- ReefDoctor
About Us
ReefDoctor is a small UK based, not-for-profit, Tropical Marine Conservation organisation conducting coral reef research, implementing marine resource management principles, community awareness and schools education and social development work with the local Vezo fishing communities living off the coral reef system of the Bay of Ranobe part of the 4th most important and 3rd largest coral reef system in the world, ‘The coral reef system of SW Madagascar’.
ReefDoctor has been conducting its work under a collaborative partnership with the Marine Institute of Toliara the ‘Institut Halieutique et des Science Marines’ (IH.SM) and the University of Toliara since 2002.
The ReefDoctor methodology is a fresh holistic modular approach using research, management, educational and social development tools to undertake conservation
By educating and involving local communities in the sustainable management of their own resources they become stewards of their own environment and therefore their future whilst preserving their unique cultures, knowledge and traditions.
ReefDoctor’s core organisational objectives have been formulated with this in mind;
Our core organisational objectives
- Practical and scientific research leading to effective education, conservation and social development
- To support and improve the welfare of populations that are largely dependant on the resources from coral reefs and associated marine environments
- To support community-led initiatives to develop sustainable marine management practices and conservation action plans
- To support the development of alternative diversified incomes away from the marine environment and its resources
- To promote and participate in the education of local communities, businesses and tourists
The project site is located on the land of the University of Toliara, next to the local fishing village of Ifaty which is located 27km north of the provincial city of Toliara and the IHSM.
ReefDoctors work activities centre on 13 fishing villages of the Bay of Ranobe with particular focus to our next door villages where the project site is located and the main tourist destinations in the Bay, the villages of Ifaty and Mangily.
Our core objectives in the Bay of Ranobe
- To assess the health and changing health of the Bay de Ranobe and associated artisanal fishery relaying this information to the local resource users, regional/national bodies and international institutions
- To create a fishing council run by the local resource users to establish and run (for themselves) proper management practices for now and for future generations
- To help support the fishing council with community lead initiatives for sustainable marine management and conservation action plans (Marine protected areas, community manage marine reserves, rotational no take zones, providing alternatives to destructive fishing techniques etc.)
- To create and support the development of aquaculture initiatives for the local communities as alternative sources of economic and nutritional income and taking pressure off the natural reef system
- To create alternative fishing areas within the lagoon for the local resource users by creating new artificial reefs taking fishing pressure off the natural reef
- To undertake initiatives to restore degraded coral reef habitats through the use of coral reef restoration techniques
- To undertake initiatives to help restore and protect the Bays littoral ecosystems (mangroves, seagrasses)
- To promote and participate in the education of the local children (outside the national education system) and adults in environmental awareness and reef conservation practices
- To implement a marine focused environmental curriculum into the local public primary schools in the Bay and help support its development and the general development of these schools alongside the regional and national education ministries and other international bodies
- To promote and participate in the education of tourists about the fragility of coral reefs, how to protect them, and the benefits of responsible tourism.
- To involve hotels and local businesses present in our work area to join with the local resource users in terms of protection of the reef for the economic benefit of the resource users and themselves
- To help create and support the development of alternative diversified incomes away from the marine environment and its resources
- To undertake initiatives for the social-economic development of the local communities
- To do whatever we can to help protect the traditional and cultural knowledge of the Vezo communities for future generations
In developing a program of sustainable conservation ReefDoctor has formulated a set of three key holistic modules based on conducting research that would lead to effective education, conservation and social development.
1) Marine Research
2) Marine Management
3) Community Development
Marine Research and monitoring - focuses on using internationally recognised Rapid Reef Assessment survey techniques and in depth biological and ecological research investigations to provide reliable information on the current status of the reef’s and associated ecosystem biodiversity and ecological health which in its self provides information to their possible changes due to present and future natural and human pressures on these environments.
This information is then used to create long and short term resource management action plans to safe guard precious resources which communities rely heavily on, conservation action plans to slow down and even reverse the damage to the environments for future generations and provide information to the wider scientific communities worldwide to help the overall preservation of the worlds coral reefs and associated marine ecosystems for the benefit of all mankind.
Marine Management - focuses on assessing and monitoring current use and reliance of resources attained from the reef and associated marine environments by the local communities, exploring possible enhancements to current techniques, reducing the practice of destructive techniques by substitution of more efficient techniques, exploring alternative (artificial) reefs and reef regeneration techniques, protection measures (Marine protected Areas, reserves etc.) to safe guard existing healthily reef sites for catch enhancement and natural reef regeneration and alternative potential income generation from the reef and associated environments (rotational no take zones, aquaculture etc.).
Community Development – our community development programs provides educational support for all levels of the community, and explores how the introduction of alternative livelihoods and incomes might benefit their development.
Community development involves all aspects of village life (fishermen, fisherwomen and none fishing people) and villagers (kids, adults, elderly) and those factors which affect their lives externally such as hotels, tourists and tourism activities to mining and other business related activates which would impact upon their lives and environment.
ReefDoctors activities here focus on education in general and on their environments, working with schools to alternative income generation (businesses such as shops, handy craft) away from the reef, medical facilities, clean fresh water supplies etc., to help these communities develop into the 21st century yet protecting their right to their environments and their knowledge, culture and traditions.
The results of ReefDoctor’s surveys and programs are fed back to the IHSM (Marine Institute of Tulear), COREMO/ReefCheck, DRDR (Ministry of rural development), MAEP (Ministry of Fisheries), other government departments and the local communities and tourism sector to help them better manage their resources, and so far we have developed a good partnership network in Madagascar whom we collaborate with projects and exchange information and experiences;
Madagascan regional and national Ministries/Institutions
- University of Toliara and the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (IH.SM)
- Ministère de l’Agriculture, de l’Elevage et de la Pêche (MAEP)
- Direction Regional pour le Development Rurale (DRDR)
- Direction Régionale de l’Education Nationale (DREN) Toliara
- CISCO (conscription scolaire)
- ORTO (Office Regional du Tourisme Toliara)
Other International NGO’s and organisations
- WWF Madagascar
- Blue Ventures
- SeagrassNet
- SAGE (Service d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement)
- ADES(Association de Developpement de l’Energie Solaire) – provide simple low cost solar ovens and more efficient wood buring stoves
- L’atelier des Merveilleux (Association de développement et d’expérimentation artistique, Tuléar)
- Dr. Tim McClanahan WCS (World Conservation Society)
- COREMO/ReefCheck
- Rotary Club Tricastin Southern France
- SISAL – NGO based in Toliara undertaking Sexually Transmitted Disease prevention
- HO AVY – NGO set up by past ReefDoctor staff whose mission is to implement long-term grassroots projects promoting environmental steward- ship that empowers local families to sustain their livelihoods while protecting and restoring their natural environment for the future
- HONCO - project aims to protect, restore and re-plant the important mangrove system of the Bay of Ranobe utilising a multidisciplinary approach
Through these links (with the direction to collaborate with further partners), we are able to contribute to a much wider conservation community with invaluable scientific knowledge and practical conservation research and experience.
ReefDoctor’s commitment to sustainable conservation is at the heart of all of our activities - to work with local communities and organisations to realise marine conservation alongside positive social development.
