SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island Coastal Resource Center at the college's Graduate School of Oceanography has received a $13 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to help launch a major marine conservation initiate in the Republic of Madagascar.
URI announced Thursday that it along with USAID and key government ministries in the African nation are launching the USAID Riake Project in Madagascar. The project, URI says, will focus on marine conservation, spatial planning and sustainable livelihoods of coastal communities.
The university says the project seeks to create and support empowered communities in Madagascar that inherit and maintain biodiverse and sustainable marine ecosystems. Improving sustainable management of natural resources through both marine protected areas and locally managed marine areas; improving governance, advocacy and anti-corruption efforts in coastal resource management; and strengthening marine tenure policy implementation and marine spatial planning are among the project’s goals, URI says.
This initiative will also help double U.S. government investment in Madagascar’s environmental sector over the next five years, URI says.
“This new award demonstrates increasing recognition of the development community – previously focused primarily on terrestrial biodiversity – to the importance of the coastal and marine regions of Madagascar to the island nation’s biodiversity and human well-being,” URI Coastal Research Associate Sarah Gaines said in a statement. “We will bring CRC approaches and connections from our projects around the world and here in Rhode Island to USAID Riake.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.