Using tourism as a conservation tool to protect people and nature
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
The Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating Places - Changing Lives competition.
Blue Ventures is an award-winning not-for-profit that partners with local communities to conserve threatened marine habitats and resources for the betterment of people and nature. Funded almost entirely through ecotourism revenue, Blue Ventures brings paying volunteers to project sites and trains them in scientific research, community outreach and on-the-ground conservation.
Blue Ventures believes that environmental protection and economic development can – and must – go hand-in-hand. Since 2003, we have partnered with the remote fishing villages along Madagascar’s southwest coast in an effort to protect the marine resources locals rely upon for survival.
In 2004, Blue Ventures and the village of Andavadoaka established the world’s first community-run marine protected area for octopus. The project not only ensures the long-term survival of octopus, but results in greater yields for local fishermen. The project proved so successful the government of Madagascar in 2005 used the project as a model to create similar strategies across the country to promote octopus populations and fisheries.
Blue Ventures is now working with 25 villages across the region to create a vast network of marine and coastal protected areas spanning 800 square-kilometres, benefiting more than 10,000 people and protecting coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and other threatened habitats.
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
Andavadoaka
City
Andavadoaka (Tulear)
State/Province
southwest coast
Postal/Zip Code
Country
Madagascar
Year innovation began
2003
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of benefit to the people of the desitination
Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube.
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Conservation/Preservation organization
Geographic location
Coast.
Plot your innovation within the Mosaic of Solutions
Main insight addressed
Establish community incentives
Name Your Project
Using tourism as a conservation tool to protect people and nature
Describe Your Idea
Blue Ventures is an award-winning not-for-profit that partners with local communities to conserve threatened marine habitats and resources for the betterment of people and nature. Funded almost entirely through ecotourism revenue, Blue Ventures brings paying volunteers to project sites and trains them in scientific research, community outreach and on-the-ground conservation.
Blue Ventures believes that environmental protection and economic development can – and must – go hand-in-hand. Since 2003, we have partnered with the remote fishing villages along Madagascar’s southwest coast in an effort to protect the marine resources locals rely upon for survival.
In 2004, Blue Ventures and the village of Andavadoaka established the world’s first community-run marine protected area for octopus. The project not only ensures the long-term survival of octopus, but results in greater yields for local fishermen. The project proved so successful the government of Madagascar in 2005 used the project as a model to create similar strategies across the country to promote octopus populations and fisheries.
Blue Ventures is now working with 25 villages across the region to create a vast network of marine and coastal protected areas spanning 800 square-kilometres, benefiting more than 10,000 people and protecting coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and other threatened habitats.
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation?
Using tourism as a tool to protect threatened marine resources for the betterment of both people and nature
How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
The sole motivation for launching our marine expedition business was to conserve the natural resources local villages in Madagascar rely upon for survival. Blue Ventures brings groups of paying volunteers to marine expeditions in Madagascar every six weeks, teaching them SCUBA diving, marine research and conservation science. During daily dives through threatened coral reefs, expedition members monitor marine habitats and species. They also work along side trained scientists to implement conservation strategies. Volunteers on our expeditions not only supply the man power needed to protect threatened natural resources, but all profits generated by the expeditions go back into on-the-ground conservation. All conservation planning is done in coordination with local villages to ensure communities in the region benefit from the conservation projects. Additionally, expedition volunteers learn about the important role oceans play in the global environment, helping to create a conservation ethic that they will hopefully carry with them in their daily lives.
Describe your approach in detail. How is it innovative?
Blue Ventures uses eco-tourism to generate funding and manpower for conservation. We lead expeditions to threatened marine systems along Madagascar’s southwest coast. This region harbours some of the world's highest levels of marine biodiversity, but also faces threats from climate change, pollution and overfishing. Only a small percentage of these reefs have ever been explored and even fewer have been scientifically studied to determine their health and conservation needs.
With the assistance of paying volunteers and the funding generated by the expeditions, Blue Ventures has catalogued hundreds of marine species over the last five years, including many that are endangered and several that are believed to be new to science. Before Blue Ventures began hosting volunteer expeditions, no data on these reefs existed. The information is used to implement conservation plans across the region and is shared with government agencies to assist national conservation and fisheries policy.
Blue Ventures’ partners with local villagers, raising awareness about the benefits of conservation and strengthening their capacity to protect natural resources. We incorporate traditional knowledge, customs and socio-economic needs to ensure locals support and benefit from conservation and tourism activities. Villagers participate in planning, researching, implementing and monitoring.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Blue Ventures is constantly reaching out to additional villages in the region to encourage increased conservation of local natural resources. We regularly hold educational workshops aimed at increasing the skills and knowledge locals need to protect their own natural resources. We would ideally like to partner with other developing nations, communities and agencies and provide them with expanded educational programmes that target their specific conservation needs.
