ranobe is another important objective of our Darwin Initiative funded-Sustainable Livelihoods Programme. In the second year of the project, stakeholders throughout the bay attended monthly meetings to discuss creating a seagrass protected area (SPA). This aspect of the project required agreement and a commitment from village elders in Ifaty and Mangily, Fi.MI.HARA, the local fisher’s association and various local businesses to become a reality. Following a considerable amount of discussion it was agreed by all the stakeholders that the first SPA in the Bay of Ranobe would be created. In fact, discussions were so successful that the total area of the SPA is be 950 hectares, which is over twice the size of the targeted area of 400 hectares originally planned! The entire SPA is a restricted use zone, which means that only certain fishing activities can be carried out in the area including some fishing with restricted fishing gear using hook and line. However beach seining is strictly prohibited within the SPA. Meetings are now ongoing to make 150 hectares of the SPA a strict protection zone where no fishing or marine gleaning activities can take place whatsoever.

Currently seagrass monitoring in the bay takes place every three months. The waypoints required to build a comprehensive map of the seagrass areas of the bay were explored and prepared by the science and aquaculture teams throughout 2016 and you can read about the process and the importance of seagrass to the environment in our blog dated 5 October 2016. The seagrass mapping project allowed the team to decide on the best location of the seagrass reserves and zoning. Monitoring will continue every three months in order to collect data that will allow the team to assess the health of the SPA.

The creation of this SPA, the first in the Bay of Ranobe, is a very significant step forward for sustainable fishing practices and conservation in the Bay of Ranobe. There are now three marine protected areas in the bay, which cover two degraded reefs and the seagrass area close to the shoreline. These areas are guarded and maintained by the communities that rely upon the bay for their livelihood.

Tuesday 21 March was International Forestry Day and celebrations were so big here in the Atsimo-Andrefana region of southwest Madagascar they were spread over two days! On Friday 24 March, we attended a huge celebration in the village of Antanimeva in the district of Morombe, which was attended by the Minister for the Environment, Ecology and Forests, Dr. Johanita Ndahimananjara, together with associations from across the district.

We had an early start on Friday morning with the Reef Doctor car and the IOT (Indian Ocean Trapang – breed and sell juvenile sea cucumbers for sustainable livelihood farms) car leaving camp in convoy at 5:50am. We travelled for 3 hours inland to reach Antanimeva over some very bumpy roads with some amazing lush green scenery. The earth is so red in this part of the country that it looked like red velvet cake and made the trees and grasses seem even greener. The theme of the celebrations was ‘From the Forest to a Green Economy’. As the residents of Antanimeva and surrounding villages rely on agriculture, rearing livestock and charcoal production for subsistence this made Antanimeva the best place to celebrate the day and raise awareness of biofuel and sustainable forestry. Biofuel is a fuel produced through biological processes such as agriculture rather than through geological processes. Some renewable biofuels are made using biomass such as rice husks or zebu manure making them very suitable to forest areas of this region.

A number of different organisations attended the event and stalls were set up under shade in the baking sun for each organisation to share information about forestry, sustainable livelihoods, wildlife sanctuaries and biofuel.  Reef Doctor took the opportunity to introduce the residents of the area to the alternative charcoal we have been working on. The charcoal is made of approximately 35% charcoal dust mixed with zebu manure and small amount of wood chips, sawdust or filao needles. We were delighted with the turn out and in the interest in the project. The really exciting news is that the Minister for Environment, Ecology and Forests liked the project so much that she requested that we work with DREEF, the regional branch of the Environment, Ecology and Forests to promote the idea of alternative charcoal throughout the region. Following a busy but very gratifying day the Reef Doctor team bounced home on the bumpy road to get to bed early and continue the celebrations the following day a little closer to home.

We had another early start on Saturday and made our way to Andrevo at 6am to plant mangrove propagules. Despite the early hour seating and shelters were set up and music pumped from the speakers on the beach. The crowd started to gather and there was a full house, well beach, by the time the Minister, Dr. Johanita Ndahimananjara, the Mayor of Belalanda and the Mayor of Morombe arrived. Following speeches and a presentation of beautiful handmade miniature pirogues to the officials the real business of the day began. The Junior Reef Doctors joined the Reef Doctor staff and interns and it looked like half the village of Andrevo was out and ready to plant. With such a huge crowd it only took a few hours to plant a large area of mangroves and the hard work was done by 10am. The event then moved to Toliara with many of the attendants in tow but for many of us it was time to head back to camp for a late breakfast, happy in the knowledge that the beautiful mangrove forest in Andrevo will be a lot bigger in a few years!

Blog by Communications Officer Ivana Rubino