The largest programme of village based monitoring in Madagascar

By Herizo Andrianandrasana and Ony Rabearivololona

Over the last 10 years, Durrell Madagascar has led a successful programme of locally-based ecological monitoring through the MOMA (Monitoring Matters) network in collaboration with the Nordic Agency for Development and Conservation and an annual inter-village competition funded by the Jersey Overseas Aid Committee (JOAC). The idea was to integrate communities into the monitoring system aimed at reducing their pressure on forests and species. We carried out this study in the dry forests of the New Protected Area (NAP) of Menabe-Antimena.

Thanks to funding from the MacArthur Foundation we have been able to now expand this programme to four other field sites at the New Protected Areas of Alaotra and Nosivolo, Baly Bay National Park, and the Special Reserve of Manombo in order to protect the Alaotran gentle lemur, ploughshare tortoise, grey headed lemur and Critically Endangered fish like the Songatana. This will be, by far, the largest village based ecological monitoring project of its kind in Madagascar.

Photo 1. Alaotran Gentle Lemur in the wild. Photo: Tobias Nowlan.

The monitoring is linked to an environmental competition whereby participating villages receive development support as a prize for wise management of natural resources. The development impact on local communities has been significant with Durrell directly improving the standard of living of local people, particularly by providing clean water, improved food security, and access to education. To date, we have built more than 50 primary schools, distributed some 1200 legal fishing nets, and constructed more than 70 wells and water fountains.

Through JOAC funding, the environmental competitions have supported a large amount of alternative livelihoods ranging from handicraft weaving to low impact sustainable agriculture of high profit crops such as peanuts. We are developing measurement indicators to measure the conservation impact of supporting local communities but we do feel that deforestation, hunting and illegal timber exploitation have decreased at our sites from 2003-2009.

Photo 2. Clean water from new well in Baly Bay built as a result of environmental competition. Photo credit Durrell

The current process of significantly expanding this monitoring programme is well underway. Over the last two months we have trained 334 local people to act as monitors or Comités Forestiers Locaux (CFL) at Alaotra, Menabe and Nosivolo and have provided them with official uniforms and equiped with cellphones and cameras to ensure effective communication.

The CFL have also been officially integrated within the Regional infrastructure of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. It has been very important that local authorities and stakeholders were closely involved in all aspects of the training to ensure that the local monitors fully understand their role and responsibilities within the community. Durrell will be training the remaining 66 monitors in Manombo over the next few weeks.

Photo 3. CFL member wearing uniform with Logos of Durrell and the Ministry of Environment and Forest in Marolambo. Photo: Herizo Andrianandrasana

These CFL will be collecting ecological data on biodiversity of key endemic species, and identifying the main threats and pressures to allow us to better manage these critical wetlands and forests. The information collected serves as a decision tool and will be used to continue the environmental competitions and providing support to local communities. It has been a huge task to organize and train so many people over such a large geographical area of Madagascar, but we feel it is well worth the effort! We will keep you posted as to the progress that the teams make when they are in the field.

Photo 4. CFL training in Belo/Tsiribihina in Menabe. Photo credit Durrell