The Dugong MOU Secretariat provided funding to enable a partnership with the Marine Research Foundation and a team of global experts to develop and implement a Questionnaire which could be implemented at low cost across large geographical areas, and that generates standardised data sets. The Questionnaire was designed to collect data on dugongs, as well as marine turtles and cetaceans, and has resulted in a large data set of dugong numbers and distribution across a significant portion of the dugong’s geographic range.

The African Raptor DataBank (ARDB) is an ambitious non-profit, citizen science project. It aims to inspire birdwatchers and other observers to submit information that will reveal the conservation status of raptors and their habitats throughout Africa. It will also help develop the local expertise needed to monitor these indicator species in the future and to implement sound strategies to safeguard them. The Coordinating Unit of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MoU) has joined forces with ARDB to assist Signatories in Africa to better understand and conserve the raptor riches they hold.

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This preliminary study, conducted between June and October 2009, represents the first comprehensive survey of the dugong population and its habitat in northern Madagascar. It provided the means for piloting a low-cost, low-tech methodology, previously utilized with success in the Union of the Comoros, and only minor adaptations were necessary for its application in Madagascar, hence the resulting data are comparable.