Impact
In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
We work to conserve threatened habitats, improve livelihoods and empower communities to sustainably manage their own natural resources
Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts? 200 words or less
In 2004, Blue Ventures and its volunteers worked with the village of Andavadoaka to develop the world’s first community-run marine protected area for octopus – the village’s primary source of income. Seasonal closures were implemented to allow octopus to grow in size and number. The strategy not only ensures the long-term survival of octopus, but results in greater yields for fishermen when closed areas are reopened. Studies show that octopus catch increased 13 times following the implentation of the project than before.
The project proved so successful that the Malagasy government it as a model in 2005 to implement similar closures across the country in order to improve octopus populations and fisheries.
In addition to ecological monitoring and research, Blue Ventures conducts socio-economic studies across the region to measure the impact of conservation projects on community incomes, attitudes and lifestyles. We have internationally trained staff in the field of socio-economic monitoring. In addition, we coordinate all activities with local villages to ensure communities benefit and support our activities.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Our volunteers participate in daily lessons on local habitats and species, and are taught the customs and language of the local community. In the first week of each expedition, volunteers are given tours of the local village, and are introduced to the elders who govern the community. Volunteers interact daily with locals, teaching English to school children, participating in traditional festivals and taking cooking lessons from village women. Such emersion in the local culture and ecology promotes enthusiasm for the conservation mission and activities.
Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area’s cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
Blue Venture volunteerss receive daily lessons in conservation science and marine research. By living and working alongside local villagers, volunteers see first hand the critical role healthy marine habitats play in the survival of human communities. Once volunteers return from expeditions, we regularly send them updates on marine issues and conservation activities.
For local communities, Blue Ventures holds monthly workshops on environmental issues. We train locals in conservation science and monitoring, and hire them to survey habitats and species. The data they collect not only is vital for conservation scientists, but also raises awareness among villagers of environmental issues.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
All conservation activities are planned and implemented in coordination with local villages. Monthly meetings and workshops are held with villagers to update them on conservation projects and to receive their input. More than a dozen local villagers are employed by Blue Ventures, working as tour leaders, boat drivers and dive masters. We incorporate traditional knowledge and socio-economic needs into all conservation planning to ensure locals receive tangible benefits. Conservation projects have proven so successful that neighbouring villages have asked Blue Ventures to implement similar strategies in their communities so they can reap similar benefits.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Funding for our conservation work is generated by our tourism business. Studies have shown that more and more people are looking for holidays that are not only fun, but also leave them with a sense of personal fulfillment. Younger travelers – those in their 20s and 30s who are becoming today’s business leaders with disposable incomes – are particularly interested in travel adventures that have a positive impact on the world around them. The number of people attending our expeditions continues to grow, providing us with a sustainable source of income.
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
Funding for our conservation activities is generated from our tourism revenue. While we are a non-profit conservation organisation, we use a business model to finance our conservation work. We employ five full-time staff in our London headquarters and 30 full and part-time staff in the field in Madagascar. Our expeditions generate approximately £200,000 each year.
What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
We are currently working to expand our conservation work beyond our current field headquarters in the village of Andavadoaka. We are about to launch a massive network of marine and coastal protected areas that will span 800 square-kilometres along the southwest coast of Madagascar. The project will benefit more than 10,000 local people and be one of the largest community-run protected areas in the Western Indian Ocean. We are also looking to expand our tourism expeditions to other areas in Madagascar.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Financial resources is the main barrier to expanding our work. Because we are dependent on revenue generated by our eco-tourism expeditions, we must work within a set budget. As the popularity of our expeditions grows each year, however, we have been able to expand our conservation success and outreach.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Alasdair Harris, founder and Director of Scientific Research: Since studying for a Masters degree in coastal management and ecological economics, Alasdair has endeavoured to combine environmental protection with community development.
While in school, Alasdair established a society to promote marine conservation in the developing world. Partnering with governments of Indian Ocean countries, he organised a series of underwater research expeditions, providing critical data to local institutions that did not have the resources to undertake such work themselves.
Upon earning his Maters in 2003, Al founded Blue Ventures.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
Blue Ventures is an award-winning not-for-profit that partners with local communities to conserve threatened marine habitats and resources for the betterment of people and nature. Funded almost entirely through ecotourism revenue, Blue Ventures brings paying volunteers to project sites and trains them in scientific research, community outreach and on-the-ground conservation.
Blue Ventures believes that environmental protection and economic development can – and must – go hand-in-hand. Since 2003, we have partnered with the remote fishing villages along Madagascar’s southwest coast in an effort to protect the marine resources locals rely upon for survival.
In 2004, Blue Ventures and the village of Andavadoaka established the world’s first community-run marine protected area for octopus. The project not only ensures the long-term survival of octopus, but results in greater yields for local fishermen. The project proved so successful the government of Madagascar in 2005 used the project as a model to create similar strategies across the country to promote octopus populations and fisheries.
