Kivalo Soa Honko (“Kivalo with beautiful mangroves”) is a community-based ecotourism initiative located about an hour’s drive north of Morondava. Created to promote sustainable tourism and protect a 5,000-hectare mangrove ecosystem, the project was launched in 2018–2019 with support from WWF Madagascar. Visitors can enjoy traditional pirogue canoe trips, birdwatching, and community-led tours that showcase the fishing culture of the Vezo people.
Finding the place was not easy. After navigating rough bush tracks and asking locals for directions, we eventually reached the village of Mangily, which serves as the starting point for visiting the project. There, we discovered that tours normally need to be booked in advance at the office in Morondava. Instead, we arranged a trip with a local fisherman, who took us aboard his traditional pirogue and paddled through narrow mangrove channels to the peaceful village of Kivalo. The entire excursion lasted around three hours and cost 50,000 MGA.
