Blue Ventures Post 1 • 10.03.09
The site of Blue Ventures, an NGO focused on Marine Conservation, is the most beautiful place I’ve seen so far in my travels. Andavadoaka is a town that, until recently, hadn’t seen too many foreigners. In the past couple of years, with the arrival of volunteer expeditions every couple of weeks, and a several staff
members living her permanently (foreign and Malagasy), the small village has changed into a sort of off-the-beaten-path hotspot for both adventurous travelers and researchers.
BV is even planning on opening an Ecolodge in Andavadoaka, which will eventually be the new home base for activities and provide some income for their projects. I chose Blue Ventures for my first case because I had heard that it was a good organization from several different sources, and that they’re working on some interesting projects out there in the middle of nowhere.
This will be a preliminary posting with just a little analysis, as I have not yet had the opportunity transcribe all of the interviews and I still need to talk to a few key people who are out of site at the moment. I also look forward to hearing updates from some of the newer staff after they have been in Andavadoaka, with the organization, for a longer period of time. I’ll just set the stage a little.
Getting to Andavadoaka is pretty unpleasant, no matter how you go. However, it’s definitely worth it once you arrive. It’s an isolated spot, and a village mostly supported by fishing activities. Aside from a wide variety of fish, the people there are interested in Sea Cucumbers and Octopus, as well as sharks (which is not encouraged – the Japanese and others pay a lot to use the fins for soup-thickener and the price of just one shark can support a family for weeks). The coral reef surrounding the site is the 4th largest in the world, and Andavadoaka was chosen as the site for BV based on the need for conservation and monitoring of that reef and the sea life in the area to preserve and protect it, as well as educate about the importance of marine conservation in the community.
For meals, the volunteers and folks living at Coco Beach, the hotel BV uses as their base of operations, eat together. Every evening at 7 there’s a time for ‘Vao vao’, or news of the day. People share what they’ve been working on, whether it’s counting shark fins or doing focus groups, or looking at the findings from their participatory monitoring and evaluation efforts (or welcoming me, the researcher in their midst). Plans for the next day are announced, and everyone is accounted for.
The giant fish they took out of the sea to feed us one night
Before Blue Ventures arrived, there was already a flourishing Women’s Association, supported by various income generating activities such as sewing clothing, lambas, and even hammocks for the tourists in the area. When BV came into the picture, they found that having the association was a useful way to make connections in the community, as there was already an established network, and they now work together on several projects. There are two main focus areas of BV – marine conservation (of course) and family planning, which is a more recent development. Here’s what they do:
- Volunteer Diving Expedition team (this encompasses scientific research and monitoring of the reef and marine environments)
- Marine Conservation: Octopus MPA (marine protected area)
- Alternative Livelihoods: Sea Cucumber Farming Project
- FISA: family planning (Integrated PHE Initiative)
- Ecotourism: BV Ecolodge (future
- BV scholar program
- Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
To be continued…
