The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation – FANC has been working in Madagascar since 2011. The distress that the island’s nature and inhabitants are undergoing is not the only reason why FANC decided to extend its activities even this far. Smooth cooperation with local actors is always vital in enabling the projects to achieve permanent results. Consequently, the good contacts that FANC already had with local bodies of nature conservation played a decisive role in the launch of the projects in Madagascar.
The Manondroala project, initiated by FANC in 2012, concluded at the end of 2022. Meanwhile, efforts in the Torotorofotsy protected area, which commenced in 2015, are continuing under the Tontolo Maitso project. Further details are provided below.
Manondroala
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation has been operating in Madagascar since 2011 to promote protection of forests. The Manondroala project started in 2012 in the rainforest zone of eastern Madagascar with the support for development cooperation granted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. During the project, a map portal showing the state of forests has been developed. It supports the participation of local communities in the decision-making related to environment and land use, which is crucial for the progress of equality and democracy in the whole of Madagascar. The main objective of the project has been to develop in collaboration with local actors a holistic model of activities and network for preserving the forests.
Since the beginning of 2019, the Manondroala project has been focusing on the mapping and restoration of the dry tropical forests in western Madagascar. To achieve permanent results, we support local level actors and environmental administration both at local and national level with diverse methods.
Reforestation against fragmentation
Along with mapping, FANC has supported forest restoration in Andasibe in the middle of Madagascar’s rainforest zone. With the help of reforestation, badly fragmented patches of forest have been connected with the isolated home forests of the threatened species – such as the world’s last indris and sifakas – living there. By means of reforestation, we also strive to prevent the spread of invasive species that are harmful to the original forest ecosystem. In connection with forestation, our partner Association Mitsinjo has organised environmental education for hundreds of schoolchildren, students and tourists.
Since 2019, the focus of the Manondroala project has been on mapping and reforesting dry tropical forests in western Madagascar. Information on the Manondroala methodology is distributed into new areas and local communities are familiarised with mapping through trainings. The existing network between administration and civil society is strengthened in order to promote democratic land use and to monitor the state of the forests.
The restoration methods of humid tropical forests developed by Mitsinjo are made known and information about the best practices is shared with experts and environmental administration as well as with local groups that are restoring forests. Our partner will start an expertise centre in Andasibe where training in forest restoration will be given to researchers, students and other interested parties. With other stakeholders, we will gather information on the best restoration methods and share it with different actors. In addition, we are funding forest restoration carried out by various partner organisations in dry regions and also the monitoring of these areas basing on methods of remote sensing.
Further information
Olli Turunen, Technical Advisor
+358 40 755 3815
olli.turunen(a)sll.fi
Laura Blomberg, Project Coordinator
+358 40 144 0291
laura.blomberg(a)sll.fi
Torotorofotsy
The FANC project for protecting the Torotorofotsy wetlands began in January 2015 with funds granted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. After hard work, the threatened wetlands obtained an official status as a protected area during the same year.
Home for the endangered
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and the Korkeasaari Zoo collaborate to protect the endangered Golden mantella. The Torotorofotsy project run by FANC aims at securing the home wetlands of the amphibian. Nevertheless, it is important to safeguard the preservation of the species even in captivity because of the threat of extinction caused by the degradation of the natural habitat.
Comprising an area of nearly 10.000 hectares, the Torotorofotsy wetlands offer a habitat to several threatened species, such as the extremely endangered Golden mantella. The natural marshes have been wiped out for the most part to give way to rice fields. The total disappearance of the wetland would make adaptation to climate change difficult and weaken the food security of the area. The marshes have a significant role in the preservation of biodiversity, erosion prevention and in the regional water management.
Torotorofotsy is a Ramsar wetland i.e. it belongs to the important wetlands protected by the international Ramsar Convention signed in 1971. Wetlands belong to the most threatened habitats in the world, therefore special attention has to be paid to their protection. Our project concentrates on improving the position of women and children and it aims at strengthening the possibilities of the local population to adapt to the effects of the climate change.
