The Covid-19 pandemic restricted movement, disrupted markets, and reduced tourism income for communities in southern Madagascar. It compounded years of drought, making farming unreliable and increasing pressure on coastal fishing grounds, growing the need to set up protected areas to secure sources of income and food.

In 2021, the Blue Ventures team in southwest Madagascar focused on training, monitoring and participatory data collection programmes for local community members to arm them with the skills and information to steward their own coastal waters. While training was underway, the community was looking for solutions to their deeper food security and environmental issues.

The Beangolo community members had heard the success stories of fishers in the neighbouring Velondriake LMMA, who shared the impact of their conservation initiatives through films distributed locally. Velondriake comprises 36 communities that came together and decided to ban destructive fishing gear, carry out seasonal closures of certain fisheries, and designate small coral reef areas as permanent NTZs. 

The monitoring programme and success of the Velondriake LMMA encouraged them to set aside an inshore area of coral and seagrass for a short period to allow fish and easier catches of slow-moving invertebrates such as sea cucumbers and shellfish to repopulate.

Almost a year after establishing its first NTZ, the Beangolo community is sharing its best practices with other communities through exchange visits. They recently hosted a group of 20 fishers from the Sambele LMMA to showcase the benefits of implementing seagrass reserves. The visit was a massive success, with the represented communities collectively deciding to establish seagrass and coral reef NTZs in each of their respective villages.