Who benefits?

Our programs are designed with the local community at their heart; they all share a core value of sustainability.

All our work is directed at helping local communities develop and grow while conserving their unique resources. Our fisheries management programs are conducted jointly with villagers to ensure they offer affordable alternatives with realistic long-term benefits.

Our coastal management programs are designed to allow local communities to get the most out of the marine environment, while contributing to its conservation and future resource potential.

And our community development programs are there to help these communities develop into the 21st century yet protecting their right to their environments and their knowledge, culture and traditions.

To help achieve our aims to provide a long term foundation of the development and conservation for the people and of their environment we employee local people wherever possible from the Bay area so that they become part of the ReefDoctor family and thus have a direct involvement in our work helping their fellow villagers. 

We provide these staff with training and development at all levels, from science and diving to computers and languages, and believe in giving back as much as we can – we cover the entire costs on top of their salaries for their national health insurance and national insurance contributions thus providing for their long term futures and direct provisions of medication and education of all our local staffs immediate families.

We provide interest free loans to all Malagasy staff which has helped all to build/repair their homes, buy and secure the land their homes are on for the families future, pay for weddings and births and buy materials their family needs for their continued well being and development. We use local transport, services and shops, and encourage all our staff, volunteers and any visitors to do the same. We are not isolated from the local communities in our daily activities but integrated into the local communities.

The local communities aren’t the only ones to benefit, as our work is part of much larger global effort involving local, national and international organisations working to further scientific knowledge and create research, conservation and education initiatives worldwide.

To achieve this, ReefDoctor has developed strong long-term links with the University of Toliara and the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines or IHSM (the local Marine Science and Fisheries Institute), the Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Rural Development and global NGOs working in the area such as WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), WCS (World Conservation Society), COREMO/Reef Check and WIOMSA (Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association).

Through these links we are able to contribute to a much wider conservation community with invaluable scientific knowledge and practical conservation research and experience.

In the end we believe everyone benefits from our work

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