Learning from our neighbours

By Misbahou Mohamed & Kitty Brayne (BCSF)

The best way to learn about different approaches to conservation and sustainable development is to visit field projects and talk to the people on the ground about their experiences. In our work in the Comoros we’ve found exchange visits between villages to be an excellent way to inspire people to take up new techniques or behaviours. Working in the Comoros we sometimes feel a bit isolated as there are not many other projects or organisations working in this domain. So last month half of our team went over to our larger neighbour Madagascar to visit a few projects and exchange ideas with others working in similar fields.

The ten day visit had two main objectives: to gather ideas for improving the project’s interventions and landscape management approach; and to learn about the process of NGO development by finding out how ‘home grown’ Malagasy NGOs got started. An added bonus was the opportunity to make contact with different organisations that might be able to support a new Comorian NGO in the future.

Hugh, Siti, Badrouzamane and Misbahou first went down to Fandriana to visit a major project run by WWF in the Eastern moist forest eco-region. The project aims to restore the forest landscape by developing alternative economic activities for populations engaged in activities detrimental to the forest, and transferring management of forest blocks over to communities who respect certain regulations.

Our group were led round by WWF’s dynamic team to meet with members of village forest management committees, inspect nurseries where native tree species are cultivated for planting in areas targeted for forest restoration, and to look at a number of alternative livelihood activities, including micro-farming of chickens, fish and rabbits.

The group then went on to Andasibe to the East of Antananarivo, to visit activities supported by Conservation International. CI has a long-term engagement in the region to support forest protection and restoration, and sustainable development for forest-adjacent communities. They hope to ensure sustainability through the development of a system of direct payments for carbon storage that will finance farmers to restore and maintain forest on their lands in the long-term. Jeannicq Randrianarisoa, head of sustainable financing at CI showed us around and connected us with the local NGOs and associations that they support to run the projects.

In the meantime, Fatima and Kitty travelled down to the South East coast of Madagascar, to the village of Andavadoaka, 8 hours drive from Toliara through the spiny forest. Marine conservation organisation Blue Ventures have been working in the area for eight years and have developed a successful model for community management of marine resources alongside support for alternative livelihoods and an integrated population, health and environment programme. While our project is not involved in marine conservation, we were looking to learn from the overall approach to facilitating community management of natural resources. We were lucky in that the visit corresponded with the AGM of the Velondriake marine protected area management committee which provided a great opportunity to meet a range of people involved and watch the planning process for the year’s activities unfold. The rest of the time was spent learning from the BV team about all the activities they are running in the area. Of particular interest to us was the social marketing approach to promoting sustainable behaviour which BV ran with RARE Planet, and the highly successful family planning clinics BV have set up.

While in Antananarivo in between visits, we had the chance to meet with representatives from a number of different Malagasy NGOs including Asity, Fanamby and L’Homme et l’Environnement to discuss how they were set up, how they’ve developed, the challenges they’ve encountered and how they dealt with them. Each organisation had followed different routes in their development and these meetings gave us plenty to think about in terms of developing our Comorian NGO.

Overall, the visit was a great experience and I think confirmed for us the importance of building strong links with Madagascar. We’re now discussing and synthesising all the notes we took on our various visits, and preparing presentations to share everything we learnt with the rest of the team and reflect on improving our own approach. Clearly Madagascar is not the same as Comoros, the context is very different in terms of the people, the landscape and the governance but there are many lessons to be taken and lots of opportunities for collaboration and sharing.

Another trip to Madagascar is planned after the worst of the wet season, this time for the ecological monitoring and research team to visit Durrell’s field programmes.

A huge thank you to the staff of WWF, CI and Blue Ventures who put in a lot of time and effort and made the trip a success.