The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

Madagascar

Despite Madagascar’s abundance of natural wealth, the country is among the poorest in the world and around 92 percent of all Malagasy households live in poverty. Madagascar is highly vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards and adverse effects of climate change due to a high risk of exposure coupled with very high susceptibility of existing infrastructure, and low coping and adaptive capacity. Recurring droughts and cyclones, aggravated by destructive natural resource management and deforestation, render management of water resources more difficult, resulting in lower agricultural and livestock production, with adverse effects for nutrition and health outcomes.

Drought is intensifying due to climate change, pushing increasing numbers of rural communities to shift their livelihoods from agriculture to fishing, thereby intensifying pressure on coastal resources. Increased drought frequency and successive migrations also cause social conflicts over the use of land resources. Deforestation and forest degradation in Madagascar continue at the same pace despite the successive reforms of forest resource management policies since the 1990s.

Madagascar’s forests are under increasing pressure from agricultural expansion as growing populations seek to produce more food in an increasingly erratic climate. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), around one third of the island’s land resources are degraded – mostly due to erosion. Erosion does not only deplete the soil, but at the same time impacts terrestrial ecosystems and their biodiversity, and when the eroded soil ends up in rivers and lakes, it affects the viability of aquatic ecosystems as well.

The project objective is “Improve ecosystems services, sustainable intensification and biodiversity conservation in degraded forests and landscapes in Southern Madagascar through wide-scale implementation of forest and landscape restoration (FLR)”. 

EXPECTED RESULTS

The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility and is built around four components:

  1. strengthened enabling environment for FLR and biodiversity mainstreaming;
  2. wide-scale implementation of the FLR priorities defined in the Integrated Landscape Management Plans (ILMP) that respond simultaneously to the Biodiversity conservation, sustainable intensification and sustainable livelihood’s needs of local communities;
  3. increased investment for improved FLR, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods diversification; and
  4. project monitoring, evaluation and knowledge management.

IMPACT

The project will have the following impacts:

  • 58 740 hectares (ha) of landscapes with FLR landscape plans is developed and agreed by all concerned stakeholders;
  • a roadmap for mainstreaming FLR priorities (ecosystem services restoration, sustainable intensification, food and economic security and biodiversity conservation);
  • it is developed and adopted at national and landscape levels into decentralized community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) plans, contracts and bylaws;
  • the knowledge and dissemination capacity of decentralized service providers (public administration, non-governmental organization or private) on effective CBNRM frameworks for FLR planning and implementation are enhanced.
  • a total of 1 000 ha of degraded agricultural land, 500 ha of degraded forest land and 600 ha of degraded mangroves are restored.
  • producer organizations (and at least 500 of its members, 50 percent women) enhanced their capacity to develop and implement nature-based businesses for targeted value chains (VC) through existing business incubator and accelerator opportunities;
  • at least five agriculture and forest green VC’s are enhanced through investments around high quality diversified production and inclusive agribusiness marketing models;
  • VC platforms are established in the targeted regions to facilitate public-private partnerships and attract private investment for the sustainable trade of socially responsible and economically viable VC commodities;
  • opportunities to integrate FLR into existing public and private funds are identified and implemented; and
  • at least 132 000 people are reached through efficient communication for development and knowledge dissemination.