After six amazing months in Madagascar, our time with Ny Tanintsika came to an end in March 2015. We were sad to leave this beautiful country and people. This island, named by some as the eighth continent, is so rich in culture and energy; despite being incredibly financially poor and politically unstable; the people really make the most of what they have with a strong sense of community. We made many good friends and learned so much from our experiences. Hopefully we contributed to the organisation at least partly as much as we gained. We really were so impressed that the staff manage to make so much progress with such little funding or government support. Their tireless effort was incredibly inspiring.

We had a great farewell, the staff organised delicious snacks and music. We received a lovely hat and a locally made bright orange handbag with photos inside of our time at Ny Tanintsika. We also went to karaoke and danced with the staff at a local nightclub; this was a lot of fun. We wish you all the very best Ny Tanintsika, but for now we can only say Misaotra betsaka (many thanks) for all your lessons and support and Mandra Piona (see you later). We are thankful to Eugenie for guiding us, providing feedback and spending time showing us projects in Ambositra. Thank you to Sam for her guidance, support and patience with our many questions, you are an inspiration! We would also like to send heartfelt thanks to all the staff. Thank you for your help, guidance, and Malagasy lessons. Without your support and assistance we would not have been able to contribute as we had hoped. And of course, a huge thank you to Jamie for saying yes to us in the first place! There are so many other people we are eternally grateful to, so thank you everyone at Ny Tanintsika, we really do hope to return to this colourful, energetic country in the not too distant future.

If you want know more about this NGO, please visit our page on Feedback Madagascar / Ny Tanintsika or www.feedback.org.

While working at Ny Tanintsika we were fortunate to be invited on a workshop to Ibity with Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) and Kew Madagascar (KMCC). Ibity is a small community in the central highlands of Madagascar located roughly 20km south from Antsirabe. The workshop was to identify critical ecosystem characteristics and other factors for consideration in developing a management plan for the area. This included fire regime, Tapia woodland restoration and the enhancement of existing gallery forests. Essential to a successful day we required an injection of caffeine. We shared morning coffees at a local bakery over introductions and a general discussion about MGB’s desired outcomes from the session. The charismatic Chris Birkinshaw is the project lead for MBG in Madagascar and led the discussions. He had invited local Kew environmental and restoration specialists, members from the worldwide MBG team and Stuart Cable, Kew Research leader for Madagascar.

The Ibity massif is a 6000ha quartz mountain that has been flagged as a priority area for conservation due to the large number of locally endemic plant species found there. The area contains diverse grasslands and regular rocky outcrops that lead to drainage gullies covered by some taller trees and shrubs known as gallery forests. On bands across the hillsides are small pockets of remnant Tapia woodland. Holcim (one of Madagascar’s largest cement producers) has a factory adjacent to the proposed conservation area. The company, after lobbying, has agreed to support the project and help the local community with funding to protect this unique landscape.

Our first stop at the Ibity project site was a remnant pocket of Tapia woodland. Tapia is important to the local communities as it provides edible fruit and silk cocoons. The cocoons are produced by a moth that feeds on Tapia leaves and is endemic to the highlands of Madagascar. Tapia woodland tends to occupy areas of shallow soils with rocky outcrops. This has also helped to protect the woodlands from deforestation for agricultural land as it typically grows around rocks on impoverished lands.

The field trip and workshop showed there is good understanding in the significance of numerous ecosystems/biomes in Madagascar however limited in detail to understand why some systems are failing. Madagascar has many varied environments which differ in their responses and adaptations to human interference.  More scientific investigation and experimentation is urgently required to develop detailed management plans for numerous areas of environmental significance.

Madagascar has a fast growing population that is largely impoverished and has dramatically changed the landscape at an alarmingly rate. More collaboration is required between organisations and departments with similar aims and objectives. Due to limited funding and participation, organizations needs to actively share information to avoid wasting resources on duplication. The trip to Ibity was rewarding and our sharing ideas and information will hopefully lead to better outcomes for the conservation of the Ibity massif and its stunning landscapes.