Entries by Vivienne Stein-Rostaing

Ifaty’s First Public Library: Project Update

As you may remember, we held a MPA relay race fundraiser for Ifaty’s first public library back in April. Since then we have been hard at work on the project, surveying the property to build on, developing sketches and blueprints for the structure, and sourcing books and additional donors to match our funding. You may wonder, […]

August Aquaculture Update

August was a promising month for sea cucumber farmers in our Darwin Initiative-funded Alternative Livelihoods programme.  Farmers in the village of Ambolomailaky boasted a record harvest for 2016, with over 1000 sea cucumbers harvested in a single night, generating over 5 million ariary ($1,571 USD) or the equivalent of $2.5 USD per day in August […]

World Honeybee Day

Honeybees have been a prominent topic in conservation news in recent years and with good cause. Bee populations globally are under threat and without them to pollinate flowers and crops we may not be able to eat the food we love in the future. For instance, crops like blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent on […]

Mass Bleaching in the Bay of Ranobe

Mass coral bleaching is fast becoming one of the most important determinants of the future of coral reefs. The frequency and severity of coral bleaching events is increasing due to global warming, placing already stressed and fragile coral reefs under immense threat. Temperature-induced coral mortality has now been predicted to occur every year by 2020, […]

Exploring the magical world of underwater caverns

The Madagascar Cave Diving Association (MCDA) founded in 2014 is an association of cave divers who are, perhaps, the closest thing to real life explorers you can find in this day and age. The association consists of Ryan Dart, Phillip Lehman, Patrick Widmann and Hans Kasperetz, who are currently undertaking the mammoth task of exploring, […]