With the support of WCS and under the guidance of the Government fisheries enforcement agency, each association has set up a local Control and Surveillance Committee (CCS) that is made up of volunteer community rangers, who are officially recognized by the Government and provided with a registered, numbered identification badge. The CCS allows the application and enforcement of the rules and regulations set out in both the management plan and the dinas. Rangers are equipped and trained to carry out surveillance and enforcement missions and given focused training on: knowledge of regulations; awareness raising methods; dissuasion/sanctions; repression; registration of offenses; and definition of strategies and organization for surveillance and control missions. Rangers come from a range of social backgrounds and include men & women, village chiefs, traditional & religious authorities, private sector operators, school teachers, and fishermen. The CCS carry out missions according to varying schedules and depending on the circumstances with joint patrols by several associations to cover larger areas or joint missions of CCS rangers and Government fisheries enforcement representatives when significant infractions are observed.

Scientific results and data are often published in formats that managers cannot access or find challenging to process and extract directly useful information (e.g. scientific publications). Once managers know what data they need to inform management (have thought through objectives and indicators), they can create a data request form asking researchers for the specific data most relevant to MPA management and in the format managers are using to allow rapid understanding and integration into existing databases.

Managers and community members often have little training in marine and coastal ecological and social systems. Conducting monthly monitoring provides data about the system, but also provides a mechanism for managers to understand and witness changes in the system. Engaging community members in this process helps promote collaborative problem solving. Finally, this process helps managers better understand data they receive from scientists because they know what is involved in collecting data.

A science-based monitoring protocol for hydrological, chemical and biological parameters enables the detection of changes over time, thereby increasing the effectiveness of restoration actions.

Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) are zones managed by coastal communities to help protect fisheries and safeguard biodiversity. Through the use of Dina – customary laws that are recognised by the Government of Madagascar –partner communities have designed effective rules that can be enforced locally to ban destructive fishing practices, protect endangered species and designate priority marine areas for protection. To ensure the long-term financial sustainability of LMMAs, a variety of mechanisms including marine ecotourism programmes, seafood supply chain incentive schemes, eco-certifications for sustainable fisheries, and payment for ecosystem services are developed. Velondriake is Madagascar’s first LMMA where elected representatives from 25 villages have put in place a management plan that includes permanent reserves, temporary octopus fishery closures, community-based aquaculture of seaweed and sea cucumbers, all regulated through a series of locally developed and enforced rules (Dina). Preliminary protected status was granted by the Government of Madagascar in 2010 and definitive protected status was successfully acquired in 2015.

The purpose of this building block is to provide Blue Ventures’ partner community members with positive experiences of marine management, demonstrating that it can yield tangible economic benefits in reasonable timeframes. The short-term octopus fishery closure model involves periodic closures of a portion of a village’s octopus gleaning grounds. At any communally agreed time, up to a quarter of a community’s fishing area may be closed for around three months. This approach has been shown to result in dramatic increases in octopus landings and improved fisher incomes when closed areas are reopened to fishing (Oliver et al., 2015), thereby sparking and building enduring support for more ambitious marine management efforts (including the creation of permanent marine reserves within locally managed marine areas) that are led by communities, for communities. By returning meaningful economic benefits in timeframes that work for traditional fishers, these temporary octopus fishery closures inspire local leadership in marine conservation. The approach depends on and benefits from broad support from the entire seafood supply chain, with fishers and buyers now contributing to the modest costs of establishing and managing the closures.

The purpose of this building block is to provide all of Blue Ventures’ partner community members with access to voluntary family planning and other basic health services. In collaboration with Population Services International we have trained and are currently supporting networks of local women to offer family planning information and short-term contraceptives (condoms, hormonal pills and injections) in their villages. We also partner with Marie Stopes Madagascar to offer long-acting reversible contraceptives (hormonal implants and intra-uterine devices) on a regular basis. Our community-based distributors of contraceptives are also trained and supported to provide antenatal and postnatal education, mosquito nets, water purifying solution, oral rehydration salts and antenatal medication.

Each fisher records their daily fish catches, methods and site locations and feeds the information into a database. This information aids in monitoring the abundance and diversity of key species and serves as an important management tool. Data are analyzed by technicians/scientists, and the results are discussed with fishermen

In collaboration with fishers and key local stakeholders, we design, implement, and monitor marine reserves to foster the recovery of fisheries and marine ecosystems, both within and beyond the reserves. This building block has three branches:

1. Design. We have workshops with resource-users to present the marine reserves theory and to design the map of uses and ecosystems. We then conduct acceptance and cost analyses. We define the objectives of the reserves, select the best sites to meet these objectives, and finally define operation procedures, financial sustainability plans, and formal agreements with the cooperatives.

2. Monitoring and evaluation. We select indicators and monitoring methodologies to collect the data. Then, we train the community in the monitoring techniques so they can collect data, evaluate progress, and engage in the process.

3. Management. We support our community partners in all the paper work to make the reserve official, as well as to elaborate and refine operational plans for the success and adaptive management of the reserve. 

We have 79,500 marine hectares protected, more than 300 species monitored, and 100 Mexican fishers (including 18 women) trained in submarine and oceanographic monitoring techniques.