Kickoff meeting 'Land Use Planning for Enhanced Resilience of Landscapes' project (Antananarivo, Madagascar)

ISRIC staff participated in the kickoff meeting for a World Bank funded project on 'Land Use Planning for Enhanced Resilience of Landscapes' (LAUREL; 6-13 May 2017, Antananarivo, Madagascar).

The objectives of the mission were to:

• Present the methodological approach in the process of being developed by the Dutch Consultant Team (WU, ISRIC, FutureWater, RIKS);
• Collect/explore perspectives in Government and other stakeholders on the main strategic and policy elements of the approach; 
• Evaluate the availability of data needed to apply the approach; 
• Put in place modalities to achieve complementarity between LAUREL, PADAP and other related activities.

To gain a preliminary understanding of the context of land degradation and land use change, the mission started with a short field trip to the peripheries of Andasibe National Park (140 km east of Antananarivo) to see the effects of shifting cultivation (food crops, ginger plantings) on the steep slopes of the forest area of Vohidrazana and discuss these with the village head and community members. Nearby, the team saw flood damage and sedimentation of an in-stream wier and canals previously irrigating 35 hectares of rice fields. The next day the team had discussions in Moramanga with the District Chief and then with District extension agents for agriculture, livestock and environment as well as representatives of resource user management groups.

Workshop

A workshop was held May 10 with a wide representation of stakeholders. The purpose was to enable the team to provide an overview of the two main components on land degradation and scenario modeling - anticipated approaches and outputs - and get viewpoints of participants on the main types of land degradation, impacts, and drivers for future land use change and degradation.

Bilateral meetings

The team met with various Government ministries and agencies and other organizations to understand and discuss institutional responsibilities and capabilities for land degradation monitoring, data gathering and analysis, and program implementation.

Mission Outcomes

Overall, the mission confirmed strong interest and support by different stakeholders in the program, which can effectively complement and scale up related activities already under way or being planned. In particular, Government’s support to the program was confirmed in meetings with Ministers of Environment, and Minister of Water and Energy, and with the SG of the Min. of Agriculture.

At the technical level, the mission team received important guidance and feedback on the approach to followed in the program, determined which data layers are already available, and identified the possible source of additional data still to be obtained.

On behalf of ISRIC Godert van Lynden participated in the meeting, joined by Luuk Fleskens (WU, project leader), Gijs Simons (FutureWater), Hedwig van Delden (RIKS) and Raffaelo Cervigni and Stephen Mink (World Bank).