Livelihoods and Population, Health and Environment (PHE) in the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area – Madagascar

Traditional Vezo pirogue boat. Photo by Gareth Cripps.

Building Actors and Leaders for Advancing Community Excellence in Development (BALANCED)

Along the southwest coast of Madagascar lies the world’s fourth largest reef system with some of the most extensive and biodiverse marine and coastal ecosystems of the Western Indian Ocean. This coast is also home to many isolated communities of the semi-nomadic, sea-faring Vezo people. Blue Ventures has been working in this area since 2003 to conserve these important natural resources and to help ensure the continuation of the marine based Vezo lifestyle.

Blue Ventures’ integrated population-health-environment (PHE) programs are addressing livelihood needs by encouraging long term sustainability of fish stocks, supporting alternative income sources, and helping to increase overall family well-being including through the promotion of family planning—all crucial efforts in communities that are heavily dependent on natural resources and where population pressures on those resources are high. Blue Ventures’ programs are funded by its own ecotourism programs, as well as though generous funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, PROGECO, NorgesVel, and the United Nations Population Fund.

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