Study area Madagascar lies in the western Indian Ocean to the east of Mozambique, separated from Africa by the 400 km wide Mozam bique Channel. our study site, Velondriake, lies in the arid Toliara province of southwest Non-Governmental Madagascar, where twenty-four villages supported by organizations and the National Marine Sciences Institute have united to collaboratively manage complex array of islands, mangroves and coastal ecosystems (Harris, 2011) (see Fig. 1 for a map of the study area). Velondri- ake, a locally managed marine area, spans more than 1000 km2