SEED Madagascar

The African continent is the most vulnerable to climate change. Disproportionally, it only contributes two to three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, whilst the effects are going to cost trillions of dollars. Africa’s annual climate change adaptation costs are expected to reach US$50 billion by 2050 and to meet their own Nationally Determined Contributions (UNEP, 2015), African states need more than US$3 trillion in investments by 2030 (African Development Bank Group, 2015). November always presents a chance to secure (additional) international investments and partnerships as the world’s leaders converge for the annual Conference of the Parties (COP). At this year’s summit, the need to increase international funding to support African (and other) developing states was of high importance, as underscored by the UN Secretary General: 

[..] at the beginning of COP27, I am calling for a historic Pact between developed and emerging economies – a Climate Solidarity Pact. [..] A Pact in which wealthier countries and International Financial Institutions provide financial and technical assistance to help emerging economies [..] It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact or a Collective Suicide Pact (UN, 2022).

 Madagascar is one such participant that has been seeking climate change mitigation assistance. Just a few years ago when the Paris Agreement was signed, Madagascar was already in the top ten of countries suffering most from climate change, and since then, the situation has worsened. Between 2015 and 2021, below average rainfall was consistently recorded and a resulting famine in the south was affecting more than 1.14 million people just last year – around half of the region’s population (UN OCHA, 2022; Amnesty, 2021).

With droughts, bushfires also become more likely. Using satellite infrared imagery provided by NASA, and analysed by Global Forest Watch, more than 10,000 fire alerts were reported across Madagascar last year. These fires destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of forest and they were not an anomaly. The worst years have destroyed upwards of 50,000 hectares annually. Peak fire season has now started in Madagascar, and weekly fire alerts are already exceeding 1,000 instances (Figure A; Global Forest Watch, 2022). 

 

SEED Madagascar’s Project Ala (the Malagasy word for forest) is set in the Sainte Luce littoral forest (SLLF), southeast Madagascar, and at times, a simple spark will be enough to start a blaze. Working with local communities to increase fire prevention and mitigation is of high importance and has been made possible due to support from our generous donor Seacology. 

 

In our July blog, the Project Ala team reported how the project had monitored fires, organised training sessions, and supported the community to ratify fire prevention strategies into dina (local law), such as prohibiting the starting of fires around corridors and forest edges.

Since then, to continue pursuing increased fire mitigation and prevention awareness, community mobilisation events were held in the communities of Sainte Luce, Mahatalaky, and Ebakika, with over 250 community members in attendance. At the events, individual responsibility as well as the group’s collective ability to prevent and mitigate fires was the key message. The event also included a large firefighting demonstration. 

Just as important as having an increased sense of awareness, is having an increased set of firefighting resources to work with. In the past, communities were only able to use dry branches as firefighting materials, as water and sand are often inaccessible and would need to be carried on foot. As an affordable, scalable, and effective firefighting tool was not readily available for purchase, the Ala team conducted research and designed a prototype. This resulted in the creation of a fire beater made from a three-metre-long stick and upcycled rubber conveyor belts. A total of 50 such fire beaters are currently in use by the communities (Figure B).

Due to the diligent efforts of three Community Fire Wardens recording fires in their communities, the Ala team is able to monitor incidences of bushfires in the communities. A large fire struck in August near one of the Project Ala forest corridors in Sainte Luce. The fire stretched the community’s resources too thin, and a hectare of land was burnt. To ensure the community was ready for peak fire season, additional training sessions were provided. 

In September and October, as winds picked up, fires were becoming increasingly fearsome and frequent. The communities were able to achieve some great successes in fighting fires! Two large fires were stopped by the communities of Ebakika and Sainte Luce, and in both instances the fire beating technique was widely adopted. Many smaller fires were also tackled just as effectively. SEED’s Reforestation Coordinator Sylvia Rakotoarison was able to hear from community members first-hand: 

They [the fire beaters] are perfect and make fighting the fires so much easier. 

The response and determination that the communities show time and time again is truly extraordinary - and so hard to convey. To set the scene: when a blaze starts, the race is on. Community members need to be alerted as soon as possible. The trained Community Fire Wardens will need to be one of the first to react. They grab their whistles and race through the community rallying anyone and everyone available. With haste, the fire beaters are removed from storage and with unfathomable athleticism, community members will run to the blaze – whilst carrying the three-metre-long beater – then heave-and-smack and heave-and-smack until the fire is out: they’re fighting the effects of climate change one emphatic smack at a time.

The achievements realised by these three communities to protect their livelihoods, Endangered species, and one of the few remaining littoral forests in Madagascar, although extraordinary, are unlikely to have reached those on the COP27 summit floor. On the other hand, and rather contradictorily, what is finalised at COP27 will affect these local communities. The Global Forest Finance Pledge is a prime example worth monitoring at future COPs. 12 states during COP26 agreed to “provide support for climate mitigation and adaptation, help address the systemic drivers of forest loss, and enable the conservation, sustainable management, and restoration of forests.” They pledged $12 billion of support by 2025, of which $1.7 billion is meant for local (and indigenous) communities – like the ones Project Ala works with (WRI, 2021; UK COP 26, 2021). The targeted community response and established importance make this something to watch. But whereas the funds acquired may seem large, the challenge is even larger. The latest United Nation Environment Programme’s report – February 2022 - was published long after the pledge was made and still predicted a growing increase in extreme fires globally: 

14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by the end of 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century” (UNEP, 2022).

In other words, what happens globally – or what does not happen globally – will remain incredibly important and affect the lives of local communities. In the south of Madagascar though, communities cannot wait for global finances to trickle down or global warming to be reined in. The need to mitigate and prevent bushfires is a concern that is here to stay; Project Ala will continue to monitor the situation and assess how we can provide support. To keep building a targeted firefighting response, training and equipment will also be provided in an additional community, Tsiharoa, and an extra 94 fire beaters will be constructed and shared among all the communities. In sum, forest fires are here to stay, but hopefully, so too are the communities’ successes.

 

References:

African Development Bank Group. (2015). Climate change in Africa. 
https://www.afdb.org/en/cop25/climate-change-africa 

Amnesty. (2021). It will be too late to help us once we are dead: The human rights impact of climate change in drought-stricken southern Madagascar. 
https://reliefweb.int/report/madagascar/it-will-be-too-late-help-us-once-we-are-dead-human-rights-impact-climate-change 

Global Forest Watch. (2022). Madagascar dashboard.
Global Forest Watch

INDRI. (2022). Madagascar.
https://www.facebook.com/solutions.indri/ 
https://indri.solutions/qui-sommes-nous/ 

UK COP 2026. (2021). The global forest finance pledge. 
https://ukcop26.org/the-global-forest-finance-pledge/ 

UN. (2022). Secretary-General's remarks to high-level opening of COP27.
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2022-11-07/secretary-generals-remarks-high-level-opening-of-cop27 

UNEP. (2015). Costs of climate change adaptation expected to rise far beyond Africa's coping capacity even if warming kept below 2°C. 
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/costs-climate-change-adaptation-expected-rise-far-beyond-africas 

UNEP. (2015). Number of wildfires to rise by 50% by 2100 and governments are not prepared, experts warn.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/number-wildfires-rise-50-2100-and-governments-are-not-prepared 

UN OCHA. (2022). Madagascar: Drought - 2018-2022. 
https://reliefweb.int/disaster/dr-2018-000141-mdg 

World Resources Institute. (2021). What COP26 means for forests and the climate. 
https://www.wri.org/insights/what-cop26-means-forests-climate