Raising local awareness of the endangered dugong in northern Madagascar

Dugong awareness play in Antsiranana, Madagascar. The islands of the Comoros and Madagascar harbour the last dugong populations in the South West Indian Ocean Islands. However, these populations are currently unstudied, apart from C3's previous work in the Comoros. The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) has recently established a MoU for the international protection of the species, to which both Comoros and Madagascar are among the first signatories. This work aims to capitalize on this strong political commitment to dugong conservation in both countries to train a network of dugong experts, raise local awareness and gather preliminary information on dugongs and their habitat in north west Madagascar (probably the largest but least studied population in the region) using low-cost, sustainable research techniques to compile National Dugong Conservation Action Plans. C3 is grateful to the Convention on Migratory Species and Conservation Leadership Programme for supporting this work. Thanks also to Claire Pringle Brammer for the incredible dugong costume and local scout groups for their memorable performances. For more information please see http://c-3.org.uk/dugongs_without_borders.php

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• dugong
• conservation
• environment
• madagascar
• c3
• community centred conservation