Sustainable Approaches to Viable Environmental Management (SAVEM)

September 1991 - September 2000

Please note that this is a closed, archived program.

Madagascar is one of the planet's richest depositories of biodiversity, yet this richness is in grave jeopardy from environmental degradation associated with over-exploitation of the island nation's land and marine resources. Poverty is the main engine behind the destruction of this rich habitat. Madagascar's farmers, fishers, loggers, and charcoal makers, who are desperately poor (annual income per capita is estimated at $190) do what they must because they see no viable economic alternatives.

For 85% of Malagasy the only source of income and sustenance is a rural economy based largely on the exploitation of natural resources using rudimentary and unsustainable technology. Attempts to claim and protect resources have fueled a deep resentment on the part of people who have seen conservation efforts deprive them of their traditional rights of access to the means of feeding their families.

Under the coordination and oversight of a semi-private Malagasy National Parks Service (ANGAP), Pact worked over the past eight years as prime with a consortium of international conservation NGOs (World Wildlife Fund, CARE, Conservation International, VITA, The State University of New York at Stonybrook's Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, and Cornell University's Center for Food and Agricultural Drought) to identify, through the implementation of Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs), development strategies, activities and participatory management structures to stabilize or reduce pressures on the natural resources in and around Madagascar's system of national parks.

A key underpinning of the ICDP concept in Madagascar was to support behavior change in local populations that led to less environmentally destructive activities by demonstrating the relationship between economic and social well being and the conservation of national parks and protected area resources. Efforts supported by Pact and implemented by the international and national NGO partners focused on the creation of economically viable income-generating alternatives for the Malagasy living in the area. Working with local community partners, the NGOs researched sustainable income-generating activities, such as biodiversity prospecting, ecotourism and sustainable utilization of natural resources that promote conservation and provide a livelihood for the rural population.

Local NGOs played a critical role in this approach. Most NGOs, however, lacked management and financial skills and few had mastered the subtle role of speaking for a community without taking over their voice. One of SAVEM's primary objectives was to support the development of truly representative local NGOs by encouraging the international NGOs to take a more proactive stance in the identification, capacity building and sharing of management responsibilities with local NGOs.

In order to respond to a series of environmental emergencies that developed during the course of 1998, USAID extended SAVEM through December 1999 in order to permit Pact and its partners ANGAP and WWF International to address issues of mining in and around protected areas. Additionally, support was provided to the Malagasy National Office for the Environment and their partners the Natural Resources Institute (UK) to support environmental assessment of national locust control efforts. Finally, support was provided to Montana State University to pursue the development of an indigenous Malagasy fungus as a biopathagen for the national locust control efforts.

Pact's Approach

In addition to serving as prime, Pact provided direct investment in and development of local Malagasy institutions through two mechanisms. First, the LOVA program provided mentoring, training and technical assistance to local NGOs in strategic planning, project development, financial management and technical skills. Second, Pact's small-scale community action grants program provided direct financial support to fledgling community groups and NGOs for the development and implementation of ICDP-related conservation and development activities.

Results

• Permitted the validation of the initial project hypothesis, namely that economic development and biodiversity conservation are two sides of the same coin. One cannot have sustainable development and rational use of natural resources without sustainable economic and social development, and vice-versa.
• Provided technical assistance and training to ANGAP, Madagascar's young national park service, to be responsible for management of the national parks in Madagascar, enabling it to take over full management responsibility for five of the most important parks in Madagascar.
• Supported the development and accessibility of extensive environmental and biodiversity databases
• Supported the development of human resources in many different fields related to both environmental conservation and development
• Worked with 34 local NGOs, using Pact's organizational capacity assessment tools to establish baseline data on each NGO's organizational capacity and designed training programs for each NGO based on the results. To date, 12 of these 34 partner NGOs have evolved into "mature" organizations.
• Through training of development practitioners and the training of trainers, introduced the methodology of participatory rural appraisal, which is now integral to many environmental programs in Madagascar.
• Provided institutional development assistance in financial and grant management systems to Tany Meva, a newly created local foundation, so that it now functions as a local grants manager.
• Awarded subgrants to the Malagasy National Environment Office (ONE) and the UK-based Natural Resources Institute to support the development of national institutional and human resource capacities in the ecological monitoring and impact evaluation of pesticide use in the national campaign against locusts. ONE's capacity has been substantially reinforced and results of the ecological monitoring studies have lead to significant modifications in the types and methods of pesticides used in the national campaign.
• Awarded a subgrant to Montana State University for the development and field-testing, in collaboration with the Malagasy Department of Plant Protection, of indigenous biopathegens for use in locust control activities.
• Awarded a subgrant to WWF/Madagascar Program Office to support the Northern Regional Coordination Committee's efforts in controlling the illicit exploitation and mining of sapphires in a major National Park of the Antsiranana Region. This subgrant also supports the organization of a national policy meeting regarding steps to be taken to reconcile mineral exploitation and biodiversity protection/conservation goals from a multi-ministerial and multisectoral standpoint.