Carbon Sequestration for Linking Conservation and Rural Development in Madagascar: The Case of the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor Restoration and Conservation Carbon Project

Abstract

The carbon market recently appeared as a new way to finance conservation programs in Madagascar. Based on an analysis of a pioneer carbon sequestration project co-financed by the Biocarbon Fund of the World Bank, I contend in this article that this new approach will fail to contribute to the protection of Malagasy biodiversity. A first argument is that carbon projects will inherit rural development practices and discourses that did not lead to successful agricultural intensification until now. For this reason, they will fail to compensate farmers for the land lost by reforestation. A second argument is that the potential profits generated by carbon sale provide a supplementary motive for the appropriation of resources by the state and other actors, to the detriment of local communities. I conclude that in order to make carbon sequestration an effective tool for conservation, it is necessary to implement successful agricultural development activities, to guarantee the use rights of local communities, and to channel to them the most significant part of the carbon profits. This last strategy should not be regarded as a payment for environmental service. Rather, it is the just granting of usufruct to communities that have legitimate use rights on reforested land.

KEYWORDS:

• agroforestry
• carbon sequestration
• land-use change
• Madagascar
• political economy
• slash-and-burn cultivation

The author gratefully thanks the persons involved in the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor Restoration and Conservation Carbon Project for the time they dedicated to him and for their friendly welcome. Thanks are also extended to the farmers from Ambavaniasy; to the committee members James P. Lassoie and Steven A. Wolf; Ronald J. Herring, who provided great conditions to implement the author's research; and to the anonymous reviewers.