2 February 2018

MRCI’s progress in environmental conservation and community development, including the establishment of a Marine Protected area and Agroforestry project, would not be possible without the hard work and cooperation of the people who live here. Side-by-side, hand-in-hand we work together with strong support from the community leaders and surrounding villages. This puts community development programs right at the heart and soul of MRCI.

Every week, our volunteers go out into the surrounding villages and help teach English classes with local teachers. They have the privilege of getting to know some incredible people over their weeks here. Meet Sylvain, on of our adult students originally from the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. He came to Nosy be for work over a year ago and started taking English lessons with us a few months ago. His wife speaks a little English and he decided to learn so they can practice together, and he is well on his way to reaching his goal. At almost sixty, he is one of our oldest students. He comes to class, book and pens in hand and sits at the first table at the front bringing with him determination and a kind smile.

Sylvain, like most people here, makes his living off the land. Every day, he works hard selling fruits and vegetables in the market to support himself and his family. This is not an easy living, with lots of manual labor involved. Still he makes time to study diligently and attend class every single day like clockwork in the small village of Ampang on Nosy Komba island. We have seen so much incredible progress in his English in the months since he began with us, and he has earned student of the week more times than I can remember. He makes no excuse of time, age or anything else, instead brining only his incredible work ethic and resolution. He brings joy to those around him and sets a great example for us all.

Through Sylvain, we learn to take full advantage of the opportunities we have in life and work hard without giving up. The biggest barriers to achieving our dreams are those we set up ourselves. Through his dedication and hard work, Sylvain teaches us even more than we could ever teach him.

Authors: Emily Borth, Director of Operations
& Rojo Razafisalama Andofinoana, Community Development Liaison Officer

 

Find Out More About Our Community Development Program

 

My 3 Weeks as a Volunteer in the MRCI Forest Conservation Project

Author: Urban Brunner

Rainforest in Madagascar, an adventure in itself. And a good adventure needs nice people to experience it with, and that’s one of the reasons why volunteering with MRCI was a great experience for me. I met so many amazing people with whom I share a lot of funny and great moments and memories.

I love hiking and being in the forest, which was the reason to take part in the forest conservation project. Taking part in the forest conservation project means going on one or two hikes everyday for minimum 2-3 hours. These hikes usually lead to a reptile or birds survey or to the plantation of a local farmer. My favorites are reptile surveys because I love spotting chameleons and geckos. Every week, one day is reserved for agroforest. All foresters go to the farm, every week another one, of a local farmer and help him by his work. That can be everything from weeding to planting vanilla. It’s a great thing to do, because you get an idea of how farmers in Madagascar work and you can really help someone.

For me, the most impressive agroforest day was, when we went to the plantation of a Lady who was sick for the last 3 months and because of that, she wasn’t able to weed her plantation. She couldn’t stop thanking us for helping her. For the birds and reptiles surveys I had to study the names of the animals we report to identify them on surveys. It’s a good feeling to walk around the island and being able to name every animal.

In my time on camp we did bigger hikes. One of them is called the Church-walk. We started the walk on Wednesday afternoon and went towards the top of the island. Around 20 minutes from the top is a church. We left our stuff there and went up to the top of the island from where we had a beautiful view. Dinner was at a local place. Delicious chicken with great-tasting coconut-rice. After Dinner we went on a night walk on which we saw many chameleons some leaf-tailed geckos and snakes. We slept in the church, got up early and went to the top to see a beautiful sunrise. The second big hike was a 10 hours hike around Nosy Komba with packed lunch. We crossed rivers and waterfalls, went through every type of forest and climbed through caves.

Nosy Komba is a beautiful Island surrounded by other paradisiacal places and islands. I made to weekend trips. The first one to Tanikely, a small island with a marine national park. I went snorkeling there and saw my first sea turtle. Beautiful reef with colorful fishes and corrals. The second trip was to Nosy Iranja, two islands connected by a sandbank only walkable at low tide. In the evening I joined a group of local teenagers and adults playing football on a sandy football field. After dinner we convinced our boat driver to help us lighting a bonfire. It was a great atmosphere sitting around a bonfire on a beach under the stars.

It was my second time in Madagascar but a different part of the country and it made me realize that I want to come back again.

Find out more about our Forest Conservation Program Here

Author: Ethan Getz, Marine Science Manager
January 2018

Over the past few months, the marine conservation staff have worked to continue long-term reef monitoring projects while developing new methods to measure the health of our home reef and the surrounding reefs on Nosy Komba. Robust datasets have been collected from reef transect surveys, turtle watch, and nudibranch surveys. These long-term surveys will provide valuable information on the health of our MPA and some of the indicator species that inhabit it. In the coming months, efforts will be made to analyze these data in depth to decipher developing trends. While long-term data collection from existing surveys remains the primary goal, staff have also recently developed new reef survey methods.

