Andrinjarisoa Heritiana RABEKOTO
According to history, several ships were wrecked in the maritime territory of Madagascar. There are among them which were already located in the maritime space of the South-West Region, in particular in the Salary bay, of the township of Tsifota, such as the wrecks of Winterton (1792), Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1774) and Surprise (1885), by a team that carried out prospecting missions.
As part of a project for the survival of the underwater cultural heritage of southwestern Madagascar which began towards the end of 2019 (https://risingfromthedepths.com/innovation-projects/marovany-1/), the establishment of a network of actors of the fishing people at the community level has been started. This activity was carried out, at the beginning of February 2020, by the civil society organization member of the Regional Platform of Civil Society Organizations of Atsimo Andrefana and the Regional Direction in charge of Culture of Atsimo Andrefana, through a training of 13 representatives including 7 men and 6 women from the vezo community of 6 fokontany in the rural commune of Tsifota, namely the fokontany of Tsifota, Tsandamba, Salary Nord I, Salary Nord II, Bekodoy and Andravony. This project is funded by a Rising from the Depths network and promoted by the Marovany Association with technical support from the Maritime Archaeological Trust (MAT) on digital wreck documentation.
Following the training of these representatives on the 2001 Unesco convention on the protection of the underwater cultural heritage which was ratified by Madagascar, as well as themes relating to communication for behavior change (https://risingfromthedepths.com/innovation-projects/marovany-3/), some objectives (Table 1) and awareness plan have been designed to mobilize the fishing community of each village on the protection of wrecks in their maritime territory.
Despite the preventive measures on the spread of covid 19 in Madagascar, some objectives have been achieved (Table 2) and several people have been made aware (Table 3). Indeed, 3 looting attempts have been interrupted by the local population since the start of 2020 (https://risingfromthedepths.com/innovation-projects/marovany-2/).
At the end of the project following the opening of the Malagasy territory in relation to the fight against the spread of the coronavirus in Madagascar, a network of fishermen’s actors is already in place for the protection and management of the underwater cultural heritage in Salary bay. Then, digital models of the underwater archaeological sites of Winterton, (1792), Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1774) and Surprise (1885) will be available to help promote tourism in Madagascar.
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome, in sending to me by email: andrinjarisoa@gmail.com
Table 1: Setting of objectives by type of awareness raising
| TYPE OF AWARENESS | Monthly goal | Annual target |
| Interpersonal Communication (IPC) | 260 | 3 120 |
| Home visit (VAD) | 52 | 624 |
| Group Discussion (DG) | 13 | 156 |
| Sketch (Sk) | 2 |
Table 2: Results by type of awareness (Dashboard March 2020 – February 2021)
| TYPE OF AWARENESS | Number of awareness campaigns carried out per month | |||||||||||||
| March-20 | Apr-20 | May-20 | June-20 | July-20 | Aug-20 | Sept-20 | Oct-20 | Nov-20 | Dec-20 | Jan-21 | Feb-21 | TOTAL | ECART | |
| CIP | 433 | 645 | 493 | 430 | 389 | 390 | 468 | 390 | 364 | 338 | 341 | 261 | 4 942 | 1822 |
| VAD | 59 | 88 | 81 | 132 | 46 | 43 | 63 | 47 | 47 | 48 | 54 | 56 | 764 | 140 |
| DG | 3 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 41 | -115 |
| Sk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | |
Table 3: Number of people sensitized per month by type of sensitization
| TYPE OF AWARENESS | Number of people sensitized per month | ||||||||||||
| March-20 | Apr-20 | May-20 | June-20 | July-20 | Aug-20 | Sept-20 | Oct-20 | Nov-20 | Dec-20 | Jan-21 | Feb-21 | TOTAL | |
| CIP | 447 | 645 | 494 | 430 | 389 | 374 | 476 | 390 | 364 | 338 | 341 | 290 | 4 978 |
| VAD | 179 | 292 | 190 | 193 | 110 | 96 | 133 | 96 | 99 | 106 | 110 | 134 | 1 738 |
| DG | 212 | 138 | 122 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 339 | 306 | 105 | 213 | 224 | 143 | 1 802 |
| Sk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |