USAID Working Paper No. 189 Center for Development Information and Evaluation Protecting Biological Diversity: Madagascar Case Study October 1994 USAID Working Paper No. 189 Protecting Biological Diversity: Madagascar Case Study Fred Sowers, Team Leader Natural Resources Policy Specialist Labat-Anderson, Inc. Karen McKay Social Forestry Specialist Development Alternatives Inc. Raymond Daviesson Biodiversity Specialist Development Alternatives Inc. Lala Zaharinjanahary Anthropologist Agency for International Development Center for Development Information and Evaluation October 1994 This Working Paper is one of a number of case studies prepared for CDIE's assessment of USAID Protecting Biological Diversity programs. As an interim report, it provides the data from which the assessment synthesis is drawn. Working Papers are not formally published and distributed, but interested readers can obtain a copy from the DISC. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Foreword ......................... iii Glossary ......................... iv Map of Madagascar ................... vi 1 . Introduction ......................1 Evaluation Approach ..................2 Background ...................... 5 Theproblem ................... 5 Conservation in Madagascar ........... 6 The USAID Assistance Approach ....... 8 Evaluation Findings: Program Implementation . 14 Institution Building ............... 14 Awareness andEducation ..........24 Policy Change ................. 27 Technological Change .............. 29 4 . Evaluation Findings: Program Impact .......... 33 ImpactonPractices ............... 33 Biophysical Impacts ............... 35 Socio-economic Impacts ............. 36 5 . Evaluation Findings: Program Performance . 38 Program Efficiency ............... 38 Program Effectiveness ............. 38 Program Sustainability and Replicability ..41 6 . Lessons Learned .................. 47 7 . Outstanding Issues And Management Implications . 49 APPENDICES A . Evaluation Methodology B . Biodiversity and Its Conservation in Madagascar C . Profile of Andohahela Integrated Natural Reserve D . Persons Contacted BIBLIOGRAPHY USAID's Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CDIE) is currently conducting a series of assessments of Agency programs directly related to its environmental strategy. This case study contributes to a global assessment of USAID-supported activities in protecting biological diversity conservation through strengthening parks and protected areas. This field study which examines biodiversity conservation in Madagascar is one of six country case studies. Similar studies have been completed in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Nepal with work in Latin America remaining. The results of the six case studies, all of which follow a similar analytic framework, will be synthesized into an overall assessment that summarizes lessons learned from a global perspective, and highlights for USAID management the program implications of those lessons. The team wishes to thank all those individuals who gave so generously of their time during the assessment. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to meet with such knowledgeable and dedicated people. We hope that our efforts, in however small a way, assist them in ensuring that Madagascar's treasures -- its people and its environment -- are valued and appreciated for many generations to come. GLOSSARY* ANQAP National Association for the Management of Protected Areas ANAE National Association of Environmental Action APN Agent for the Protection of Nature ASOS Action Sante et Organisation de Secours CAG Conservation Action Grant CDIE Center for Development Information and Evaluation COMODE Coouncil of Malagasy NGOs for Development and the Environment DEF Directorate of Water and Forestry EP-1 Environmental Program - Phase 1 GlMU Grants Management Unit GOM Government of Madagascar ICDP Integrated Conservation and Development Project KASTI Komitin 'ny Ala Sy Ny Tontolo Jainana (Committee for the Forest and the Environment) KEPEM Knowledge and Effective Policies for Environmental Management NEAP National Environmental Action Plan NGO Non-Governmental Organization NRMS Natural Resources Management Support Project (USAID) ONE National Office of Environment PVO Private and Voluntary Organization RNI Reserve Naturelle Integree SAFAFI Malagasy NGO SAVEM Sustainable and Viable 'Environmental Management Project (USAID) United States Agency for International Development VSF Veterinarians without Borders WCS World Conservation Society WWF World Wide Fund for Nature * Acronyms are for french name equivalents. Protected Areas in ME Kilometers Montagne d'Ambre NP 0- 30 60 90 120 150 N A Tsaratanana NR Mananara-Nord NP @ - 7 Bernahara NR / Toamasina Antananarivo* Mantadio NP Antsirabe 0 Ranomafana