Participatory Erosion Control Program (PLAE) V, 1st part
Detailed description of project:
Major challenges, both for the ecology and the economy of Madagascar are forest degradation and even total deforestation, mainly due to the overexploitation of wood, especially as a source of energy, as well as unsustainable land management. Slash-and-burn agriculture and extensive animal husbandry lead to intensive bushfires every year, covering a large part of the island. These fires cause extraordinary erosion and thus the loss of valuable arable land. These practices threaten natural resources, including the country's last remaining protected areas conserving Madagascar's endemic and precious fauna and flora. The denudation of slopes causes the sedimentation of soils, infiltrating rice paddies and their irrigation infrastructure causing an alarming reduction in their productivity. The loss of productive land and forests is currently advancing faster than land restoration. In addition, the non-regulation of land rights worsens the situation.
In this context, KfW has funded since 1998 the Anti-erosion Control Program (PLAE) which pursues the protection and sustainable management of natural resources in Madagascar. In view of the results obtained and the experiences of the PLAE cumulated between 1998 and 2019 (PLAE I to IV), the PLAE will continue from 2019 to 2023 within the framework of the AFR100 / Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) initiative.
Overall objective of the German Malagasy Cooperation Program:
The protection, sustainable and climate-resilient use of natural resources is expanding.
Specific objective of PLAE V:
In the intervention areas, sustainable soil management contributes to the AFR100 / Restoration of Landscapes and Forests (RPF) initiative and to the sustainable production of wood (especially wood energy).
The intended impacts of the project are to contribute in a sustainable way:
- To the reduction of pressure on natural forests (deforestation/forest degradation; threat to protected areas);
- To the improvement, directly or indirectly, of the economic situation of the beneficiaries: farmers, stockbreeders, and municipalities;
- To the mitigation, directly or indirectly, of the effects of climate change.
Type of services provided:
AHT intervenes under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAEP) to whom AHT provides support for the implementation of Phase V of the PLAE in the regions of DIANA, Boeny and, in part, Betsiboka. Increasingly, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) is integrated into the programme's activities. The main services are:
- Technical and financial management of the entire program, including a part of the RPI-Fund on behalf of the MAEP;
- The establishment of communal forests on degraded land (7,000 ha of afforestation and assisted natural regeneration, pilot approach);
- Reforestation on degraded land (3,500 ha), support for the wood-energy sector and to the “energy biomass” value chain;
- Agroforestry measures (6,500 ha), anti-erosion measures and conservation agriculture (800 ha) on degraded or degrading land;
- Measures for sedentary and sustainable pasture (3,500 ha) on degraded land without the use of fire;
- Land tenure security for land managed in a sustainable manner and support for spatial planning in order to promote rural development and the protection of biodiversity;
- Support to village associations and groups (more than a third of whom are women) in planning, management, and monitoring;
- Investments in municipal infrastructure, especially for land security, and erosion control measures;
- Dissemination of experiences acquired through exchange visits.
Ministry to the Presidency in charge of Agriculture and Livestock (MPAE) |
BMZ through KfW |
10/2019 – 10/2022 |
Contract value: 1,968,815 € |