Antananarivo, March 21, 2023 – The Madagascar Coalition for Protected Areas has focused on the successes of forest conservation efforts, as well as the relevance of collaboration to achieve a sustainable economy in Madagascar.
Madagascar protects its natural forest assets mainly through its national system of protected areas. Currently there are 123 Protected Areas across the nation, in places that represent the country’s biological diversity, different types of forest habitats, its natural heritage, and the homes of extraordinary wildlife.
For years, thousands of Malagasy experts from government, NGOs and communities have been working to create and manage these unique places. Unfortunately, as Madagascar’s economic situation continues a downward trend, these experts and local communities are increasingly challenged in their efforts. Indeed, it is mostly the stories about forest fires and illegal logging that dominate the news. However, stories about forest fires and illegal logging continue to dominate the news. However, there are many success stories of local leaders – who are true heroes – who relate very interesting stories about the many solutions that have already been developed in Madagascar.
The Madagascar coalition for protected areas has used this special day to shift the attention onto strong evidence that protected areas – when considered as agents of change –drive twenty-first century change towards sustainable economic growth in rural poor areas.
Many Madagascar heroes work every day to ensure that mangrove forests, tropical rain forests and dry forests can thrive and support the many ecosystem services for the communities and economy of the country. All that is required now, is to amass adequate financial resources and political will to enable magnification of success across the entire system of all 123 protected areas in the country.
On this International Forest Day, members of the Coalition have profiled success stories to motivate investing in Madagascar’s protected areas as agents-of-change not only for protection and restoration of the homes of Madagascar’s unique wildlife, but importantly also for poverty alleviation of local communities as well as for sustainable development of local and regional economies.
Some examples of successful forest conservation
In northern Madagascar, patrols are organized by the local communities of the villages around the COMATSA Protected Area (Corridor Forestier Marojejy – Anjanaharibe sud- Tsaratanana), managed by WWF. Agents called “Polisinala” conduct these community patrols. They monitor the state of the forest, exchange skills and experiences, monitor areas of management transfer, identify pressures on the forests and raise awareness. The “Polisinala” is responsible for monitoring the forests to prevent illegal exploitation of natural resources. “Today, the situation is that there is not as much damage as before,” says Misna, a polisinala from Andoboka locality.
In the DIANA region, North of Madagascar, the survival rate of seedlings planted using the waterbox method in the Oronjia protected area, managed by MBG, has reached about 71% compared to 61% with a traditional method. The principle of the waterbox consists in placing a plastic container, the waterbox, around the trunk of the seedling. This container is filled with water at the time of planting and will continue to capture rainwater and recover condensation water. The reservoir can provide water to the seedlings over an extended period of time, especially during the first year, when they are still very fragile. The reforestation plan of Oronjia, funded by FAPBM, foresees the use of the method especially for highly threatened indigenous plants.
In the Menabe region of southwestern Madagascar, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Menabe Region have launched the new “Green Title” initiative. The Green Title Project is a Presidential project aimed at providing access to arable land to populations that have illegally settled in the Menabe Antimena protected area after fleeing drought in the south. After demonstrating productive use of the land, the migrants will be able to obtain formal land titles for the plots donated by the government. The initiative focuses on the village of Bezeky, where the migrants will be offered voluntary relocation alongside the current village residents. Both populations will benefit from improved infrastructure, agricultural assistance, and support for livelihood diversification.
In eastern Madagascar, the Project “Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar” funded by Green Climate Fund in 2018 has set as one of its goals to reduce 5 million tons of carbon equivalent (tCO2) in the atmosphere by the end of the Project, i.e., in 2025, Trends Earth calculated that this figure is 6,283,531 tCO2e in 2022. For the first time in recent decades, deforestation is at its lowest rate in the Ankeniheny-Zahamena and Ambositra-Vondrozo corridors. From 2020 to 2021, they fell from 2.78% to 0.8% and from 1.12% to 0.5% respectively. These results are due to the efforts of local communities. These communities have preserved these forests by conducting patrols and calling on the mixed brigades for controls, noting flagrant offenses. The Project has supported this preservation by monitoring with drones. These local grassroots structures have restored degraded forests. They are beginning to abandon tavy and are adopting farming techniques that respect nature and can cope with climate change.
More stories to discover by following the hashtags: #CoalitionForProtectedAreas #Madagascar
About Madagascar Coalition for protected areas
The Coalition is an advocacy platform for collaboration, implementing solutions for Madagascar’s needs through Protected Area management – the agents of change.
Starting in 2023, different organizations will gradually align their communication efforts behind a new narrative to significantly build support from donors and other audiences. Heads of institutions and communications managers from coalition members are working together to increase financial and political support for the 123 protected areas in Madagascar’s protected area system.
About Madagascar’s biodiversity and wildlife
Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, has a very high diversity of wildlife and is home to many different types of ecosystems and landscapes. Madagascar’s biodiversity represents 5% of the world’s biodiversity.
About Madagascar’s strategy to protect biodiversity
Recognizing the importance to safeguard biodiverse areas, the Madagascar government has created a protected areas system that is made up of 123 protected areas covering 6,233,317 ha of terrestrial and 1,379,029 ha of marine (including intertidal) ecosystems. This protected area system is the country’s greatest natural capital asset and has been described as a ‘priceless national treasure’ and of ‘immeasurable national and global value’ as both a national and global good.
Unfortunately, effective management of the protected area system is challenged. Within Madagascar, several regions face challenges in sustainable development and protected areas are seen as barriers to growth.
Despite significant funding, meeting the financing needs of the current 123 protected area systems remains a major challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation with the loss of income from tourism, increased pressures due to slower economic growth, and increased migration of people from the south of the country.
The contribution of these places to safeguard wildlife habitats AND people, to offset climate change impacts, and to support sustainable regional economic growth is at risk.