Baseline surveys using the Spirit of Malala were developed in November to assess the health of reefs all around Nosy Komba. To date, three baseline surveys have been conducted (at xmas tree hotel, greenhouse and pyramids) and data have now been analyzed. Results suggest that the south and west sides of Nosy Komba have healthy coral reefs while reefs are more sparse on the eastern side. Results from the sessile surveys indicate that no coral bleaching is currently happening and that the reef appears to be in a period of recovery. The presence of rock, sand and silt indicate that there have been damaging events in the past, but currently the reefs are rebuilding.

Active swimmer surveys were used to determine the number of fish species at each site and which functional group they belong to (i.e. piscivores, herbivores, ect.). Results suggest that there is a good distribution of fish from each functional group on each reef, but the relatively low abundance of piscivores indicates that overfishing may be a problem on Nosy Komba.

These species are generally the first ones to be fished out and their relatively low numbers point to fishing pressure in the area. Benthic surveys also provided data on invertebrate diversity around Nosy Komba and suggest that there is a healthy reef community.

In addition to baseline surveys, artificial reef surveys on the pyramids at Stonehenge and Madhatter have produced meaningful data. On average, each pyramid provides habitat for 115 fish, 39 bivalves and a variety of sessile species. In addition, many species of fish such as the Malabar snapper and red emperor snapper are routinely found on the artificial structures, but only occasionally on the natural reef. The high abundance of juvenile fish on the pyramids is also an encouraging sign that the structures are acting as a nursery for fish larvae settling out of the water column. Overall, the pyramids seem to be increasing both abundance and diversity of many reef species making them well worth the investment to construct them.

Other ongoing projects include the coral bleaching surveys, invasive species surveys and turtle monitoring. Since coral bleaching and invasive species surveys have only just started, preliminary results will be analyzed in the coming months. Results from active turtle surveys, turtle walks and turtle watch are still being analyzed, but preliminary results suggest that there is a healthy population of resident turtles on our reef. Turtle walks have been less productive with only one hatched nest having been found, but it is clear that at least some turtles nest on Nosy Komba. In summary, the reefs around Nosy Komba appear to be showing the signs of human activities, but overall it is still a healthy reef system with strong community structure.

 

Find out more about our Marine Conservation Program Here

 

MRCI & Learn Achieve Become Partner For a Great Cause

MRCI teamed up with Learn Achieve Become to put on an event focused on women’s rights. Open to all genders and English levels, we raised money in order to transport people from the island of Nosy Komba to the event space, where around 100 people came out to discuss gender equality.

Topics ranged from defining sexism to the importance of education in today’s society. Participation from all different types of people in the community were encouraged, and some of our volunteers shared personal experiences.

While the event brought to light the disparities present between men and women globally, it had a positive focus, in order to help everyone understand the importance of equality and how equal participation between the genders betters the world we live in. Members of the audience enjoyed participating and explaining their views, especially at the end where we had a writing activity asking participants why they believed sexism was good or bad.

This event allowed us to celebrate a wide range of views while simultaneously celebrating the importance of both genders. And it was wonderful having a group of people from both Nosy Be and Nosy Komba accompany us to the event.

 

 

On 13th September 2017, MRCI signed a Data Sharing Agreement with Coastal Oceans Research and Development Indian Ocean (CORIO), East Africa for the purposes of reporting about the impact of the 2016 coral bleaching event in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, in order to facilitate the 2017 WIO post-bleaching report.

MRCI have shared their historical coral reef health monitoring data from all of their survey sites to go towards this initiative. The overarching aim is to promote a culture of free and open access to data, which in turn will ensure that the best available data informs research, policy development, decision making and management.

In addition, MRCI, in collaboration with existing partner organisation, Centre Nationale Researche Oceanographique (CNRO) based in Nosy Be, have agreed to also become part of The Coral Reef Task Force, providing information and updates on the health status of the coral reefs in our region.

Look forwards, the MRCI marine program is creating their own coral bleaching survey in accordance with CORDIO’s methodology, and will be working to continue to provide CORDIO with vital coral reef survey data to go towards Indian Ocean Commission’s future research Initiatives.

 

 

Background: Combating Coral Bleaching

The Indian Ocean Commission’s 5-year Biodiversity Program has contributed to ensuring more effective, coherent and collective biodiversity management in line with international and regional agreements and priorities for sustainable development in the island and coastal states of Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.

In 2016, the Biodiversity project supported an initiative to gather coral bleaching data from across the WIO for the 2016 GCRMN coral status report. In order to get a full picture of the impact of the 2016 bleaching event on the WIO, the Biodiversity project is supporting post-bleaching surveys in six countries in the region under the Coral Reef Task Force (CRTF) (Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tanzania).

The action will respond to the call launched by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) to enhance global efforts to assess the impacts of the 2016 coral reef bleaching event. The Coral Reef Task Force (CRTF) was established under the Nairobi Convention to coordinate coral reef activities in the Convention region, and non-beneficiary WIO countries (France, Mozambique, South Africa, Somalia) can participate through this. To improve the effectiveness of this initiative, national datasets will be expanded by incorporating data from partners that have conducted/will conduct their own post-bleaching surveys.

Date: 21st November 2017
MRCI Marine Science Manager: Emma Bagnall

Read More about CORDIO Here