tree planting

Tree Nursery Update

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It’s been an incredibly busy month in our Tree Nursery!

As reported in our last blog, we started with 1,600 trees in our newly established Reef Doctor nursery. These included several species that we are testing for use in sustainable charcoal production, including Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia leptocarpa, Leucaena leucocephala, Albizia lebbeck, Eucalyptus majunga, Eucalyptus grandis, and Eucalyptus camaldulensis, as well as the fruit-bearing trees Papaya carica and Coeur de boeuf to complement our objectives regarding food security. We received the second half of our tree order just 2 days before Christmas, adding another 8 species to the nursery, bringing us up to a grand total of 2,800 trees! These species consisted of Casuarina and Acacia mangium for sustainable charcoal, Croton mongue, Mantaly, Acajou D’Africa and Flamboyant for reforestation, and Tamarind and Pomegranate for food security.

tree delivery

The first few weeks certainly had its trials and tribulations. First an outbreak of mealybugs hit our papaya trees with a vengeance, and began travelling to other species before we could mitigate the nasty little white critters. Luckily we were able to recover many of our papaya, and managed to come out with an 80% survival rate. Techniques such as wiping the bugs away with old toothbrushes and our fingertips, and saturating the bugs with dish soap were undertaken, but ultimately the resilient pests only succumbed to the use of insecticidal soap purchased in Toliara.

tree disease

Another odd insect to reach our saplings was the leaf cutter bee. These bees nibble perfect little circles on the leaves of plants, and do not seem picky about which leaf they gorge on!  Thankfully their grazings are only aesthetically unpleasing, and have no severe negative impact on the health of the plant.

pests

Secondly, we were naive as to how much water these wonderful saplings would require. Initially we thought these trees were adapted to full sun exposure and limited waterings, but boy were we wrong! After the first week in the RD nursery, our plants looked a little unhealthy. They were drooping, turning brown, and losing leaves at an alarming rate. We decided a visit to Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH), our seedling provider, was necessary. Low and behold, we were very surprised to see the seedlings being kept in full shade receiving heavy daily waterings. Right away we had to nurse some of our babies back to life with extra waterings in mornings and evenings, as well as relocating some seedlings to more shaded areas. The worst hit was one of our Eucalyptus species, which had a survival rate of only 60%, but the good news was that we were able to nurse most our species back to health with over 90% survival rates. Lastly, we realised many of the plants had been damaged during their transport to Reef Doctor and without immediate attention, they tended to suffer quite a bit. Such affects as wind burn, loss of soil around their root balls, and broken bags had long term affects on the health of the plant.

tree nursery

At the start of January, we re-measured our first 9 species that have been here for a month and the results were very uplifting compared to what felt like the decimation of our babies! The combined survival rate averaged 92% with an average growth rate of 5 cm.

Going forward we are slowly weening our plants off full shade, persistently moving them around the nursery, constantly monitoring for new pests, and last week, we were one watering shy of the trees being fully dependent on the rain! Next week we will be measuring our second batch of trees from Christmas and are excited to see if there are any differences in the overall growth and survival results, having gone through so much turmoil with our first set of species! The rest of the month’s activities include setting up a vegetable garden on camp, and hopefully gearing up for a big transplantation into the field soon!

When not in the nursery, the tree team has been hard at work with the help of volunteers and interns at camp, researching the species in stock and building a database of the current trees we have here on camp. We also began a tree growing competition right here at RD headquarters! Meanwhile, our in country director Emma Gibbons has been very busy working towards land acquisition so we can get our seedlings planted in the ground soon! In addition, just two days ago we had another delivery of 1,350 trees from the DREEF Nursery (Regional Department of Environment, Ecology and Forests), including the addition of some exotic local species such as Rosewood and Baobab! We will leave discussion of these species for the next blog!

tree nursery

To conclude this month’s report, we thought we would give you an idea of the costs thus far related to starting up a nursery. This is all in Canadian funds as that is where our project leader Jackie Brunton acquired the funding for the project from, so those that contributed can see how far their donation goes in Madagascar! Our cheapest seedling works out to about 8 cents, and the most expensive roughly 18 cents, with the total cost of all 4,150 saplings just under 500 dollars. 4 dollars per week keeps our saplings well watered, and tools such as shovels, rakes, watering cans, shade netting ran up a tab of 100 dollars. We are incredibly grateful for our financial donors, and can’t thank you enough for your kindness.

Thanks for reading!

