Sustainable management for future generations in Madagascar

Successful, sustainable conservation of protected areas (PAs) is inextricably linked to the people in the surrounding landscape. If they adequately value the PA and are able to access the natural goods and services they need from the surrounding landscape in a sustainable way, then protection will likely be secure.

However, if the PA represents a resource-rich island in a landscape of critically compromised natural capital, it will inevitably be subjected to increasing pressure, and the biodiversity and carbon it holds will be eroded, along with the ecosystem services it provides, whilst dependent livelihoods will become increasingly vulnerable.

Our proposal uses a holistic approach centred on community-based conservation, seeking to increase natural capital as a means to achieve long-term sustainability.

Drawing from over 100 years of combined community-based conservation experience in Madagascar and mobilising a predominately Malagasy team (>80% of staff) and long-term trust built at each project site, we are instigating and facilitating a fully inclusive process to demonstrate how residents living near PAs can sustainably improve their livelihoods and thereby reduce poverty through improved productivity, even under periods of increased environmental and socio-economic stress, while simultaneously respecting and supporting forest protection.

While Madagascar’s biodiversity enriches the lives of all humanity, poor rural Malagasy must not be the ones who pay the cost of its conservation.