PARTNER POST FROM BLUE VENTURES When Velondriake’s community leaders heard the announcement that their LMMA was to receive permanent designation as a protected area, they preferred to wait until they had a copy of the stamped, signed Decree in their hands to hold celebrations. Now the i’s have been dotted, the t’s crossed and we finally have it: a definitive protected area with a formal Decree establishing the activities that are allowed and those that are forbidden within its boundaries.

PARTNER POST FROM CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL On one day in 2009, the Malagasy village of Ivovona harvested 600 kilograms (1,322 pounds) of fish, mostly octopus. Earlier this year, those same fishermen, joined by others from the nearby village of Ambavarano, pulled in 5 tons of octopus — in three hours. How did things turn around so quickly in a remote, poverty-stricken community? The villagers made the decision to adopt fishing regulations — and gained a new source of livelihood in the process.