Blue Ventures is now working with 25 villages across the region to create a vast network of marine and coastal protected areas spanning 800 square-kilometres, benefiting more than 10,000 people and protecting coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and other threatened habitats.
Along with traditional conservation strategies, Blue Ventures is developing sustainable alternative livelihoods for people living in the region. We are building an ecotourism lodge in Andavadoaka that will be fully owned and managed by local villagers and will be powered by clean solar and wind energy. The ecolodge will serve as an economic incentive to conserve the region’s natural beauty and resources while providing villagers with a sustainable alternative to destructive fishing practices.
Blue Ventures is also developing mariculture businesses in Andavadoaka, including algae, seagrass and sea cucumber farming, which will provide local communities with additional sustainable incomes.
Blue Ventures has won national and international recognition for its work. In 2005 Blue Ventures became the first European organisation to receive the SEED Award sponsored by the United Nations and the World Conservation Union to find the most innovative and entrepreneurial partnerships for sustainable development. In 2004, 2006 and 2007, Blue Ventures received “Highly Commended” honours from the Responsible Tourism Awards. In 2006, Skal, the world’s largest organisation of travel and tourism professionals, named Blue Ventures winner of its International Ecotourism Award. In 2007, Blue Ventures was named by National Geographic Traveler Magazine as one of the world’s “Top 50 Tours of a Lifetime.”
Andavadoaka village, Blue Ventures’ primary partner in Madagascar, won the UN’s prestigious Equator Prize in 2007 for its work with Blue Ventures and others to create community-based conservation and sustainable development projects.
Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on the competition homepage.
Blue Ventures is an award-winning not-for-profit that partners with local communities to conserve threatened marine habitats and resources for the betterment of people and nature. Funded almost entirely through ecotourism revenue, Blue Ventures brings paying volunteers to project sites and trains them in scientific research, community outreach and on-the-ground conservation.
Blue Ventures believes that environmental protection and economic development can – and must – go hand-in-hand. Since 2003, we have partnered with the remote fishing villages along Madagascar’s southwest coast in an effort to protect the marine resources locals rely upon for survival.
In 2004, Blue Ventures and the village of Andavadoaka established the world’s first community-run marine protected area for octopus. The project not only ensures the long-term survival of octopus, but results in greater yields for local fishermen. The project proved so successful the government of Madagascar in 2005 used the project as a model to create similar strategies across the country to promote octopus populations and fisheries.
Blue Ventures is now working with 25 villages across the region to create a vast network of marine and coastal protected areas spanning 800 square-kilometres, benefiting more than 10,000 people and protecting coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and other threatened habitats.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| madagascar.jpg | 153.2 KB |
- Login to post new content in this forum.
Comments
Hello Karen,
Great work. You mention that you are interested in expanding to other regions in order to target their specific conservation needs. Can you give an example of a particular location that you've scoped out that has specific conservation needs that could be addressed through Blue Ventures type work?
I understand that more than a dozen local villagers are employed by Blue Ventures and I understand that you host monthly meeting and workshops with villagers. In addition to engaging the community in these ways, how does Blue Ventures improve livelihoods? Can you give some examples of the "sustainable alternative livelihoods" that you are helping to create?
Thanks
Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
Blue Ventures has been invited by the Madagascar National Park Service (ANGAP) to create a marine park in Manahy, a region north of our current project site along the southwest coast. Manahy is home to the Kirindy National Park. That park, however, does not have a marine conservation area. Blue Ventures is working with ANGAP to add a marine conservation area to the park. We will launch a new expedition programme in the area where volunteers will conduct scientific reseach and collect data on marine species that will be used to develop conservation plans for the park area. The region's coral reefs are unexplored, so the data collected by volunteers and Blue Ventures scientists will be critical in developing conservation planning.
Blue Ventures is also talking with several NGOs, universities and others about a possible volunteer project to protect threatened marine systems in Fiji.
Regarding sustainable livelihoods in Madagascar, Blue Ventures has launched sea cucumber farming projects in three Malagasy villages. Sea cucumbers are a multi-billion dollar industry in Asia, sold as culinary delicacies and herbal medicine. Because of their high market value, sea cucumbers are being over-fished. They once were plentiful in shallow, near-shore waters across Madagascar, but many villagers are now resorting to using old SCUBA gear to locate deepsea specimens. Diving not only threatens the sustainability of sea cucumber populations, but is extremely dangerous and has resulted in numerous deaths. Blue Ventures has built sea cucumber pens in shallow waters and has trained local women to raise lab-provided sea cucumber juveniles. Blue Ventures helped secure a contract with a local fishing company and all profits from the sea cucumber sales go directly to the village women.
