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Western Indian Ocean Transfrontier Marine Park (WIO TFMP)

Change activity: Engaging youth and community in mangrove restoration, coral


reef restoration and beach monitoring as climate change adaptation.
Progress:
The SADC Member States active in the WIO TFMP have been Madagascar (which
came in at the Process Moderators stage of the training, represented by Fanja Ola
Randriamanantena, Chef de Volet Education Environnementale, Madagascar
National Parks), Mauritius (Ms Sitabai Ramlugun, participant and Process
Moderator) and Seychelles (Terry Mousbe, Ministry of Environment; Sylvanna Antat,
Seychelles Marine Parks Process co-Moderator). Mauritius has been most active
in terms of communication, however all the members have been good with
communicating what they are doing on the change project.
The Madagascar component of the change project, despite coming on board later,
has achieved a lot of progress. The co-Process Moderator and project leader has
participated in national meetings and events on climate change where she shared
with colleagues the CCA course website.
Ive collected information from Nosy Hara national Parks on what adaptation and mitigation
actions are on-going on face to the result of the climate change vulnerability analyses and
studies. For the first steps mangrove restoration experiences and exchanges have taken
place in Morondava and some local people from Nosy Hara visited mangrove restored areas
by local community in Morondava. Nosy Hara National Park team will begin mangrove
restoration in few months, times needed to the mangrove trees grains maturation
(Randriamanantena, email comm., September 5, 2014).

The Madagascar effort has also seen the development of a short-term plan to be
completed in September 2014 on:
-

Developing a PowerPoint as an environmental education tool entitled What is


the importance of biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change?
The project leader plans to make it a film later.
On a roll up an environmental education poster with the theme Madagascar
National Parks responds to Climate change

The above plans and activities were done through Biodiversity conservation
Meetings organised with partners and stakeholders. There was also Conservation
Agriculture promotion through FIERMADA inn partnership with TFNAC/ CSA-CA/
FAO/GIZ SADC. Information to support the project was also collected through e-mail
communications and from browsing the internet. With the Environmental education
tool conception there was collaboration with technical and marketing colleagues.
To achieve this work, the project leader in Madagascar singled out the following
whom she has worked with; RAKOTO Claude SADC-REEP National EE Network
Representative (Forest, Environment and Ecology Ministry), Andry RAKOTO
HARIVONY - SE TFNAC FAO, Herv BAKARIZAFY: Nosy Hara National parks

Manager and Mamy RAKOTOHARIJAONA: Madagascar National Parks Operations


Director.
The influence of the CCA change project has been described as follows as a pilot
site, the mangrove restoration project will make the park ecologically healthy and
after experience exchange between the two local communities from Nosy Hara and
Morondava, the people will be more enthusiastic to participate to the project which
provides them good services for their livelihoods (fire-wood, etc.).
Dates
June
2014
26th july
2014

July 2014

22nd july
2014

6th- 10th
august
2014

Activities
Update and reporting

Themes
CCAM- course

partners
For MNP-team and Ministry

Update meeting with Environmental


education team of the
environmental , ecology and Forest
Ministry
Confectionary of a poster:
Conservation Agriculture on going on
in The Zahamena National Park and
Ambatovaky Special Reserves
peripheral zones
Meeting within TFNAC program

Climate change course


in South Africa within
SADC-REEP
collaboration
Conservation
Agriculture and
adaptation to climate
change

Environmental Education
Department of the Ministry

- Updates on TFNAC
action plan
-Information on
Agroecology for
Africas conference
- Exchange
experiences on
Conservation
Agriculture practices
Promotion of the
Conservation
Agriculture

FAO, Stakeholders in
TFNACs members

Participation to the International


Rural Economic Fair in Madagascar
FIERMADA

MNP team

FAO, TFNAC ( Task Force


Nationale de lAgriculture de
conservation)

A short-term action plan up to December 2014 has also been developed and shared
with the mentoring team.
On the Mauritius side a lot of significant progress has been made on the Mauritius
component. These include mobilisation of school children, teachers and women
and engaging them in activities of awareness of coral bleaching, among others.
Key links have been made with the ARGO Float initiate (a climate change
monitoring group based in USA and with a device on the Mauritius waters), the
Mauritius Marine Conservation Society and The Oceanography Department. There is
also collaboration with the Seychelles National Parks Authority to ensure that the
project is being implemented. Clean up activities are taking place at schools and in
the community. Workshops with teachers on climate change have been organised
mostly in Mauritius but have also started in Seychelles. Climate change education is
included in the national curriculum in schools by the Ministry of Education, and the
CCA change project and associated processes rides on this.

The action plan is at an advanced stage and it looks as follows:

a Mitigation measures at school:


i Recycling of plastic bottles students and staff bring plastic bottles (mainly
water bottles) used both at school and at home and place at recycling stations
in school yard. Thus fewer plastic bottles are left in classrooms and there are
more at recycling stations.
ii Students and staff bring vegetable waste from home and place in compost
basins in school. The compost will be used in the garden corner at school.
iii Reduced use of plastic bags in canteen. Kitchen paper is used instead of
plastic bags.
iv Wastage of energy is avoided. Care is taken not to leave electrical appliances
on unnecessarily.
v Use of paper and printing are reduced by optimising on electronic
communication
vi Planting of trees
Seychelles
i
Water conservation at school, harvesting rain water
ii
Classifying waste to re-use. .
iii
Clean up activity in community
iv
Tree planting activity at school and in their community
Information gathering:
i Field visit to coral aquarium at Hotel Blue Marine; expos by resource
persons (Mrs Celine Miternique and Mr Eugene Vitry)
www.reefconservation.mu - and demonstration of corals and grid used for
the culture of polyps at 2 m below the sea; and model used to show effect of
beach erosion and sedimentation
ii Documentation by students and discussion on related issues during biology
and general paper lessons.
iii Preparation for interview with community members and fishermen, divers,
skippers
Modifications and further actions made evolved out of telephonic discussions with
Mrs. Celine of Reefs Conservation Society about the costs of the grids used for coral
culture, the possibility of involving community members in the process and on the
cost of models construction. Training of students by Reef Conservation to make
them ambassadors for sensitisation on climate change issues and for adoption of
mitigation at individual and community level has been done. Discussion has been
done with partners from marine parks authority to work in another marine park that is
more accessible. Instead of going to Ste Anne Marine Park the project team will be
using Port Launay beach as it has mangroves in the area and they have very few
data in this area. The students will have more sense of belonging to the project as
they will be the ones to monitor and have a data base for this area.
What has also taken place since the trainings is a photo competition for students on
visit to coral aquarium students were very enthusiastic and because they had to
give the best photo, they observed and appreciated every detail of the corals and the

beach environment. Talents were discovered and all the best photos were included
in the final video clip produced. Further, a meeting with woman professional diver,
Mrs. Christine Meme who works for hotels on the coast and dives for photography
and video filming of the coral reefs, has taken place.
Communication from the Seychelles side was initially slower, however it has steadily
improved considerably as the cross-border communication is now happening
frequently. Madagascar joined the initiative in June 2014 and has made progress
integrating into the project as discussed above.

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