A non-profit program to combat climate change

DESCRIPTION/CONTEXT :

The fight against deforestation, which is responsible for 17% of global GHG emissions and 28% of C02 emissions (IPCC, 2004), was at the heart of discussions at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, held in Bali in December 2007. The participating countries sent a strong signal by adopting a plan of action aimed at promoting steps in the fight against deforestation at national and local level, and to include fully the fight against deforestation in the post-Kyoto agreement that has still to be defined.

In the context of the growing interest in the use of forests as an instrument to combat climate change, GoodPlanet decided to fund the Holistic Conservation of the Madagascar forests.

THE PROJECT :

The project is being carried out on a surface of 515 000 hectares : 390 000 hecatares of moist forests and 125 000 hectares of spiny forests.
On five seperate sites, 46 field agents (exclusively Madagascan) have been mobilised to manage the :

Creation of 350 000 ha of protected forest area, in line with Madagascar’s commitment to have 6 million ha of protected areas by 2012


Transfer of management of 140 000 ha of natural ressources : from the state to local communities. This concerns thousands of families and they are implicated in the entire process of the transfer of management


Restoration of 20 000 ha of degraded land : vast community plantations and assisted natural regeneration. Use of exclusively native varieties in order to restaure the ecological integrity of fragmented ecosystems


Reforestation of 5 000 ha for energy : to satisfy the communities’ high demand for wood fuel and to take pressure off primary forests.

Location of the activities - Focus on the Andapa site : transfers of management (TGRN) in periphery of new protected area (NAP)

Find more details on these activities and their status report on the WWF internet page.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS:

Reduction of the rates of deforestation


Preserving the stock of 61 to 68 million tons of carbon bound in the forests


Restoration of ecosystems (soils, groundwater, biodiveristy).

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS:

Improvement of the quality of life for local communities due to the diversification of agricultural production and the improvement of their yields.


Encouragement of sustainable agriculture practices


Job creation


Long-term sensitisation of the population on the importance of forest preservation and sustainable management.

THE PROJECT’S CARBON ASSESSMENT:

The potential capture of the forests concerned within the project’s permetres is between 61 and 68 million tons of carbon according to the estimations by the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry Guide (LULUCF) done by the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and various studies carried out in Madagascar. Thus the idea is to preserve as much as possible the current carbon stock of the forests by reducing the rate of deforestation.

The aim of the project is to advance existing scientific knowledge on specific topics, while also following as closely as possible methodologies that are currently being developed, most notably the one developed by the BioCarbon Fund in Madagascar.
To that end, several innovative partnerships at national and international level were formed with research institutions, universities and study organisations :

Land-Use analysis:

Carbon stocks assessment:
Via ground surveys and analysis in laboratory,
1. Accurate measurement of above-ground biomass (stems, branches) in all sites via the development of allometric models adapted to Malagasy forests. Use of IPCC expansion factors for below-ground biomass. Partnership with the University of Agricultural Sciences of Madagascar and with the Unity Goods and Services of Forest Ecosystems of the CIRAD.

Integral weighing of the selected trees, fresh volume measurement and drying of the wood samples


2. Infra-Red Spectrometric measurements on carbon stocks in both litter and soil in Fort-Dauphin and Andapa/Bealanana. Modeling of the evolution of these stocks under the effect of the rise of temperatures. Partnership with the Eco&Soils Unit de l' Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. With the valued collaboration of Madagascar National Parks inside the Andohahela National Parc (UNESCO World Heritage site).

Elaboration of reference scenarios:
1. Historic deforestation rate assessment (from 1990 to 2008) by the Carnegie Institution (Stanford University). Based on the analysis of mid-resolution images (Landsat-30m) and very high resolution images (Spot-2.5m) via CLASlite
2. Socio-economic analysis of agents and drivers of deforestation/degradation
3. Mid-term land-use modeling and leakage assessment. Partnership with ONF International.

Developing an alternative methodology to evaluate above-ground biomass:
the objective of this study is to bring together analysis of both radar (Palsar satellite/Alos sensor) and optical images (Spot5) and ground measurement (dendrometry, Leaf Area Index) aiming at characterising forests structure. Partnership with the UMR 7179 (CNRS/MNHN), the University of Paris-Est - Marne-la-Vallée, the Institute and Observatory of Geophysics of Antananarivo and the Ecole Nationale des Eaux et Forêts of Gabon.

The promotion of the development of mechanisms and models that incorporate the local populations in the process and ensuring that potential funding for emissions reductions projects benefit local communities.


Assisting with the development of a REDD policy of Madagascar, which is part of a group of countries selected by the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. GoodPlanet and the WWF are members of REDD’s Technical Committee, especially created by the Malagasy government.


Use the knowledge acquired to inform international debates during the negotiations on the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol (post-2012).

Want to know more about this country ? Check out Madagascar’s country profile on GoodPlanet.info