Conservation Optimism Summit

For many years, the Vezo – traditional fishers in southwest Madagascar – saw marine conservation as a threat, a way of preventing them from accessing their fishing grounds. For these communities, where seafood is the only source of protein in almost every meal, and even one meal a day is by no means assured, waiting years for the uncertain benefits of a protected area was too severe a sacrifice to be a workable solution. 

A decade ago, Blue Ventures set about trying to overcome this issue, working with these communities to understand their concerns and develop a low-risk approach to marine protection that would work for them. 

This upbeat, iconoclastic talk uses powerful imagery and animation to tell the story of how some of the poorest coastal communities have joined forces with an unlikely eight-legged ally to help their seas to recover.