Preservation of biodiversity: top priority parks and areas

Guy Suzon Ramangason, chief executive officer, stated that the MNP’s mission has to make positive impact on long term concrete development: “We are nature park managers. There is plenty of opportunities to develop, which we exploit best we can, be it in the field of tourism or anything else. You merely have to compare snapshots of Ranohira or Ranomafana to what now stands to make an idea of what has been successfully developed so far” he declared.
Ecotourism has long been famed as a factor of local economic development as well as a reliable supply of funds to the management of nature parks. “The main challenge consists in stabilizing the financial supply of funds to preservation activities through legal means” added Madagascar National Parks’ number one. He revealed that the foreign fund suppliers’ reluctance to make deals with the previous ruling power dented the environment preservation programs’ safes by 30% of the expected $ 3.5 million. Category 1, 2 and 4 parks managed by Madagascar National Parks only tolerate activities like tourism and scientific research. The World Wildlife Fund operates in the category 5 and 6 protected areas, in which production activities may be conducted in compliance with full respect of nature. The local populations are generally in charge of the peripheral protections of the concerned area.
The MNP-WWF joint venture in Madagascar and throughout the Western Indian Ocean will be focusing over the next three years biodiversity protection and preservation programs as much as on the scavenging of fund supplies. This partnership encompasses 67 protected zones and national parks managed by the MNP as well as six of the WWF’s top priority areas in Madagascar, namely the green corridor of Fandriana Vondrozo, the land mangrove carpet of Tsiribihina, the land and sea landscape of the Mahafaly plate, the Mandrare area, the Amber Cape undersea nature and the large forests of the North… no less than 2 millions of Ha of land. Both groups are quite literally joining forces and expertise to reach much more conclusive results.
First instance of cooperation: first success at Tsimanampetsotsa
This partnership will materialize in several fields of activities like nature preservation oriented education, territory management plans, ground exploitation, local governance, support to village development programs and so on… “The clear geographic overview over landscapes, parks, reservations and villages provide us with the opportunity to figure the optimal preservation and promotion programs out for these areas and their substantial natural ecologic wealth” explained Guy Suzon Ramangason.
“For the sake of efficiency performance and coordination of biodiversity preservation programs together with local long term development, we decided to capitalize our respective commitments on the ground” declared Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, number one of the WWF MWIOPO. This agreement is the consequence of a first successful cooperation which led to the integration of the National Park of Tsimanampetsotsa into the WWF’s air monitoring program. Photos snapped from above actively contributed to sensitize the local populations about the negative impact of deforestation and fire clearing in and out of the park’s boundaries. They subsequently agreed on giving a try on new agricultural techniques.