Jackie Brunton

tree planting

spiny forest

Reef Doctor Attends Forestry Policy Conference

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During the week of December 5-10, 2016 Reef Doctor was invited to attend a conference in Toliara presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in conjunction with the environment ministry of Madagascar, to reanalyse sustainable management solutions for Malagasy forests.

Incredibly, it was not until 1997 that POLFOR “Forestry Policy” was established in Madagascar to combat devastating deforestation practices. Despite the Malagasy Governments best intentions, practices such as illegal harvesting of rosewood and other highly valuable wood, slash and burn agriculture, uncontrolled mining, as well as insurmountable charcoal production have led to a considerable depletion of forests across the country.

Nearly 20 years later, the environment sector has decided to take a participatory approach towards mitigating poor forestry management and brainstorming solutions for a sustainable future. Inviting NGO’s and organisations such as Blue Venture (BV), Committee for the Safeguarding of Integrity (CSI), VOI, Community of Base (COBA), DRI, Regional Department of Environment, Ecology and Forests (DREEF), DGF/TANA, and DRRHP, brought many great minds into the same room for an entire week to contribute to a new policy.

Little forestry funding has reached those trying to enforce regulations and code of conduct in Malagasy Forests. With as much as 70% of forestry funding thought to simply “go missing”, throughout the conference it remained clear that “Good Governance” practices need to be met going forward. Decentralisation of power from regional level to a localised level will allow Community Managed Forests (CMF’s) to have a greater responsibility for their resources. Therefore, workshops directed at how to communicate information between, superiors, peers, and communities were held to enforce some form of regulation towards sharing information, and ensuring that transparency and accountability is generated.

A large priority for many in attendance surrounded the idea of enforcing security in various regions to prevent illegal harvesting of forests. The Reef Doctor team present was adamant that the implementation of alternative livelihoods must take precedence. If further security measures are enforced upon communities dependent on the forests for their livelihood, it will merely push families deeper into poverty by taking away their only resource for an income. Unfortunately, this would harbour substantially more migration to the coast (which we already see happening), deeply affecting an already over-stressed ecosystem. Sadly, many who migrate to the coast tend to implement bad fishing practices such as beach seining.

While mining benefits the national economy, poor regulations are deteriorating the country’s forests. Charcoal production on a large scale in the way of tree plantations, would not only contribute to the national economy, but would provide a sustainable market for charcoal, thus depleting dependency on natural resources. Therefore, It is necessary to work alongside the Energy Sector and Mining Sector to establish corresponding policies, that work in conjunction with one another rather than open the door for misinterpretations.

Roughly 95% of the population across Madagascar is dependent on wood and charcoal as fuel to cook with. The amount of wood needed to sustain this has been rising alongside an expanding population. Therefore, reforestation projects are imperative to combat dependency on this resource. It was agreed upon by everyone that reforestation initiatives are of the upmost importance moving forward.

Our team at Reef Doctor will continue to work towards sustainable forestry management, and will push towards new policies that will protect what little indigenous forests are left. Tune in for more updates in the following months as new sustainable management solutions for Malagasy Forests progress from a panel of ideas into real action!

 Report by Hazo Project Leader Jackie Brunton 

octopus trees

Towards Sustainable Forestry

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It is forest conservation week here at Reef Doctor and we are very excited to unveil our new forest conservation project. The project was originally conceived as a solution to a problem that became evident from our marine-based sustainable livelihoods programmes. Our aquaculture programmes are reliant on wood as material used to build seaweed drying tables and posts for sea cucumber pens. Currently the only source for this wood is the unique Spiny Forest found solely in the arid south of Madagascar. As our aquaculture programmes continue to expand, further pressure is put on this extraordinary eco-region. Consequently, in partnership with Copefrito, this project, geared towards sustainable forestry, was born!

The Spiny Forest is already being deforested at an alarming rate to satisfy local charcoal consumption and agriculture needs, which are set to significantly increase alongside population levels. Furthermore, with poverty levels expanding as crops fail, and fish stocks dwindle, a significant amount of the population are forced to scour the forests for wood to supply the charcoal production trade. Thus, it is important now more than ever to expand access to alternative livelihoods and poverty alleviation methods.

Our project presents a holistic approach for decreasing local deforestation rates as well as increasing conservation efforts and biodiversity protection. Our objectives are two-fold; firstly, alleviate poverty with the establishment of an alternative livelihood in the form of a tree plantation, which provides a fast growing, sustainable and renewable resource that can be used primarily for construction and charcoal production. Secondly, to begin counteracting the effects of human degradation on the Spiny Forest by implementing a reforestation programme of indigenous tree species. We ultimately intend to expand our alternative livelihoods programme to benefit inland villages throughout the Bay of Ranobe, complementing our Darwin Initiative-funded marine-based sustainable livelihoods programmes.

