News

Aligning mountain development with Malgasy policy

11.02.2015

As part of its commitment to the Mountain Partnership (MP), Madagascar has developed a reference document that aims to align the sustainable development of mountain areas with the environmental guidelines of the General National Policy.

This paper builds on the international and national concept of sustainable development in mountain regions. It disseminates the experiences and achievements acquired in Madagascar while highlighting the geographical distribution of mountains and actions. Since it is a national framework document, it outlines scenarios of sustainable development of mountain areas in Madagascar and provides strategic guidance in the priority areas.

In addition, it suggests opportunities for the integration of sustainable mountain development in the implementation of the environmental policy directions of the General National Policy. The paper looks at the modalities of implementation of this strategy in terms of stakeholders, resources and monitoring. These scenarios are also complementary to the objective of Madagascar on sustainable development in mountain regions.

On the institutional side, the establishment of a National Committee will be proposed. A committee that will ensure the coordination and monitoring of mountain development activities and a discussion on its structure, mission, composition and implementation will be held. 

Mountain areas cover a significant part (17.54 percent) of Madagascar. They play a major economic and ecological role. In fact, mountains supply water for paddy fields and good quality freshwater for the population. They also ensure downstream activities, such as rice production in the lowlands and fertile plains. However, because of population increase, mountains are threatened with water shortages and deforestation, which leads to erosion, the silting of rice fields and floods in the lowlands. As a consequence, since 2013, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Ecology of Madagascar became an MP member. 

Read more

Photo: Flickr/Dennis Tang