The soils of Madagascar are generally nutrient poor and forests display rapid nutrient cycling. Nutrients in these forests are not readily available as they are tied up in biomass. The majority of native vegetation is dependent on fungal root associations for nutrient uptake. These symbiotic associations between fungi and the roots of plants are termed vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) or ectomycorrhizal (ECM). It is termed ‘symbiotic’ as the fungus obtains carbohydrates (sugars) from the plant and in exchange provides the plant with vital nutrients for growth. It is not possible for the plant to obtain many of these minerals by itself without the fungus. The fungus thus helps plant growth and health by increasing the plants nutrient absorption capability. Examples of these nutrients are phosphate, nitrogen and other minerals. Seedlings produced at community nurseries for reforestation projects often lack these important fungi in potting mix. The absence of mycorrhiza impacts on the health and growth of seedlings resulting in higher mortality rates – in the nursery and once planted in the field.
Ny Tanintsika has begun establishing trials to produce the VAM for seedling production at community nurseries. The process is relatively simple but will hopefully prove essential to the production of healthy native seedlings.
The process used for producing VAM at the community nurseries is detailed below.
root material is collected from the undisturbed forest that contains mycorrhiza of the plant families grown at the nursery
a trench is dug that is 50cm deep but can be varying in width and length (depending on the amount of VAM required)
the trench is lined with a breathable plastic sheet to keep in the moisture & fungus
the collected root material is added to the trench
a small amount of topsoil and compost is placed on top of the forest soil
a mix of rice and bean seeds are sown and the pit is watered
the rice and bean mix is grown for 3 months to help culture the fungi as the roots provide a new medium for mycorrhizal growth
reeds or straw is placed on top to keep the mixture from drying out
after 3 months the rice and bean plants are cut and mixed into the mycorrhizal culture
water drainage is installed to stop rain water running into the mixture (especially during cyclonic events)
after a further 10 days the culture is ready to add into the potting mix in poly bags
1 tablespoon of the culture is added to the poly bags for seedlings
We are based in Fianarantsoa, in the central highlands of Madagascar, for our volunteering work with Feedback Madagascar/ Ny Tanintsika. Fianarantsoa is the 5th largest city in Madagascar and the capital of the Haute Matsiatra region. It was built by the Merina people in the early 19th century for the Betsileo Kingdom when the regions of Madagascar where unified. The Betsileo people are known as very hard working people. Others joke that they are always cold and even wear jumpers on the hottest of days.
The Ny Tanintsika office in Fianarantsoa has about 15 employees and probably another 15 field staff. We are really lucky to be a part of this organisation. The staff are wonderful and have been very welcoming. They are all highly educated and very knowledgeable. Their experiences and willingness to help have made our journey here very enjoyable. We have been lucky to rent a house next to the office. It is very nice – especially for Malagasy standards. There are two bedrooms, a living area, small kitchen with a camping gas burner to cook and a bathroom. We’ve been sharing with a young dutch/german couple completing a University degree in International Development. Washing is very refreshing as we only have cold water. Boiling some hot water makes it possible for us to have the occasional warm bucket shower.
The best things about Fianarantsoa are the Ny Tanintsika staff and local people. Most people are very friendly and say hello when you pass by on the street. We’ve been to Karaoke with locals and had a blast. Singing here feels much easier (and somewhat less embarrassing) than back home. Buying our fresh fruit and vegetables is always an experience. The market place is full of people and getting what you want can be a challenge. Although Fianar is very developed there are still rice paddies wherever houses have not been built. Waterways are sadly full of rubbish as is often the case with cities in developing countries. There are also many fruit trees scattered through the city. There are many peach trees in which you will often find chameleons, rocking back and forth, stalking insects.
Most Vazaha and tourists only stop in Fianarantsoa overnight on their way to Tulear or returning from visiting national parks such as Andringitra, Ranomafana or Isalo. We’ve had a fantastic experience here so far, met some lovely Malagasy people and eaten many wonderful foods. Thanks Fianarantsoa.
Vazah (white stranger) tree – looks like burnt skin
common green gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis)
Yann – a lovely Irish frenchman
red-fronted brown lemur
Eulemur rufifrons
native ebony
a very happy baobab
on the prowl
the fossa walked past me – yikes!