We chose to pilot this project in the village of Tsivenoe, which is the closest inland village to the Reef Doctor site. Tsivenoe provides an excellent location to test this alternative livelihood programme because of the village’s proximity to our site, as well as the fact that it is a highly-impoverished community that already depends on the production of charcoal and farming activities for their income. The initial steps of this project were taken in early 2016. Following several meetings with the President of Tsivenoe and the households interested in the project, we were presented a 4.4-hectare site by the Mayor of Belalanda (the local commune) and the Minister of the Environment, Ecology, and Forests, and given approval for implementing the project. With the support of the community and government officials, we began to make arrangements for a tree nursery.

Our mangrove rehabilitation and conservation partners HONKO completed construction of a new nursery at the end of June, which can house over 4000 seedlings! We got planting right away with help from Honko’s Junior’s programme, as well as a group of high school students from St Peter’s College in Johannesburg, who were touring Madagascar as part of a World Challenge expedition. With all their help we quickly cultivated over 1500 seedlings of Moringa oliefera, Casuarina cunninghamiana, Acacia mangium, and Albizia lebbeck.  These are all fast growing, quality charcoal producing species. We experimented with different planting techniques including seed beds and plastic bags as well as different concentrations of substrate (made up of red sand, zebu waste compost, and organic waste compost from our kitchen). Some initial success with cultivating the seedlings prompted us to expand the project.

In mid-November we attended a Nursery Training day at HONKO, sponsored by German development and humanitarian aid NGO, Welthungerhilfe (WHH). WHH has a project in Toliara called Project PASSAT (Projet d’appui a l’Assainissement Solide et Securite Alimentaire) that focuses on sanitation, solid waste recycling and food security in this region. Reef Doctor volunteers and interns piled into a taxi brousse to head to HONKO for the Nursery Training day. It was a lively morning that took place in three languages (Malagasy, French, and English)! We gathered important education material to allow us to easily communicate the teachings of the nursery day to the communities we work with. This will empower the villagers of Tsivonoe by giving them the know-how to begin growing their own trees soon!

Furthermore, WHH also has a reforestation branch! They operate tree nurseries in Toliara and in northern villages throughout the Bay of Ranobe. They held an  ‘Open Day’ selling trees in November during which we ordered over 3000 seedlings from WHH Passat to establish Reef Doctor’s very own nursery on camp. This has been the biggest development of the project, as now we have two nurseries of seedlings that will hopefully be ready to transplant to Tsivonoe in the early months of 2017! We are constantly learning about the various challenges reforestation efforts face in an environment such as the Spiny Forest. We are tackling problems such as the arid heat of the sun, windy days, and over 15 different tree species with different water requirements. However, we hope that with such a plurality of species we will be able to see in real time what works and what does not.

One of our biggest goals for 2017 is a 70% survival rate for the first year. We will keep everyone updated with regular blog posts on how we are achieving this goal. We would like to thank everyone at Reef Doctor and abroad who has helped support us during this endeavour! Watch this space!

Report by Katie Riley, Community Project Coordinator.  

rock delivery with FIMIHARA

“The Rock That Gives Life”

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Back in August we posted some pictures of the blessing of the rocks being used in a new reef restoration project. It has been months in the planning but we are very excited to confirm that everything is now ready for construction. On Friday 21st of October the site of the first artificial reef in the Bay of Ranobe will be blessed during a huge day of events in Ifaty village and on the beach. The community event will even be attended by the Minister of Fisheries and the Mayor of the Belalanda region.

So first a bit of background on the project. The bay’s 32 km reef forms one of the largest coral reef systems in the world. However, the majority of coral reef habitats within the bay have been heavily degraded over the last decade due to bleaching, sedimentation, and overfishing. The majority of reefs have now been overgrown with algae and are mainly composed of dead coral rubble. This ecological degradation is in turn compromising marine resource availability for local fishermen. It is therefore imperative to implement a sustainable and widespread reef restoration programme in order to prevent total collapse of this valuable ecosystem and to reverse declining fishery catches for local subsistence communities.

Our earlier attempts to protect coral reefs in the bay comprised the establishment of two marine reserves (2007–2008). While the prohibition of fishing in the reserves has resulted in an increase in fish populations and the maintenance of coral cover at these sites, the establishment of additional marine reserves has not been feasible. This is because the continued degradation of reef sites in the bay has limited the availability of productive fishing reefs for local fishermen. Therefore, in order to address the social and economic needs of the local fishing communities, alternative fishing grounds must first be provided before the few remaining viable reefs can be protected from fishing.

