The island of Madagascar is one of the most important remaining sites of plant and animal biodiversity even though existing populations are endangered due to habitat loss and overexploitation. To establish the biological security of the Makira Protected Area (MPA) local communities were excluded from its use. Despite good intentions, lack of alternative economic opportunities and development has resulted in significant economic loss to farmers and health costs to their children for whom bush meat is the only source of protein.
CPALI/SEPALI Madagascar has sought to determine an effective approach to build the biological security of the Makira Protected Area by enabling excluded communities to replace lost economic opportunities. We considered natural capital approaches that work well in developed economies, but we found that they are not feasible when communities are directly dependent on local resources to survive. We also considered donor-supported capital, or traditional conservation, but that tends to create non-sustainable dependencies between communities and those administering funds. Finally, we considered long-term investment capital but were unable to identify a profitable, ecologically sound, commodity-based, enterprise for an area where no business or financial systems currently exist and where labor is unskilled. Instead, CPALI/SEPALI Madagascar is taking a “social capital” approach to environmental security by building inter- and intra-community farmer networks that are the foundations for economic development. We predicted that independent farmers who replaced lost income by raising endemic silk moths would be less likely to engage in swidden agriculture.
Results/conclusions
In the last 3 years the program has grown from 5 to over 160 farmers who have intercropped over 20,000 native trees on family farms. The intercropping builds an economically productive border around the MPA because the trees serve as fodder for endemic species of wild silkworms. Farmers earn $60-$90 of added income raising larvae two times per year. Other members of the communities earn income by making textiles from the cocoons. Silkworm chrysalides not needed for the following year’s crop can be used as an alternative source of human protein, poultry feed, or crop fertilizer. Staged incentives and an insured market are proving to be effective means of influencing community environmental behavior and securing a green zone around the MPA.