Collared iguanid
Collared iguanid
scar tissue
Kirindy Reserve is a privately managed forest in one of Madagascar’s most threatened ecosystems: its dry deciduous forests. There are many animals with 31 different mammals with 8 species of lemur and it is the best place to see the elusive fossa. There are also 50 different species of reptiles. We highly recommend a visit to Kirindy. If you don’t have time to drive out to Tsingy, a good alternative would be to drive from Morondava to Kirindy, stay one night, do a night walk that evening and a morning walk the next day. After that drive back to Morondava stopping off at the Alle des Baobabs for an amazing sunset. Many tourists visit the Baobabs but if you squint you may just be able to pretend all the other ‘Vazah’ are not there.
We really enjoyed our night walk in Kirindy, we saw several nocturnal lemurs and reptiles. The morning walk was also good, where we saw many diurnal lemurs. We saw a few fossa as well as they come into camp for a drink as water is very scarce in this forest. The forest is certainly dry, don’t expect any lush green rainforests here.
Our only ‘gripe’ about Kirindy was that were were practically forced to stay at the Reserve in a room for 120 000 Ar per night, which was high compared to other accommodation we were staying at in the region. We had wanted to camp, but were told that the fossa will eat our tent…hmmm. We felt like the staff took advantage of the tourists and were ripping us off a bit. No cheap accommodation was available, we had to eat at their restaurant and they would add on small prices for many things. Perhaps you could try camp Amoureux instead only a few kilometres away, which is camping, but may be better value. All in all, it was well worth it as Kirindy is an excellent forest teeming with wildlife.
We had heard a lot about the otherworldly jagged pinnacles of Tsingy de Bemaraha. Tsingy is a nature reserve on the west coast of Mada, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We heard that the park is closed in the rainy season (Dec – March), so if we wanted to see it, we had to go in November. We emailed and asked around a few tour operators, but decided to go on our own. Most nature parks must be visited with a guide, but that doesn’t mean a complete package tour is necessary. It is much cheaper (if you have the time) to turn up yourself and organise a guide on the spot. Most tours were going from Antsirabe, and we figured there was no need to pay for two-four days of a tour that was just transport. From Ambositra, we caught a 7am taxi-brousse to Antsirabe. We then had to wait for 2-3 hours for the next taxi-brousse to take us to Miandrivazo. We had contemplated going all the way from Antsirabe to Morondava, but that taxi-brousse wasn’t leaving until 5pm and we didn’t want to wait that long. Miandrivazo was a good stop over to break up the trip. It took from 1pm-7pm. A tout/guide came up to us in the taxi-brousse while we were waiting in Anstirabe and offered us a tour. We didn’t really want to spend 2.5 days in an unsheltered pirogue down the Tsiribihina river, so we asked if he would hire a 4WD in Morondava to take us to Tsingy and Kirindy. He offered 75Euro a day (for four days) including petrol. So this was our itinerary:
Day one: Drive Morondava to Bekopaka, camp the night
Day 2: Hike Grand and Small Tsingy, camp Bekopaka
Day 3: Drive to Kirindy, night walk, had to stay in bungalow as ‘apparently’ fossa eats your tent
Day 4: Morning walk Kirindy, sunset at Baobabs, drive back to Morondava
He said if we found another 1-2 people, we could share the costs. It sounded like a good deal, and much better than anything we had been offered so far, so we agreed. He recommended a hotel in Miandrivazo and the next morning was waiting for us with a contract to sign. This was our first mistake, signing the contract and paying more than half up-front. Don’t get me wrong, we had an awesome trip and it was still a pretty good price. But it was a lesson not to pay up front if possible, even a deposit. In hindsight, we probably should have not committed and seen if we could get a better deal in Morondava. It was low season, and as two people we were in a good place to negotiate. We took a taxi-brousse from Miandrivazo to Morondava at 8am and arrived about 3pm. We had planned on seeing if we could find any other tourists to share the car. We made cursory efforts, but didn’t find anyone. The next morning we were picked up by our driver and were taken to another hotel. That was where another vazaha (foreigner) was waiting. He asked if we knew that he was coming. We didn’t. We were happy to have another person join us if we could share the costs, but when we got in the car, the driver told us his boss said we weren’t going anywhere until we all paid the full amount, so much for sharing the costs! We were all pretty angry, but he had us, we had each already paid a hefty deposit, so could hardly walk away. Needless to say, it was a bit of a sour start to the trip.
However, the French tourist who joined us was a really interesting, cool guy, so we were happy to share with him. We weren’t too impressed though when a wheel bearing broke and we got stranded in the heat. Luckily another car stopped to help us and we all squeezed into their car. We were a bit anxious that evening because we really didn’t trust that if the driver couldn’t fix the car, that our ‘guide’ would help us, particularly if he knew we had another car to go in. Fortunately, our driver fixed the car and met us later the next day.