Our new artificial reef project plans to install simple, relatively low-cost and replicable artificial reef structures on degraded reef sites to increase fish and invertebrate populations in order to improve fisheries productivity, reverse declining catches and redirect fishing pressure off over-exploited fragile coral reefs in the lagoon interior. We also intend to speed up the regeneration of corals reefs at these sites by transplanting coral fragments from our nurseries on to the artificial structures as part of our coral gardening project.

Back in March, we sourced low-cost limestone boulders from a local quarry in Ifaty village (providing direct financial benefits to Ifaty village quarry workers) to trial a simple artificial reef method. Limestone is ideal for artificial reef work as it mimic natural reef systems and is the perfect material to encourage reef organism settlement. Arrangement of these boulders into artificial reef bommies (a reef outcrop) will create structurally complex habitats in areas devoid of coral reefs to encourage colonisation of algal and invertebrates (including coral), which will in turn attract fish. In the long-term, we aim to install a network of these bommies across the bay in order to restore coral reef habitat and create alternative fishing sites.

We purposefully choose a simple structural design and low cost local materials for these artificial reefs so that local communities can maintain and replicate these structures in the future without external assistance or intervention. This project is being executed as a joint effort with Directeur Régional des Ressources Halieutiques et de la Pêche, Région Atsimo Andrefana – DRRHP (Ministry of Marine Resources and Fisheries), IOT, COPEFRITO, FRDA, Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (University of Toliara), and importantly FI.MI.HA.RA (regional fishermen’s association), representing all 13 villages in the bay (> 20,000 people), in order to promote community ownership and project sustainability.

For the initial pilot scheme, we decided to start our efforts near the Rose Garden marine reserve, where years of protection have increased fish populations over a relatively limited reef area. Therefore, by placing a network of interconnecting artificial reef bommies in a region close to the reserve, we hope this will encourage a species spillover effect, and provide a corridor of new substrate to be inhabited (connecting other intermittent bommies and seagrass beds in the vicinity), regenerating marine life in areas of degraded reef. This in turn will provide alternative fishing sites so that the fishermen can directly benefit from Rose Garden’s high productivity, whilst allowing the marine reserve to continue to flourish in the absence of fishing pressure. In addition, we hope that this artificial reef site will be further protected by FI.MI.HA.RA with the implementation of open/closed fishing season rotations under a sustainable fisheries management plan.

The science team conducted survey dives and manta tows at various areas in the search for a suitable site, and in early August a site was agreed and mapping survey dives took place to map the area. They also carried out a considerable amount of artificial reef literature research. Armed with this knowledge and approximately 21 tons of limestone and five concrete tubes, design began on the bommies with prototypes being built on the beach and various different designs tested. The bommies had to be secure so that they wouldn’t collapse in strong currents but they also had to provide lots of interesting hiding places for marine life. The concrete tubes are going to provide habitats for octopuses and lobster. The science team have also been busy researching and developing monitoring methods to evaluate the impacts of the artificial reef on marine life, fisheries, and reef regeneration over time.

julie

Once the team had a good idea of where and what needed to be constructed, it was time to present the idea to the local community to obtain agreement and permission to bring the artificial reef project to life, since this is a community project that belongs to everyone in the area.

Monsieur Bruno Keza Souvenir, president of FI.MI.HA.RA, visited the site in late August. The matter was discussed with the members of FI.MI.HA.RA and the idea approved. The team was now ready to present the idea to people of Ifaty and this phase began with a meeting with the Olobe (village elders) of Ifaty at the end of August. The Olobe approved of the plan and we were honoured to be visited by the Olobe on 24th August when a traditional blessing with rum was carried out on the rocks on the beach.

Following the meeting with the Olobe a presentation was made in the village in mid September to discuss the idea with the community. The team discussed the difficulties faced by fishers in the bay and those present agreed but felt that there was nothing that could be done. This provided the perfect opportunity to introduce the Artificial Reef Project, as the team was able to confirm that there was definitely something we could try and they had been planning a solution for some time that would be implemented if the community wanted to proceed. Everyone agreed and the team awaited word of the start date from the residents of the village.

