Explorers' Journals

© WWF Madagascar / Marlies Volckaert

Au coeur des communautés Vezo, on voit beaucoup d'enfants. Quand vous marchez à la plage, ils sont là, en train de se baigner et de jouer dans l'eau. Dans les moments calmes, ils sont assis assis, mettant beaucoup de sérieux à apprendre leurs leçons et les histoires racontées par leurs parents et à étudier les mouvements et les compartements des frères et soeurs plus âgés. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Marlies Volckaert

One of the most visible features of Vezo communities are the children. When you walk to the beach they are there bathing or playing in the water. In quiet moments, you can see then sitting with rapt, earnest attention as they learn lessons and stories told by their parents and study the movements and behaviors of older siblings. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Marlies Volckaert

“Plants are doing it. We should too,” said Navi, a fellow WWF volunteer, after discovering in Life Among the Thorns, a soon-to-be released WWF Madagascar publication about the majestic Spiny Forest of Southern Madagascar, that the plants in the Spiny Forest are very good at conserving water. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Navarana Smith

Sun rays dance through the water to tickle the fishermen’s legs as they dive. They are muscular legs. Legs that seem to hint at what it really means to live here.  Auguste, a fisherman and local fishery surveyor, motions from below for me to follow. Already feeling the salt in my throat, I try to calm my lungs into diving just a few more meters towards the pale coral floor. From where I am, the reef appears naked. But as I dive closer, I see there is life six metres below. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Navarana Smith

Ici, la bénévole Navarana Smith nous emmène dans un itinéraire visuel dans la vie d'un village Vezo du sud-ouest de Madagascar.  Un voyage qui nous permet ainsi de voir à quoi cela ressemble à la vie, là où la terre, la mer et le ciel se rencontrent, sur une mince ligne bleue.

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© WWF Madagascar / Navarana Smith

Here, volunteer Navarana Smith takes us on a visual tour inside the life of a Vezo village in Southwestern Madagascar, allowing us to see what it is like to live life where the land and sea and sky meet, on a thin blue line.

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© WWF Madagascar / Israel Bionyi Nyoh

Le vent souffle, la mer, les poissons et les récifs coralliens se reposent des pirogues qui se hissent avec les vagues, des battements des pagaies, des filets, des harpons, qui les dérangent jour et nuit. Les pêcheurs respectent la nature et sont tous à la maison ce jour.              

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© WWF Madagascar / Gregg Smith

Akore aby e! (Bonjour tout le monde!)

After just two weeks in Beheloke, Marlies, Navi, Israel, Aina, Enathe and I had already completely embraced the village's relaxed way of life. One of our favourite activities? To mitsangatsangana - to stroll around aimlessly. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Soaelina Aina

Le climat rude et sec ainsi que l'étendue de sable du Plateau Mahafaly abritent une nature d'une beauté incroyable. Malheureusement, l'eau n'y est pas potable. Si dans les villes, nous ouvrons simplement nos robinets, à Beheloke, il faut plus d'efforts pour avoir de l'eau potable et ce, depuis longtemps.

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© WWF Madagascar / Marlies Volckaert

Closing the door takes more of an effort – we are all nearly blown away. No more light enters the building.
All we see is black. All we hear are the violent winds on the roof. All we smell is a cyclone. 

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© WWF Madagascar / Israel Bionyi Nyoh

After WWF introduced seaweed farming as another economic trade in 2012, many fishermen turned to seaweed farming as their major alternative activity to fishing, to raise additional money for their families. The additional income helps, but meeting their basic costs still remains difficult. 

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© WWF Madagascar/ Israel Biyoni Nyoh

I’ve never been a fan of spiders. I once read that humans fear them because they are so different from us: faceless, emotionless. This was my belief until a recent day when I started a walk into the village of Beheloke that forever changed how I view spiders.

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© WWF Madagascar / A.G. Klei

Vovo est le mot qui désigne les puits dans le village  de Beheloke. Creusé à la main un peu loin de la mer pour diminuer la salinité de l’eau, les vovos peuvent être  communes et/ou individuels. Pour protéger ces vovos, les villageois s’entraident pour creuser le puits et gérer leur usage.

© WWF Madagascar / Gregg Smith

Wandering between wooden huts in Beheloke, on the Southwestern shores of Madagascar, you are chased everywhere by the smell of fresh fish cooking on old, rusty stoves and the curious eyes of the children watching your every move.

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© WWF Madagascar/Israel Bionyi Nyoh

When I entered our host home in Beheloke I knew I was going to live an unforgettable experience.

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© WWF Madagascar/A.G. Klei

RAFALIMANANTSOA Nantenaine Narcisse Raymond distributes 4,000 to 5,000 liters of water from the water desalination plant to 5,000 inhabitants of Beheloke every day.

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© WWF Madagascar/Ralf Baecker

C’est une nouvelle époque chéri, les choses ont changé. Mellie ended her story with this, quoting her dad in translated French. She was sharing with us, by candlelight, the story of the sacred giant fish, the reni rano.

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© WWF Madagascar/Ralf Baecker

C’est une nouvelle époque chéri, les choses ont changé.  C’est ainsi que Mellie clôt son histoire, en citant les mots de son père, traduits en français.  
 

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© WWF MWIOPO

At six o’clock in the morning, the sun rises above the spiny forest of Beheloka, south of Tulear, south-west coast of Madagascar. It is one of the ecosystems defined by WWF as prior to conservation.

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