Conservation versus local livelihoods? Sustainable development challenges in Madagascar

In many people’s imagination, the island of Madagascar is synonymous with beautiful rainforests and exotic animals found nowhere else. Often absent from this foreign view, however, are the human inhabitants of the island – the Malagasy people. Largely reliant on small-scale agriculture, access to land is crucial for their survival. With few agricultural inputs or technology available, shifting cultivation is a well-adapted, rational land use practised by many Malagasy to grow staple crops. But as various factors – demographic, market-based, etc. – put the whole land use system under pressure, shifting cultivators are forced to expand their farming into remaining forests. This causes conflict with those who want to conserve Madagascar’s forests and extraordinary biodiversity as a global good.

Protected areas and paddy rice support

To prevent loss of the last remaining large humid forests along the northeast coast, Western conservation organizations successfully lobbied Madagascar’s government to establish the protected areas of Masoala, in 1995, and Makira, in 2005. In addition, conservation and development organizations launched projects to support intensification of smallholder agriculture – particularly irrigated (paddy) rice – in the areas near protected zones. They hoped this would make local land users quit shifting cultivation, thereby reducing deforestation.

CDE’s research shows that irrigated-rice production increased by 33% (by surface area) in northeast Madagascar between 1995 and 2011. Critically, however, the increase in paddy rice did not reduce shifting cultivation in the region. Overall, shifting cultivation remains present to some extent across more than 80% of the landscapes in the study region (by surface area). Further, over 80% of approximately 1,200 households interviewed in 45 villages said they continue to rely on shifting cultivation to meet at least part of their subsistence rice needs.

Diverse landscapes and benefits

CDE’s research also sought to shed light on how different people benefit from land in northeast Madagascar. One key question is whether different landscape types can be characterized according to different bundles of “ecosystem services” linked to land use. The analysis shows that although the overall composition of ecosystem services linked to land uses is similar across landscape types, the perceived importance of different ecosystem services varies widely from one household to another.

Land uses and ecosystem services in mixed paddy landscapes

Move your mouse pointer over the graph. Placing the pointer over any node reveals the links between landscape types, land uses, and ecosystem services. Hovering over any link will show you the percentage of people who perceive a given ecosystem service as important in the respective landscape / land use type.

Land uses in mixed shifting landscapes

Land uses in paddy landscapes

Visualization by Christoph Bader modified based on Cale Tilford’s code.

Deforestation and agricultural development on Madagascar’s northeast coast

Notably, while deforestation decreased in the conservation areas, it increased in the rest of the landscape. With the large forest massifs enclosed in protected areas, local land users were forced to target remaining forest fragments to expand their agricultural fields. Altogether, another 11% of the region’s forests disappeared, mostly outside protected zones. And the deforestation rate accelerated at the end of the 16-year period. The threatened forest fragments may be crucial to the ecological integrity of the landscape, providing habitats for different species and beneficial microclimates. If this trend continues, landscapes in our study region will probably become much more homogeneous.

Source: Julie Zaehringer