Preparation continued throughout the months of August and September. The protocol for survey methodology was agreed in mid August and the bommie position markers were put in the water. By the end of September building on land was finished and it was agreed that the final design would consist of two large bommies with three small bommies connecting them. At the end of September the first trial construction took place underwater. As the rocks had to be brought back to the surface, just 14 rocks were used. The dive was a success as the construction methodology was decided upon. On the 5th of October the markers were placed for permanent surveys and the first mimic survey took place the following day. Meanwhile the community agreed upon the 21st of October as the official start date for construction.

With just two weeks left to go before the big event everyone on camp and in the village is preparing. A day of traditional Vezo festivities is planned, with events taking place throughout the village including traditional Vezo dancing, songs from the Juniors, official speeches and traditional sporting events. The main attraction, however, will be the blessing of the site where the limestone rocks will hopefully become a vibrant reef providing an improved fishing ground for the area. The site has been named Vato Mahavelo meaning the rock that gives life and we are all optimistic that this will be the case.

If you would like to be part of the construction and maintenance of Vato Mahavelo get yourself signed up as a ReefDoctor volunteer and come and join the team hard at work. Alternatively, another great way to help is by donating to the project to help fund monitoring and bommie implementation expansion across the bay; fundraising details will be provided later this week. Thank You!!

Report by RD Comms Team Ivana Rubino & Viv Stein-Rostaing

Coral Transplantation Project Update

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Our coral reef restoration programme in the Bay of Ranobe, SW Madagascar aims to enhance coral cover and diversity, assisting the natural recovery process of degraded reefs, through a combination of coral gardening, direct coral transplantation, and artificial reefs.

Earlier in the year we reported on the success of our trial coral transplantation project at the Rose Garden marine reserve. In August 2015, on a patch of reef devoid of live coral cover, we installed a network of artificial reef structures and populated them with corals of opportunity (loose fragments salvaged from the seabed that would otherwise die).  Despite extremely promising results after the first 6 months of the project (high coral survival, growth, self-attachment and natural coral recruitment), mass coral bleaching earlier this year sadly resulted in the loss of approximately 50% of these transplanted corals. However, transplantation of new fragments to these structures is continuing in order to get the restoration process back on track.

In February 2016 we started developing the coral transplantation project further and the team looked for another suitable site to expand the scope of our restoration efforts. We had three main objectives for this next stage of the project. Firstly, similar to the first site, transplantation would be carried out to increase coral cover and diversity, and to restore that section of the reef. Secondly, we wanted to see if corals react differently to transplantation depending on the species.  Finally, we wanted to find out if the high levels of sedimentation at Rose Garden (due to its relatively low profile) affect transplanted corals salvaged from other areas of the bay that have relatively lower levels of sedimentation.

The team selected a sloped site on the eastern side of Rose Garden, measuring approximately 7 m wide x 3.5 m deep from the top of the main section of the reef down to the sandy bottom surrounding the reef.  The same artificial reef structures (rebar frames) that were used at the first transplantation site were installed, upon which new corals of opportunity could be attached.  We also repurposed an old metal solar oven. The solar oven was stripped of paint and given ‘legs’ and a ‘head’ turning it into a turtle shaped structure. The idea being to act as a point of interest for tourists visiting the reef to promote awareness of this form of conservation.  In March, a total of 35 framed structures and the turtle were installed over the course of four dives. Two loads of limestone were also sunk at the site to stabilize the structures and to provide nooks and crannies for fish and invertebrates to hide in and swim through.

In order to monitor the survival and growth of the fragments it was necessary to implement a monitoring system that could guarantee repeatability and be easy enough for divers of all levels to operate, so that future volunteers and interns can continue the monitoring process. The team decided that a photographic method of recording growth was the best solution. They are currently working on refining this method and a camera rig to find the ideal set up.

We then waited until temperatures cooled down in June and July to populate the structures with corals of opportunity. To date, 25 fragments (Acropora, Seriatopora, Pocillipora and Porites spp.) have been transplanted from Coral Garden, a dive site south west of Rose Garden and close to the lagoon pass. A further 26 (Acropora and Pociliopora spp.) fragments have been transplanted from Ambatafia, a site also south west of Rose Garden but closer to the pass. Despite conducting coral transplantation in the cool season, unfortunately, at present, all fragments show signs of stress or bleaching, although Porities spp. are faring better. This stress may have been caused by the actual transplantation process and we are hopeful that the fragments will recover in time.

The project is still very much in the early stages and the team is currently assessing their transportation methods in an effort to reduce stress on the corals. Transplantation, cleaning and monitoring dives are undertaken weekly and we hope to be able to bring you some good news about the corals’ recovery from bleaching and their growth in our next update. Stay tuned!

Report by RD Comms Officer Ivana Rubino