A community association, established and sup-ported by WCS since 2003, and focused on im-proving sustainable management of marine re-sources in Madagascar’s Antongil Bay has been awarded the Equator Prize. The community asso-ciation—called the Plateforme de Concertation pour le Développement Durable de la Baie d’Antongil (PCDDBA)— received $5,000 at an award ceremony at the United Nations in New York on September 22, 2014. Presented by the Equator Initiative, the Equator Prizes are award-ed biannually in recognition of local sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and re-silient communities. PCDDBA was chosen from a record 1,234 nominations from 121 different countries. PCDDBA was formed to address a number of issues such as conflicts between arti-sanal and industrial fishing interests, declining fish populations, marine ecosystem degradation, and the loss of coastal mangrove habitat to de-velopment. For two decades PCDDBA, WCS, gov-ernment authorities and other partners have joined forces to address these challenges.
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