Preserving Forests on the Island of Sainte-Marie

The Project and its Challenges

With 4000 hectares of forests, of which 800 are remarkable, 172 ha of mangroves and 49 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the island of Sainte-Marie has been classified as a priority site to be protected by the state of Madagascar. Slash-and-burn agriculture, over-exploitation of resources and land pressure cause deforestation and soil erosion and directly threaten the island’s biodiversity and the future services of ecosystems given back to the population.

To put a stop to this deforestation process, the project supports local actors in the implementation of conservation actions, in particular in the creation of a marine and terrestrial Protected Area, taking into account the three forests and marine and coastal ecosystems (reefs and mangroves) and the management of an ecological restoration programme for these ecosystems.

Having benefited from a partnership with the Maisons du Monde Foundation since 2016, GRET has carried out various actions as part of its project to preserve the island of Sainte-Marie.

Review of the results of the main actions carried out during six years of partnership:

• Identification of the socio-ecological system (floristic and faunistic inventories, participative socio-economic studies) for the preservation of more than 260 species of interest to the island’s biodiversity

• Submission of the initiative file for the creation of the Sainte-Marie Protected Area to the authorities

• Involvement of the population through an association that federates them in the preservation of common goods, in particular the Kalalao forest, and its forest restoration of 5.6 hectares and 8.5 hectares of mangroves with local communities

The partnership has been renewed for a further three years to strengthen the involvement and empowerment of local populations, with the aim of scaling up, both geographically and in terms of beneficiaries and managed activities.

The project performance targets for 2022–2024 are as follows:

• To create conditions for shared governance and management of the future Protected Area, with a forest anti-crime programme, an awareness programme and an ecological restoration programme
• To ensure legal recognition and of the Protected Area and capitalize on its creation process using the Commons Approach
• To improve the socio-economic resilience of communities affected by the Protected Area, with training in market gardening techniques and by promoting the community-based ecotourism.