Wetland Conservation in Madagascar
 R Safford
The Bemamba wetland complex IBA is one of the richest wetlands in western Madagascar.
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The rich and extraordinary biodiversity that is concentrated in Madagascar has been celebrated for centuries, while the high level of threat to this biodiversity is also universally agreed. Madagascar is now among the world's highest priority regions for conservation effort.
BirdLife has been working in Madagascar since 1997, and much of this work has been guided by BirdLife’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) programme. Madagascar’s IBA directory was completed in late 1999 with the publication of the book Zones d'Importance pour la Conservation des Oiseaux à Madagascar, later summarised as a chapter in Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands. (For more on IBAs in Africa: click here)
Wetlands conservation is among the highest priorities identified by this IBA analysis and other research, such as the annually updated IUCN Red List. Ten of the fourteen Endangered or Critically Endangered birds in Madagascar are wetland species.
This programme is being implemented by BirdLife in collaboration with local and national partners including the Direction Générale des Eaux et Forêts and the Association Nationale de Gestion des Aires Protégées. The leading non-government partner is Asity, the Malagasy bird conservation NGO, which has been involved in all activities reported on this page. Asity have led much of the survey and monitoring work, often resulting in many exciting discoveries. The organisation has done much to build awareness and support for conservation, especially of wetlands, among the Malagasy public.
The wetlands of western Madagascar
Madagascar has extensive wetlands, yet lacks vast networks like the lakes of east Africa. For bird conservation purposes, Malagasy wetlands have been divided into two Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs): western and eastern, corresponding to the dry, low-lying western region; and the humid, mountainous east.
The West Malagasy Wetlands EBA is a 26,000 square km complex of lakes, rivers, marshes, deltas, rocky shorelines and mangroves. It is the unique habitat of six threatened species: one Critically Endangered (Madagascar Fish Eagle), four Endangered (Madagascar Heron, Madagascar Sacred Ibis, Madagascar Teal, Sakalava Rail) and one Vulnerable (Madagascar Plover); these occur alongside four other threatened species that are also found in the East.
Wetlands have long been important to the Malagasy people for fishing, hunting and agriculture. However, under the changing circumstances of recent decades, resource use has changed, becoming more intensive and less discerning, to a degree that seriously threatens native biodiversity. The most grave and widespread threats are: conversion of wetland habitat to intensive rice production or drainage for upland crops; hunting of birds, particularly at nesting and moulting sites; and overfishing, particularly using fine-mesh nets, affecting birds and turtles as well as endemic fish. Invasive alien species, especially plants and fish, have also become abundant locally, altering the character and species composition of many wetlands, as well as contributing to extinctions of some endemic fish.
 Marc Rabenandrasana/BirdLife
Sakalava Rail is severely threatened by the widespread and rapid degradation and destruction of wetlands in Madagascar.
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Wetlands and their conservation in Madagascar
BirdLife's priority sites in the West Malagasy Wetlands EBA are both large complexes of wetlands, each exceeding 1,000 square km. Both form the delta of a major river, the lower reaches of the river and associated freshwater marshes, and many associated lakes.
The Mahavavy Delta wetlands IBA includes the largest lake in the region, Lake Kinkony. The Lake Ihotry Hunting Reserve - Mangoky Delta complex IBA is at the foot of Madagascar's largest catchment. The two sites are now usually referred to as the Mahavavy-Kinkony and Mangoky-Ihotry complexes, respectively, recognising that among the wetlands are also important and biologically spectacular areas of dryland forest and caves.
All of the threatened wetland species listed above have been recorded at one or both of the sites. Uniquely, the Mahavavy-Kinkony complex holds them all, including the very rare and almost unknown Sakalava Rail, found at Lake Kinkony in 2003 (see photo, right). Counts of up to 285 Madagascar Teal, the most ever recorded at one site, have also been made there.
Western Malagasy wetlands are centres of productivity in a largely unproductive land. This makes them vital for local people to safeguard. Wetland users have made clear their determination to manage their wetlands sustainably and to conserve their biodiversity. But they need help to be allowed access to opportunities to do this, which BirdLife is providing.
This local demand has been greatly strengthened by the Madagasar government’s initiative to treble the area of natural ecosystems that are protected in a way that also makes their benefits sustainable and available to local people. This initiative has become an integral part of the country's development, as set out in the government's Madagascar Action Plan.
 Marc Rabenandrasana/BirdLife
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BirdLife's approach to wetlands conservation
BirdLife's programme to undertake wetland site conservation work in Madagascar began in 2002.
The first step towards conserving the sites was to build a consensus among the many organisations and local people concerned, regarding the need for controlled management of the wetlands so that their benefits -local, national and global- could be maintained. Under Malagasy law, local communities can acquire rights to control management of resources through a series of steps, of which the creation and strengthening of local associations is crucial.
Management agreements that integrate scientifically-based and traditional resource management and protection systems were then facilitated and are now monitored by the government's local technical services, working alongside other organisations including BirdLife, Asity and specialist local and national NGOs.
Under the programme, associations (whose goals include biodiversity conservation) have been established at both sites. Helping communities to exercise their rights through these associations is proving to be a very successful and economical conservation measure.
While small-scale resource-use is the main livelihood activity for communities dependent on the wetlands, there are other users, such as agribusiness, aquaculture (including shrimp farms), and ecotourism.
At both sites, BirdLife has helped to establish a legally recognised 'umbrella' body which, supported by central government, will eventually take responsibility for site management. This is composed of all interested organisations, including the associations, private sector, local government and traditional leaders. It is similar to the large Local Conservation Group or Network programmes that run in other BirdLife countries and territories. For more information see 'Site Support Groups' in Africa.
New protected areas
Under the Madagascar Action Plan, the Mahavavy-Kinkony and Mangoky-Ihotry complexes will become new Protected Areas, each managed by its 'umbrella' body. These bodies will work to overriding principles, making benefits sustainable and focusing on community participation, rather than working through strict exclusion policies which would be neither feasible nor ethical in ecosystems of such great socio-economic importance.
A huge step towards this was taken in January 2007, with the signature of an interministerial decree on the temporary protection of the 268,000 ha of the Mahavavy-Kinkony complex (see Madagascar protects wetlands crucial for people and birds, 21 January 2007). Such decrees give an initial level of legal protection while safeguarding local uses: objectives are set; preliminary boundaries, zoning plans and the management body are defined; and activities permitted or banned. A full management plan is now being developed, to allow permanent protection within two years. Temporary protection for the Mangoky-Ihotry wetlands is expected in late 2007.
Thanks to these activities, the extent and condition of the wetlands and the populations of threatened species at the two sites appear to have been largely maintained since 1998, when BirdLife teams first visited the region. There is much more to do to put management and conservation on to a sustainable footing, but thanks to the general consensus on the importance of wetland conservation in Madagascar (which itself has changed greatly over the past ten years), there is every chance that the biodiversity and other wonders of these wetlands can be conserved for the foreseeable future.
Funding for this work comes from the UK Department of International Development, British Birdwatching Fair, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, MacArthur Foundation, Conservation International (Madagascar) Center for Conservation Biology, and Tubney's Charitable Trust.
For more information contact:
Ms. Vony Raminoarisoa, Director, BirdLife International Madagascar Programme,
Address: BP 1074, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
Phone: +261 20 22 53607
Email: zicoma@birdlife-mada.org