Environmental Education

We help communities and institutions in Madagascar gain the skills and knowledge they need to conserve their coastal resources across the country.

Remote fishing villages along Madagascar’s coasts have lived side-by-side with the sea for generations. But in recent decades, growing populations, poorly managed tourism and the arrival of commercial fishing companies have greatly increased the pressure on local marine systems. Blue Ventures is working with local villages to give them the knowledge and skills they need to address these growing threats and protect their natural resources for future generations.

Through regular workshops and seminars on marine conservation, Blue Ventures has helped communities living along the southwest coast to launch a variety of conservation projects. These include the world’s first community-run protected area for octopus and the Velondriake community-run Marine Protected Area network that spans 800 km2 along the southwest coast.

Blue Ventures partners with the University of Toliara’s Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (IHSM), Madagascar’s primary marine education and research institute, sharing research data and assisting students in pursuing their degrees. Blue Ventures also partners with the Madagascar national park service (MNP), which uses several of Blue Ventures’ project sites as training centres for coastal management practitioners.

Each year Blue Ventures hosts the Indian Ocean Marine Scholarship Programme, granting a scholarship to up to 18 Malagasy university students for an in-depth six week training course in marine science and conservation research. This programme has also been extended to Velondriake community members who can become Velondriake scholars through a similar six week training course focusing on learning to SCUBA dive, ecological survey methods and species identification. More than a dozen villagers have received their certification, including two who have reached the level of Dive Master. Bic Manahira has since become Madagascar’s first Open Water Scuba instructor.

Blue Ventures also helps to oversee the Roger Samba and J. Paul Getty Scholarship for higher education in Marine Conservation to 10 Malagasy students of marine science, an award created in honour of Mr. Roger Samba, the current President of Velondriake and active in community leadership, after winning the prestigious WWF Getty Prize for Conservation . These awards help provide some of the much-needed funding for local students to gain the education they deserve.

To learn more about Blue Ventures’ educational and capacity building activities, read our report on environmental education

Click here to see the Velondriake scholars.