On 13 December 2019, the signature ceremony for the 2020 financing agreements between the FAPBM and 11 protected area managers (Madagascar National Parks, WCS Madagascar, SAGE Fampandrosoana Maharitra Missouri Botanical Garden Madagascar – Analalava, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Conservation , Fanamby, The Peregrine Fund, Asity Madagascar, GERP Madagascar, Biodiversity Conservation Madagascar) was held at the Hotel Colbert Antaninarenina.
The financial subsidies allocated by the FAPBM for the year 2020 are 7,780,411,731 MGA for 35 protected areas spread throughout Madagascar
All categories of protected areas of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (I, II, III, III, IV, V and VI) are represented in the panel financially supported by the Foundation.
The FAPBM annually allocates funding for the conservation of protected areas to enable biodiversity to fully play its role as a development lever for Madagascar. The stakes of preserving them go beyond the environmental framework. Madagascar’s 7 million hectares of protected areas provide vital functions for the Malagasy population:
Les 7 millions d’hectares d’aires protégées de Madagascar assurent des fonctions vitales pour la population malgache :
- They provide drinking water, like the Amber Mountain which is the drinking water reservoir of the entire city of Diego Suarez, for example;
- They maintain soil fertility: Madagascar’s rural population (nearly 17 million people) lives off agriculture and is impoverished as a result of the latent loss of Madagascar’s natural capital
- The endemicity of the biodiversity they support attracts nearly 260,000 tourists in 2018 and contributed 13% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, according to the Economic Development Board of Madagascar
The FAPBM urgently appeals to everyone to contribute to the sustainable financing of Madagascar’s natural capital: “Our unique biodiversity is at the heart of many challenges but remains seriously threatened,” said Sahondra RAJOELINA, President of the FAPBM Board of Directors. We must act here and now because the consequences of his disappearance will be irreversible.
