Exploring the Wonders of Seagrass and Transplantation!
Did you know that beneath the sparkling surface of our oceans lies a vital ecosystem that plays a crucial role in our planet’s health? Seagrass meadows are one of Mother Nature’s unsung heroes!
Seagrass not only provides shelter and nursery grounds for a wide array of marine life, but it also acts as a natural carbon sink, helping combat climate change by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. They are the unsung heroes in the fight against global warming!
However, seagrass faces challenges due to human impacts and environmental changes. That’s where transplantation comes into play.
Reef Doctor, the FORUM IHSM, and GoodPlanet are transplanting seagrass – this involves carefully moving healthy grass from one location to another, helping restore damaged or depleted meadows. This incredible conservation effort boosts marine biodiversity, improves water quality, and safeguards our coastlines against erosion. It’s a win-win for both nature and us!
Let’s celebrate and spread awareness about the wonders of seagrass and the importance of transplantation. Together, we can protect our precious marine ecosystems for generations to come!
You can read more about Reef Doctor’s vital work with transplantation here.
By 9am everything was ready and the officials, Monsieur Francois Gilbert, Minister of Fisheries Resources and the Mayor of Belalanda region among them arrived in style together with a national news crew and Emma Gibbons, Director of ReefDoctor. We met their procession just outside the village and the crowd including Ifaty women’s rugby team, the women’s association and a band danced and sang their way to the school where the officials took seats to enjoy some entertainment from local women’s groups from Ifaty (yes these ladies can multi task!), Ambondrolava, Tsivonoe and Mangily. Between groups a band of traditional dancers entertained the crowd. And speeches were given looking forward to the growth of the reef and the future of the Debarcadere.
e Ifaty women’s rugby team as they have practiced for a sevens friendly against the women’s team from Tulear. Before I came to Reef Doctor, I was very excited to learn that rugby – especially women’s rugby – had a presence in Madagascar; however, I did not realize what an understatement that is. Rugby is Madagascar’s national sport, and has built a fanatic following among the Malagasy people; even our daily practices regularly drew a crowd from the village. This environment is markedly different than where I learned how to play rugby, in St Andrews, Scotland, where our league games would draw crowds of about 10 people (and we even won the league one year!). However, general enthusiasm, for women’s sports as well as men’s, is only one of the many differences I noticed. On that note, here’s a bit on rugby, Gasy style.
The Ifaty team plays on the local football field, which consists of sand, little rocks, bigger rocks, rock substrate underneath a centimeter of sand, and the occasional spike or ten. Practice starts when Coach Elias makes his way to the field, blowing his whistle incessantly throughout the village. The girls come in whatever they own: jean shorts, dresses, skirts, bathing suits, often with necklaces, earrings, and very long nails. Many of the things we take for granted in the West simply aren’t present here: there is a distinct lack of water, first aid, nail clippers, mouth guards, shoes, sports bras, and game kit. During games, the Ifaty team wears the jerseys of the men’s football team; if they want to wear shoes, they must borrow them from another team or go without. However, what they lack in kit, they make up for with determination. As far as how the game
is played, when these girls hit the pitch, it is with no holds barred. There is no such thing as “touch” here; it’s full contact all the time. This tradition is telling of rugby’s history in Madagascar; the game is especially popular in the Tanàna Ambany (low villages) of Antananarivo (Tana), the location of the capital’s poorest inhabitants, as well as the highest rates of illiteracy and idleness. Although rugby in Madagascar is played by the upper class as well, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu emphasized how especially important the sport is for the lower classes, which lack education and therefore job prospects (source: Razafison, 2010, Africa Review). In fact, many of the country’s rugby stars come from these low villages, and are then catapulted into the national spotlight. In many aspects, Ifaty’s situation is similar to the low villages of Tana, which is why it is so important to make sure the sport is able to thrive here.
ing session of over 30 primary school teachers in alternative teaching and learning strategies. Approximately 320 girls from all over the Southwest region, including Salary Bay, Desakoa, Ifaty, Satrokala, as well as many girls from primary schools in Tulear, attended the tournament – even a local orphanage brought a team! The girls were split up into groups of 9-10 when they arrived, and all the adults present were given a team to coach throughout the day. (With this experience behind me, I can say that it is not easy to coach a team of Gasy girls with a limited comprehension of the language and no French skills.) The day itself was a blast, and all the girls got to make new friends and encounter different playing styles. In the afternoon, the women’s teams from Ifaty and Tulear played a match before the tournament finals. It was an excellent game, and both teams really left it all on the pitch. Although it was an extremely close game, the final score saw a 10-5 win for Tulear, giving the Ifaty girls all the more reason to practice hard in the coming months as Regionals approach.
Women from across the Bay of Ranobe came together in the village of Belalanda on Tuesday 8th March for International Women’s Day and made themselves heard! The usually dusty road to Toliara was alive with colour and music as women’s groups from across the bay, dressed in traditional lamba (sarongs), came together to pray, celebrate, dance and talk.
very positive but there is a long way to go before Malagasy women’s rights are recognized in a way that fosters gender equality. Constitutionally, men and women in Madagascar have equal rights but access to employment, services and resources is still limited for the majority of Malagasy women. Madagascar currently ranks 120th out of 128 countries listed on the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index (Economist Intelligence Unit 2012). This pilot index looks at women’s access to economic opportunities worldwide. Prostitution is wide spread in Madagascar and many young women end up working as prostitutes for as little as 2,000 MGA (45p) as there is no viable alternative. Many young girls are sold or rented to older men by their families to make money to buy food.
In rural areas domestic violence against women is common and accepted despite it being against national law. Local law allows wives to be beaten provided her family is compensated. If a woman does something that offends or embarrasses her husband, he is entitled to beat her provided he pays compensation for the beating to her family. This not only allows violence to continue in homes but also makes it acceptable. For these and many other reasons gender equality is essential.
family, but had little or no prospects when it came to getting paid work outside the home. Like many other women in this region, there were very few options open to her to earn a living.