NP -@ / I * capital city @ Major Cities Site Visited for Evaluation NP National Parks Toliaro NR Strict National Reserves b-Tsimanampetsotsa NR Andohahela NR Devclopmcnl Allernatives, Inc. (19941 (Sources: Digital Chart of the World. IUCN. k ANCLP.KWB! INTRODUCTION Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is virtually a continent unto itself. Approximately eighty percent of its plant life and over ninety percent of its animal species are found nowhere else in the world, and the reconnaissance of the country's biological diversity is just beginning. Neither African nor Asian, its people are as unique and varied as the island's extraordinary flora and fauna. Despite its historical, cultural and biological richness, the country struggles to reverse a rapid spiral of economic stagnation, poverty and environmental degradation. This struggle encompasses a concerted bid to conserve the nation's biological heritage. In this evaluation, CDIE examines the changes introduced by USAIDtsassistance to Madagascar's program to protect the country's biological diversity. The USAID approach, which assumes an essential linkage between conservation of natural resources and socio-economic development, attempts to create enabling policy and institutional conditions while simi~ltaneously supporting conservation and development programs in and around a variety of specific parks and protected areas. The goal of USAIDts support is to establish sustainable human and natural ecosystems where the country's diverse biological resources are most threatened. Since independence in 1960, Madagascar has gone through a succession of political regimes that have left their mark on the environment. The first government's natural resource policies followed the colonial practices of forest protection and state control through use permits and policing. Beginning in the mid- 1970s, however, a radical change of government brought with it radical changes of policy. Although many parks, nature reserves, and public forests existed on paper and a forestry cadre had been trained to protect these areas, state efforts to actually manage i,Ls forest reserves were generally abandoned. Absolute conservagion of forests was seen as anti-development and anti-people,an undesirable vestige of the colonial inheritance. In fact, government laxity and, in some cases, complicity hastened forest degradation. In its extreme form, forest burning and cutting became a form of civil protest. In some cases, undercompensated forest guards were driven to exploit forests for their own.wel1-being. Changes began to take place in the mid-1980s as both the Malagasy government and the world community came to appreciate the valye of the resources at stake. The National Charter recognized a linkage between conservation and development. With support from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WF) which had been in the country since 1979, the Madagascar government held a major conference to set out a program to reorient its environmental policies and activities and to encourage outside donors to become involved in conserving Madagascar's unique natural heritage. Undertaken in 1986, the first nationwide survey of the existing network of protected areas documented known resources and suggested improvements in the system (Nicoll and Landgrand 1989). This was fallowed over the next three years by the drafting of a National Environmental Action Plan for Madagascar (NEAP). The NEAP, adopted in 1988 and formally approved in 1990, was widely supported by the donor community. It emphasized a program to improve protected area management. Concurrent with these developments at the central level, the country launched a first generation of uconservation through developmentt1projects in the field. USAID took an imsortant role in supporting both the policy and institutional changes and the field level implementation. Evaluation Approach The Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CDIE) " conducted field work, in late 1993, in Madagascar to gather data on the impact of USAI~/Madagascarbiodiversity conservation projects as part of a series of global Assessments of USAID Environmental o Programs. The Assessment of Biodiversity Protection Programs responds to Agency interest in the impact and performance of its growing worldwide portfolio of environmental and natural resources management projects. The Madagascar case is one of six case studies examining USAID support for the preservation of critical habitats in park and protected area systems. CDIE developed a common methodology to facilitate cross-case analysis. The presentation in this report assumes a familiarity with the methodology which is summarized in Appendix A. Conservation of biodiversity is a relatively recent area of focus in USAID's field programs, and,