But…back to the Tsingy. Despite all the setbacks, we had an awesome trip. During the journey to Tsingy, we had a few river crossings where the car is put on a raft and motored along the river, passing laughing children bathing in the water. The sharp limestone formations were other-worldly and really fun and challenging to climb. The view was really spectacular. We had to wear rockclimbing harnesses which we attached to metal rope. We went through narrow caves and crossed some hairy drawbridges, it felt like we were Indiana Jones! We saw sifakas and brown lemurs up close too. This was the complete Malagasy experience, definitely worth the long journey. Next stop…Kirindy…
Eugenie and Ifaliana while inspecting Tapia plantings
Local nurseries established to provide local and exotic species for reforestation
Inspecting seedlings at the nursery
Citrus trees planted at nursery used for grafting and supply to locals
Remnant intact Tapia forest
Epiphytic orchids in the Tapia forest
Tapia forest infested with exotic pines
Tapia forest infested with pine trees
Lookout on Tapia forest infested with pines
Everyone wants a Zebu
Amazing carpentry skills by the locals
We were very fortunate to have the National Director of Ny Tanintsika and one of her brightest staff show us around their project sites in Ambositra. The town is approximately four hours’ drive south of the capital city, Antananarivo. We visited local plant nurseries and the endemic, threatened Tapia woodland, home of the silk worm. Ny Tanintsika has developed small scale agroforestry plots within these communities– with cash crops such as sweet potato, tomatoes and citrus trees.
We also visited a womens’ silk weaving cooperative, which was created by Ny Tanintsika. This project supports women’s groups and households to protect the endemic tapia woodland – the last remnants of highland primary forest – through the revitalisation of the silk industry in Madagascar.
The Tapia woodland is only found in the central highlands of Madagascar. The dominant tree Uapaca bojeri is endemic to Madagascar. Tapia woodlands are adapted and resilient to the regions natural fire regime however frequent intense fires and land clearing has resulted in habitat degradation and fragmentation. The Tapia woodlands have now been restricted to fragmented stands that total less than 130 000ha. Most of these isolated stands have lost their species diversity and are no longer intact representatives of the former Tapia woodlands prior to high levels of disturbance.
The woodland we visited in the Faliarivo community is one of the last vestiges of intact Tapia woodland within the region. During our visit it was clear that almost no seedlings were present of the dominant native trees and the process of self-regeneration had stopped. The woodland has become infested with pines and this threatens the long-term biodiversity value of this woodland. If the pines are not eradicated the health of the Tapia woodland will only further decline.
Ny Tanintsika wishes to engage the local community to eradicate the pine from the Faliarivo Tapia woodland. Monetary compensation will be provided to locals for harvesting all of the pine within the woodland. Local nurseries have already been established for Tapia woodland restoration and will provide seedlings for infill planting once the pines have been eradicated. The timber harvested represents a commercial gain and profits will be re-invested into developing alternative income schemes for the local community.
This is one of the projects that Anni and I will focus on while we are here in Madagascar.
Textile silk has a long history in Madagascar. The moth Borocera cajani is endemic to Madagascar and primarily found in the Tapia woodland of the central highlands. It is one of three silk moths found within the region but only B. cajani is exploited in the silk industry. The woodland is dominated by the Tapia tree (Uapaca bojeri) and has been highly disturbed in recent years due to frequent fires and land clearing resulting in habitat fragmentation. Ny Tanintsika has worked actively with local communities to protect the remaining woodland, reduce habitat degradation and engage in restoration activities. Training and support was provided to establish community nurseries to produce Tapia seedlings, fruit trees and Eucalypts for construction and fuel wood. Ny Tanintsika and Feedback Madagascar also provided resources to establish a centre for breeding the silk moth. The centre concentrates efforts to increase the wild population of silk moths in the Tapia woodland.
This project works with a womens’ silk weaving cooperative, which was developed by Ny Tanintsika. It provides support to women’s groups and households to find alternative income streams compared with traditional methods that relied solely on woodland resources. The project trains women weavers on all stages of silk production; from raising the silkworms, to spinning, weaving and increasing the commercial value of their silk products such as scarves and cloth. They also train households in the conservation and forest management of the Tapia woodland. This dynamic program helps to increase and protect the amount of silk that the women can sell allowing them to earn a good living. The end result is greater levels of education, health and well-being in the communities; especially the children.
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