Conservation Centrée sur la Communauté (C3), is a Malagasy association focused on marine conservation, which started to operate in 2009 in the North of Madagascar. Our mission is to expand conservation efforts worldwide by building the capacity of individuals and local institutions through research and training initiatives.

C3 was the first NGO in Madagascar to introduce the internationally-standardised SeagrassWatch methodology and assisted other NGOs and government marine science agencies in technical capacity building. We combined seagrass data collection with key informant interviews on the presence and habitat utilisation of the endangered Dugongs and Green sea turtles in order to map hotspots for long-term monitoring and protection.

Our community stewardship approach has also led to the enforcement of gillnet bans in areas important for endangered species and community-based reporting on infractions and endangered species sightings.