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Community development
ReefDoctor recognises coral reefs as a fragile ecosystem that must be protected to conserve biodiversity and biomass of marine resources. Coral reef health is intricately linked to fisheries potential and the success of local fishing communities, therefore any sustainable management programme, which must be an ultimate aim for Ifaty’s fishing community, must consider socio-economic development as well as ecological and biological development.
Community development involves all aspects of village life from education to alternative incomes and medical facilities to clean fresh water supplies. Relieving pressure on Ifaty’s reef must go hand-in-hand with socio-economic development.
In support of this ReefDoctor has developed a programme that encompasses:
• Schools education
• Community education
• Tourist education and awareness
• Alternative livelihoods
• Community improvements.
• Schools education
Developing an understanding of the marine environment and how it works is key to introducing the concept of effective marine management. Working with the local education system makes it possible to begin this education while children are in school, paving the way for future generations to understand and manage their resources.
ReefDoctor’s schools education programme began life working with the school director to help ensure that the local marine science curriculum was taught in Ifaty’s school. This has included employing three additional teachers for the school to reduce class sizes and allow a more age-targeted level of learning.
Today, ReefDoctor continues to employ teachers on behalf of the local community, but our work with the curriculum has extended beyond both basic teaching and Ifaty.
At present ReefDoctor participates in teacher training sessions organised by the local schools board, Chef de CISCO (conscription Scolaire) and the Director of Environmental and Cultural Education, and working to help translate the existing marine curriculum from French to Malagasy. In addition, it is hoping to extend the reach of the marine curriculum to all schools primary schools along the coast.
Community education
While school education plays a crucial part in facilitating marine management for future generations, there is also a need to communicate the marine management problems the village of Ifaty faces here and now.
To achieve this ReefDoctor has worked with the local community holding education workshops and discussion groups with the villagers, organised with their president. This has included presentations on the marine environment, results from our fisheries assessment to show how basic marine management can help local fishermen improve yields. In the coming year we are hoping to create a marine museum with displays and information explaining how the reef ecosystem functions, and how the reef provides income and sustenance for the people of Ifaty.
Tourist education and awareness
The fishermen of Ifaty village are not the only people that use the reef and lagoon of the Bay of Ranobe. Both Ifaty and Mangili (just north of Ifaty) are tourist destinations for visitors to the area and home to a great many hotels. Ifaty has four major hotels, each with a holding capacity of 60+ guests, while Mangili has eight such hotels with a good number of smaller backpacker hotels.
Several dive centres operate in the area, and local fishermen / guides make their pirogues available for hire to tourists that wish to go snorkelling or surfing. Educating tourists about the fragility of the reef is an important part of promoting reef conservation.
To achieve this, we are working with local hotels and dive centres to create resource materials on responsible tourism, snorkelling and diving to ensure that visitors to the area understand the importance of the reef to the villages it supports, as well as the impact that they themselves can have on the reef.
Alternative livelihoods
In addition to our alternative marine livelihoods programme, ReefDoctor also hopes to ensure that all sectors of the community explore the potential for new diversified incomes.
In 2005 ReefDoctor completed a survey of the women in the village to establish the level of interest in developing new incomes, and the kinds of activities the villagers felt these incomes might come from.
From the results of this survey a number of business ideas were identified and at present the following ideas are being tried with groups of women and their families:
Bakery: bread is widely consumed in the area by the locals and in the hotels, though all bread is made and bought from Toliara. Development of a number of small bakeries will allow local people to tap into this market.
Rice cakes (mokary): a staple part of the Malagasy breakfast made from rice flour. A large number of families already make and sell mokary, however the flour they use must be made from scratch, which is hard work and time consuming. Therefore, subsidised rice flour will be bought from the NGO SIDA to decrease the labour required and help increase income.
Community improvements
In order for any conservation and marine management programme to succeed, local populations need to see a general improvement in socio-economic conditions resulting from new practices and ideas. This means that the additional incomes created by any such programme must be seen to generate visible development for the village as a whole.
ReefDoctor’s presence in Ifaty, and relationship with the University of Toliara has already resulted in new buildings and development on the University of Toliara’s land, employment opportunities for local people and increased income for local services from ReefDoctor and its staff.
To expand on this, ReefDoctor is currently exploring marine management opportunities that can generate income for the village as a whole that can be channelled into community developments such as school improvements, medical facilities and new water supplies.
