BIOPAMA team together with the Director General in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (DGEF) Dr, Herizo Rakotovololonalimanana, on the far left.
RCMRD together the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) are visiting Antananarivo, Madagascar this week for a data gathering and networking exercise to us understand the priorities of Madagascar in terms of Protected Areas management, governance and equity under the BIOPAMA project. Key goals for BIOPAMA include getting high-quality conservation-relevant information to policy and decision makers in forms they can use, and supporting communities of best practice.
Purpose of the Pilot Visit
Madagascar in one of the three pilot countries that will be visited these year. The other two being Botswana and Tanzania. The aims of these visits are listed below:
1) Identifying needs and get country inputs on the Regional Resources Hub (RRH) and Regional Reference Information System (RRIS)
2) Demonstrating the functionalities of the RIS and establish a workflow of feeding data into the RRIS
3) Provide guidance to software/GIS/ Tool development in line with the country needs and priorities
4) Conducting a data audit to identifying key information and data available around the area of management effectiveness and governance and equity that could be linked into the RRH and the State of Protected Area (SoPA) report.
5) Collecting data and information for the SoPA and the RRH
6) Expand the RRH network in the region and build a useful resource for policy development and decision-making.
More information about BIOPAMA programme can be accessed here https://rcmrd.org/projects/biopama
About Madagascar
Fact Sheet
• Capital: Antananarivo
• Population: 25 million
• Area: 587,041 sq km (226,658 sq miles)
• Major languages: Malagasy (official), French
• Major religions: Indigenous beliefs, Christianity
• Life expectancy: 64 years (men), 67 years (women)
Source UN, World Bank
Country Profile
Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island. It’s situated off the southeast coast of Africa, Having developed in isolation, the island nation is famed for its unique wildlife. It is home to unique flora and fauna and has good soil and abundant natural resources.
Madagascar is among the countries hardest hit by global climate change. It is particularly affected by frequent cyclones and periodic drought, which damage infrastructure and, increasingly, destroy harvests. Uncontrolled expansion of agriculture and forestry poses a growing threat to woodlands, soils and biodiversity. Madagascar is one of the non-contracting member states at RCMRD.
