Restoring Malagasy Forests
Malagasy forests are globally recognised biodiversity hotspots. They also directly support the livelihoods of people in rural communities. However, they are increasingly threatened due to logging, wildfires and changing land use. The Mangabe forest restoration project brings members of the community together to regenerate lost forest, creating a vital buffer against deforestation.
Forests Under Fire
Malagasy forests are fundamental to the health of the wider environment. Many of the species in the forests of Madagascar are highly endemic (live only in specific, restricted regions).
The forests play an important role in regulating the climate and water supply and in providing habitats and food for a host of forest species, including aye-ayes and other lemur species. Despite these critical functions, Malagasy forests are highly threatened due to shifting cultivation, exploitation of timber, and wildfires, and as a result are being lost at an exceptional rate.
Currently, it is predicted that only 3% of Madagascar’s original forest will remain by 2025. It is vital to restore Madagascar’s lost forest cover, with its extraordinary level of biodiversity and high value to some of the world’s poorest communities.
The Seeds of Change
Chester Zoo has developed strong, long-term partnerships with three well-established conservation organisations within Madagascar: Madagasikara Voakajy, Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group and Missouri Botanical Gardens.
All three are working to help fulfil the country’s commitment to restoring more than 4 million hectares of forest and degraded lands under the Bonn Challenge pledge. We are supporting them as they focus on ecological restoration projects, which include a combination of planting nursery grown seedlings (active restoration) and promoting natural regeneration (passive restoration).
Amazing conservation success stories have emerged from this work [links], but we need to keep up the momentum. Forest restoration in Madagascar is challenged by a lack of standardised guidelines and restoration initiatives are often conducted at small scale. Plant nursery staff may find themselves working in isolation with limited opportunities to engage with and learn from other practitioners working in a similar context.
This project fosters sustainable inter-organisational knowledge exchange, allowing participants in Madagascar and the UK to upskill existing and new nursery workers through mutual support. This supports both forest regrowth and local livelihoods.
Sharing Skills
Chester Zoo has organised nursery exchange workshops to bring together expertise from Madagasikara Voakajy, Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group and Missouri Botanical Gardens.
These exchanges were led by experienced senior members from each Malagasy organisation and supported by Chester Zoo horticulturalists. Activities included work on grafting, cutting and the use of liquid fertilisers and bio-pesticides.
Attendees shared insights and advice and facilitated knowledge sharing between nursery teams. The event was highly successful, with participants thriving in the peer-to-peer learning environment.
Data collected before and after the sessions indicated that participants significantly increased both their knowledge and their confidence. The attendees have remained in touch and continue to learn from each other months later, sharing challenges and solutions.
Growing Together
Beyond the workshops, the participating organisations are taking a cascading approach to education. For example, Chester Zoo and our Malagasy partners joined ‘train-the-trainers’ education sessions, allowing them to equip other potential educators in Madagascar to spread best practice in plant nursery activities and forest regeneration.
Together, we have produced training videos and other learning resources for use in the field. This is a highly collaborative project, with Chester Zoo horticulturalists and Malagasy nursery workers learning from each other in a supportive environment.
It is early days for this project, which was established in 2024, but it is already yielding results. Malagasy nursery workers have taken on new skills, such as the ability to quickly create bio pots, which protect seedlings before they gradually and naturally degrade, leaving no trace in the sensitive forest ecosystem. The nursery work has also provided much-needed jobs and incomes for Malagasy women.
Malagasy forests are vanishing at an alarming rate, but projects like this offer green shoots of hope. With your help, we can keep supporting passionate and skilled Malagasy conservationists.
