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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
If interested, volunteers will have the opportunity to participate and assist in the following projects, gaining first hand experience in Madagascan community and social development.
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, in partnership with WWF, 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 is working to help translate the existing marine curriculum from French to Malagasy. The marine cirriculum has now been successfully introduced to seven public primary schools in the Bay of Ranobe which has included teacher training and improving lesson plan structure. In the future this will be extended to all 13 village schools in the Bay.
Community education
While school education plays a crucial part in facilitating marine management for future generations, there is also a need to communicate the present and future marine management problems to the rest of the village community.
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 and results from our fisheries assessment to show how basic marine management can help local fishermen improve yields. We have also created a marine museum in Ifaty 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 number of 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.
We have created laminated marine species identification guides for the marine protected areas which have been distributed amongst the dive centres and to the local pirogues so that tourists can identify what they see on the reef. Future plans are in place to involve the dive centres and tourists in basic coral reef surveying to help strengthen our database and expand our surveying area to the more remote regions of the Bay.
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. ReefDoctor has completed surveys 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. As a result of this a Women’s Association was created in June 2007 and to date has resulted in several successful alternative income projects including:
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 has been bought from the NGO SIDA to decrease the labour required and help increase income.
Honey: obtained from the Spiny Forest located behind the village, honey has been bottled and sold to tourists.
Embroidery: members of the women’s association were taught to embroider by ReefDoctor staff and they now produce Madagascan and marine themed handkerchiefs and tablecloths which have proved to be popular souvenirs amongst tourists in the Bay.
Postcards: ReefDoctor produced batches of postcards which were distributed to the women to sell to the tourists.
Solar Ovens: We provided 20 families in the village with solar ovens through an interest free micro loan scheme. Cooking classes were also provided to enable the women to bake bread and cakes which can then be sold on to tourists.
Future plans will focus on teaching the women to grow and maintain vegetable plots to save money and improve their diets. We would also like to encourage them to grow their own herbal medicines as they currently rely on expensive western medicine for minor aliments when traditional sources can be just as effective.
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. In August 2008, ReefDoctor, The Rotary Club and EDF installed solar pannels on Ifaty’s school roof to provide lights to expand classroom times and provide a venue for village meetings and events. It also gives the school an opportunity to run educational marine films such as the Blue Planet and Finding Nemo.
To expand on this, ReefDoctor is currently exploring marine management opportunities that can generate income for the village as a whole that can be channeled into community developments such as school improvements, medical facilities and new water supplies.
Local Tourism Interaction Development
In order for the local villages to utilise the tourism industry for alternative income and community development as effectively as possible ReefDoctor has set up the following initiatives:
Communication: We provide weekly classes in both French and English at the village school for all members of the community. In addition there is a weekly Malagasy-English lesson held at ReefDoctor involving all local staff members and volunteers.
Hotels: ReefDoctor has helped to strengthen the relationships between villages and hoteliers which has allowed the locals to sell their souvenirs and food products in the hotel grounds, something which was previously banned.
Small Business: We have helped some locals set up small businesses such as selling small handcrafted wooden pirogues to tourists on the beach. As a result of the introduction of the solar ovens several snack bars have been opened in the village, creating a new business for some locals. There are plans in the future to encourage further snack shops to be set up and aimed at the tourist market.
