SEED Madagascar

As stated by the United Nations Secretary-General, “Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment.”  From shifting weather patterns that cause drought and threaten food production, to increasingly severe storms that destroy homes and communities, the impacts of climate change are global in scope, unprecedented in scale and are projected to increase in frequency and severity¹. Speaking at COP26, Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina addressed the impact of climate change in Madagascar, saying “the consequences are disastrous, particularly for the south of Madagascar.” All around the world, the people least responsible for the climate crisis are paying the highest price for inaction, particularly vulnerable communities in the Global South and those that SEED work with. Between 1933 and 2019, Madagascar has produced less than 0.01% of all the carbon dioxide generated², yet parts of southern Madagascar are currently facing the most severe drought since 1981 and a climate change-induced famine³. This crisis highlights the climate injustice playing out across the planet and stresses the importance of governments, organisations and individuals taking action to lower global carbon emissions. 

At SEED Madagascar, we recognise that our operations have a negative impact on the environment through carbon emissions. To date, our ‘Positive Footprints’ project has led us to move our main office in Fort Dauphin away from fossil fuel energy to solar energy, as well as launch a savings initiative to promote the use of fuel-efficient stoves amongst our staff. Now, we are turning our attention to offsetting carbon emissions of our school building project, Sekoly. 

Since 2005, Project Sekoly has improved access to education for children in Anosy through the construction and repair of education infrastructure. Unfortunately, this produces unavoidable carbon emissions through the production and transport of materials such as cement, rebar, metal roofing, steel wire and paint. To offset the carbon footprint of Project Sekoly and create a positive footprint, our new project ‘Sekoly Maintso’, or ‘Green School’, will offset the carbon emissions produced by school builds through the planting of trees in local communities.

The construction team is currently hard at work building the Emagnevy Primary School in the rural commune of Mahatalaky. This will mark our first carbon neutral school. To ensure the sustainability of the initiative, SEED has been working closely with the school and the wider community in Emagnevy. Community land has been designated for two plantations, one to offset the carbon footprint of the school (CO plantation) and one for sustainable community resource use (RU plantation). 

325 trees must be planted in the CO plantation to offset the 65,046kgCO²e carbon footprint of the school over a period of ten years, ensuring that these trees remain standing. SEED will plant an additional 325 trees to offset the carbon emissions of a future school build, planting 650 trees at the CO plantation in total. Given the high mortality rate of native seedlings, fast-growing and drought-tolerant Acacia Mangium trees will be planted initially to establish a canopy. Afterwards, we intend to gradually replace these non-native trees with shade-thriving native species to prevent the Acacia from becoming dominant. Fruit trees were identified as a desired resource by the community, therefore a variety of trees, such as breadfruit, will be planted around the CO plantation to promote environmental stewardship and to serve as a food source for the school community. 

Many households are highly dependent on wood in the Anosy region, for example for firewood or timber for house construction. Therefore, in return for the provision of community land, SEED will plant a further 325 Acacia trees for community use in the RU plantation, aiming to address local resource demand and to protect the trees planted for carbon sequestration. This will provide the community with a continuous supply of wood, harvested rotationally beyond year five of the project. The establishment, monitoring, and management of the plantation will be conducted in partnership with Emagnevy Primary School to develop local ownership of the scheme and build capacity for its sustainable management in the future. 

Project Sekoly Maintso: Emagnevy is now well underway. The ‘groundbreaking’ ceremony, a traditional part of Malagasy culture practised at the beginning of a house construction, has taken place and the walls of the buildings have been constructed. In the coming months, the plantation land will be cleared and the first Acacia seedlings will be planted together with the Emagnevy community. Planning for further carbon neutral schools is also in progress. We strongly believe that this initiative can bring about many environmental and social benefits to the communities we work with, whilst also playing a small part in reducing global carbon emissions.

References 

1. IPCC (2018). Global Warming of 1.5 oC. [online] Ipcc.ch. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/.
2. Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2020). CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Our World in Data. [online] Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/madagascar.
3. Madagascar on the brink of climate change-induced famine. (2021). BBC News. [online] 24 Aug. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-58303792.