Blue Ventures has also trained more than a dozen locals are eco-tour guides and is building a carbon-neutral eco-lodge in the area. Eco-tourism will provide sustainable incomes as well as financial incentives to keep local habitats healthy and beautiful to attract tourists.
All this is great! Thanks for taking the time to explain. The work that you're doing is very exciting. Keep it up!
Dana
Hello Karen,
How does Blue Ventures compare their work to that of Earthwatch? Does Blue Ventures see itself as part of a broader effort towards coral reef preservation? What are some of the larger goals that Blue Ventures is looking to achieve through these geotourism efforts?
Thanks
Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
Blue Ventures plans, implements and monitors our own conservation projects. We bring volunteers to our own project sites to work with our scientists and partners to protect marine areas. Earthwatch, as I understand, matches volunteers to projects conducted by other organisations.
While our work is currently focused on protecting the marine resources in Madagascar, we share our data and conservation knowledge with a variety of organisations around the world in the hope of improving global marine systems.
Blue Ventures is part of the International Year of the Reef 2008, working to increase awareness about the importance of coral ecosystems and to promote the conservation of these vital resources.
Our scientists regularly present reports and case studies to conservation conferences and workshops around the world. All of our scientific reports also are posted on our website for others conservationists to make use of and learn from.
We are also currently building an on-line interactive marine species identification database for the Western Indian Ocean. Blue Ventures will include photos and biological information of all species we have recorded in the region. The database will also allow others to post information on species they have recorded in the Western Indian Ocean. The aim is to make a comprehensive reference database that is freely available to students and professional taxonomists alike. Such a database will be extremely valuable to conservation activities in the region.
More broadly, all of Blue Ventures' geotourism efforts are aimed at protecting marine resources for the betterment of both people and nature. We believe tourism can be a powerful conservation tool. Our volunteer expeditions not only raise money for conservation, but also provide the manpower needed to gather scientific data and implement conservation strategies.
We also believe that conservation cannot be conducted in a vacuum. It must incorporate the needs of local communities and provide benefits to those same communities. Otherwise any conservation efforts are doomed to failure.
I am interested in the financial viability of many responsible/geotourism projects: too many aren't market ready and fail to go beyond donor stage, or are constantly financed by outside means. I'd like the debate to move away from how has the product been developed to how are these companies and projects making sure they will financially survive.
While Blue Ventures is a not-for-profit organisation, we use a business model that allows us to not only remain financially viable but also to grow financially over the years.
The vast majority of our money used for conservation work comes directly from our volunteer expeditions. We have relied very little on outside donations (We're happy to accept them, but we do not depend upon them to keep us going!)
We market and promote our volunteer expeditions as any business would promote their product. The difference, however, is that all profits from the volunteer expeditions go directly back into conservation activities. Blue Ventures is actually two entities -- the charity Blue Ventures Conservation and the not-for-profit Blue Ventures Expeditions. Again, all profits from our Expeditions not-for-profit is handed over to the Conservation charity.
We first launched our volunteer expeditions and affiliated conservation activities in Madagascar in 2003. Since then, the number of paying volunteers joining our expeditions has grown steadily, allowing us to expand our conservation projects accordingly.
In 2003, we started with just a few dozen volunteers and launched our first conservation project by creating a 200 hectre community-run no-take zone for octopus in a single village in Madagascar. A combination of the success of the no-take zone (village fishers report a huge increase in octopus catch when the no-take zone is opened each season) along with a steady increase in the number of paying volunteers joining our expedtions (we now host more than 100 volunteers and independent researchers each year in Madagascar)has allowed us to now launch a massive network of protected areas that will span 800-square kilometres, include 25 villages and benefit 10,000 people. The project is one of the largest community-run protected areas in the Western Indian Ocean. We could not have done this without the funding and manpower provided by our expedition volunteers.
I believe this is the secret of all successful projects with this objective and by "successful" I mean a sustainable,long term benefit, which in addition, critically, is transferrable.I stayed at a hotel near Andavadoake 2 years ago and visited the village to see what was happening on the ground.Two aspects made an impression on me.Firstly the depth of technical work carried out by BV to meet their commitment to the Malagasy government and further published research into coral reefs.Secondly,and understandably which had the most impact from the point of view of a layman,the relationship with the local community.
It was abundantly clear that the BV and the local elders saw themselves as parts of a team; mutual respect and constant communication and consultation being a way of life.They could not have achieved the significant progress they have made without that investment.
The program starts with volunteer interest in diving and reefs, but links these enthusiasms to a variety of concerns in the local communities, including fishing techniques, near shore harvest of invertebrates, community sanitation, literacy and public health. In doing so, BV goes beyond 'gee whiz" ecotourism to making socially relevant changes in the local economy, not just infusions of cash through the tourist-centered entrepreneurs.
This project will benefit to Madagascar
Post new comment