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(September 05, 2012) Sediment carried by rivers draining deforested areas in Madagascar is smothering local coral reefs, increas- ing the incidence of disease and suppressing growth, report two new studies published in the journals Bio- geosciences and Marine Pollution Bulletin. The first study, co-authored by the Wildlife Conservation Soci- ety, looked specifically at coral communities in An- tongil Bay, located in northeastern Madagascar, while the second included data from Western Madagascar. Results from ...

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(August 17, 2012) The Wildlife Conservation Society applauds the government of Madagascar for recently creating Makira Natural Park, now the island nation’s largest pro- tected area and home to the highest diversity of lemur species on the planet. Located in northeastern Madagascar, Makira Natural Park contains the coun- try’s largest swath of rainforest in an area covering 372,470 hectares. It is estimated that Makira, the adjacent Masoala National Park, and the rest of the Antongil Bay watershed tog...

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(July 29, 2012) WCS is leading the implementation of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approach in Antongil Bay in which local com- munities and social conventions are integral parts. Specifically, in 2003 we facilitated the creation of a local association, the Platform for Collaborative Sustainable Development in Antongil Bay (Plateforme de Concertation pour le Développement Durable de la Baie d'Antongil, PCDDBA) and, in 2008, a commu- nity-driven resource zoning plan for the 32 communes ...

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(July 25, 2012) Bemahafaly RANDRIAMANANTSOA from WCS, participated to the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) and the 27th Gen- eral Meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) in July 2012 in Australia thanks to travel grants from ISLANDS and United Nations Environment Programme. ICRS 2012 was a quadrennial meeting of the coral reef science community. The scientific program showcased the latest in coral reef research and demonstrated how scientific knowledge contributes to t...

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(June 20, 2012) In June 2012, WCS arranged a study tour in southwest Madagascar (Toliara seascape), with visits in Soariake and Velondriake MPAs villages, for sixteen members of Ankivonjy and Anakarea MPAs local management com- mittees (NW Madagascar), to promote infor- mation sharing and peer-to-peer learning exchanges between communities involved in the sustainable management of their marine resources. Some of these participants joined supporting partners and community repre- sentatives of local...

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(May 21, 2012) In May 2012, Bemahafaly Randriamanantsoa, WCS Madagascar Marine Operations Coordi- nator, along with other coral reef scientists and conservationists from the Western Indian Ocean, participated in a study tour to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in Townsville (Queensland) in Aus- tralia, arranged by ISLANDS, a project of the Indian Ocean Commission financed by the European Union. The study tour to Australia provided significant benefits to the partici- pants thr...

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(May 16, 2012) One of the biggest reef complexes in the world extends 458 km between An- droaka and Morombe in southwest Madagascar. Pressure on this seascape has increased dramatically in recent years with a continuing increase in the number of people living in the region, increasing market demand for marine products and climate change impacts. WCS’s overall objective in Toliara is to improve fisheries management and promote conservation measures that are essential for the survival o...

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(April 24, 2012) Nosy Be Seascape in northwest Madagascar, is part of the center of marine biodiversity of the Western Indian Ocean. The coral ecosystems of northwest Madagascar have excep- tional value in terms of biodiversity, with high coral cover, a high number of coral species and high resilience to climate change. Throughout the year, whale sharks, dugongs, and healthy and abundant populations of small coastal cetace- ans and marine turtles live in this seascape. The main threats to this excep...

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(April 19, 2012) The dugong is a seagrass-dependant marine mammal found in tropical and subtropical coastal wa- ters. Although dugongs occur in over 40 countries, most of these are developing economies with limited capacity to contain impacts on dugongs within sustainable levels, and population declines and local extinction have been reported for a number of areas within their range. As a signatory of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs and their Habitats thro...

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(April 19, 2012) Antongil Bay is the largest bay in Madagascar and is among the most productive in the Indian Ocean, serving as a mating and nursery ground for many marine species. In the early 2000s, the beach seine was introduced in the Bay and in recent years its use has increased. Beach seines are very fine mesh nets that are deployed in shallow waters, where they catch everything in their path, including young and juvenile fish and shrimp. As a result, they have been shown to cause severe depletio...

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