A community forest management association supported by a DAI-led project was honored for protecting and reforesting an extraordinary natural forest while developing local agriculture and creating jobs.

The 50-member Adidy Maitso association, which manages 500 hectares of biodiversity-rich forest in eastern Madagascar, this month was presented a 2010 Equator Prize by the United Nations’ Equator Initiative. The association is nominated for an additional award that will be given in September at the UN General Assembly.

Association members are credited with patrolling the protected forest, stopping encroachment, and building a buffer of food-producing farmland around it. Adidy Maitso also manages a tree nursery that produces 10,000 seedlings of native species per year for reforesting. Since the association signed a 2005 forest management contract with the Malagasy government, slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging in their jurisdiction has stopped.

“This forest supports the ecosystem on which local people depend for food, jobs, and shelter,” said DAI’s Thomas K. Erdmann, manager of the now-completed Eco-Regional Initiatives to Promote Alternatives to Slash-And-Burn Practices (ERI), which supported Adidy Maitso from 2005 through 2009. “ERI is proud to have left behind this legacy of an independent and enthusiastic community forest management team and structure that sustainably manages this precious forest.”

ERI, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), assisted the association in operations and governance, forest management—including development and implementation of simple management plans—effective communication, and nursery establishment and production.

The area is part of the Ankeniheny-Zahamena forest corridor, a tract of 400,000 hectares slated to be co-managed by Adidy Maitso, five other local community associations supported by ERI, and the Malagasy Forest Service. The corridor is home to headwaters of rivers that irrigate farms, provide hydroelectricity, and supply local people with household water.

Isolated from neighboring continents by the Indian Ocean, Madagascar and its forests contain an unequalled mix of plants and animals, the vast majority of which are found nowhere else in the world. The forests also serve as carbon sinks to mitigate the effects of climate change on the island nation.

Adidy Maitso is one of 25 Equator Initiative honorees worldwide. The UN is sponsoring an association member to travel to New York to receive the award and participate in related activities during the September 20-24 General Assembly session. A parallel community summit September 15-18 will convene members from the winning communities and include presentations of their initiatives and discussions on biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation.

Development in Practice recently published Mr. Erdmann's article, "Eco-Regional Conservation and Development in Madagascar: A Review of USAID-Funded Efforts in Two Priority Landscapes." For information on the article, click here.