By Simon Bradley | SOS Communications and Marketing Officer
Planting 12,000 trees in one single day is no mean feat, even for two highly motivated teams of villagers celebrating Madagascar’s first ever Arbor Day, 29 April 2016. Using this tree-planting holiday which originated in the USA in 1872, SOS Grantee Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo Association, (OHDZA) rallied schoolchildren, teachers, parents, and village elders to double reforestation efforts in a fun day out topped-off with a celebration parade.
“This scale of operation requires a significant seedling-production system, not to mention major community participation”, explains OHDZA’s Shannon Engberg. While focused on lemur conservation at two different sites – Kianjavato and Montagne de Français – OHDZA’s Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership (MBP) works with local communities to achieve conservation goals while generating sustainable sources of alternative livelihoods.
In early 2016, the MBP expanded nursery infrastructure and staffing as well as operational support through funding from SOS and the Arbor Day Foundation. The planted trees were grown in a series of nurseries strategically located alongside villages, from which local people had been hired and trained as nursery managers or field assistants. When the big day came, community members from Kianjavato village planted 10,000 while those in Montagne de Français planted 2,000 seedlings. “Typically, the reforestation programme plants 6,000 trees per day twice a week”, explains Shannon by way of comparison.
Apart from community pride, there is the compelling incentive of the Conservation Credit Rewards Programme. Approximately 20 percent of the adult population in Kianjavato is currently enrolled, for example. Interestingly the project extends beyond nursery employees including those from the Single Mom’s clubs for instance.
While community members work part-time and earn a supplemental income, they also earn conservation credits for the trees they plant, credits that can be used to purchase things like solar panels, water transportation or purification devices, and fuel-efficient cook stoves.
These items help improve their quality of life in an environmentally-responsible manner. After outreach events like this, there is often an increase in the number of people seeking to join the Programme according to Shannon.
When lemurs were declared to be the most threatened group of all mammals in 2013, experts drafted a comprehensive plan to save them from extinction. Kianjavato and Montagne des Français were designated as two of the priority locations for lemur conservation. Yet, forests – essential lemur habitat lacking any formal protection - have become fragmented due to depletion in key areas. Replanting will provide corridors between forest fragments to help preserve species while restoring ecosystem services needed by wildlife and human communities. The key is of course the community.
“Festivities like Arbor Day enable everyone in the community to participate in a fun and welcoming environment that encourages pride in forest protection”. But for long-term success it is essential to continue to inspire and empower area residents to become the leaders and stewards in the sustainable protection of the forests. “The Conservation Credit Rewards Programme helps to do that”, says Shannon. The MBP’s longer-term aim is to plant one million trees in Madagascar – it seems the foundations for such ambitions are in place.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
