Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Volume 1
A Dissertation
of Cornell University
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Jacques Pollini
August 2007
© 2007 Jacques Pollini
SLASH-AND-BURN CULTIVATION AND DEFORESTATION IN THE
of conservation biologists and donor agencies for over two decades. The remaining
primary forests are being cleared at a fast pace by farmers pushed toward the forest
Plan, supported by multilateral and bilateral donors, has been in place for 15 years but
conservation are local and have been achieved at the cost of negative impacts on local
The central hypothesis is that a gap exists between the realities of Malagasy
farmers and the representation of these realities by actors committed to changing them.
To test this hypothesis, I first analyzed the agrarian system of a community of slash-
inspired from post-modernism and social constructivism. Special attention was paid to
demonization of fires. Third, I questioned these realities and discourses in the light of
epistemologies.
The conclusion is that the politicization of scientific debates and the hegemony
of technocratic controls led to a wide reality gap that no actor has been able to
surmount. The real interactions between ecosystems and societies, the dynamics of
ignored. As a result, projects and policies target the wrong issues, have impacts
whose dependence on natural resources persists. Only critical and creative analyses,
intervention strategies could remedy this situation. I argue that in order to achieve this,
more bridges and synergies must be created between research and decision making.
deforestation in Madagascar without requiring the poorest farmers to pay the price for
it. Among these propositions, subsidies aimed at compensating the negative impact of
Sciences in Ecology (DEA) from the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour and a
Laos and Madagascar, from 1993 to 2006. He spent four years in Madagascar,
between 2001 and 2006, including two years to conduct the fieldwork of this
iii
A mes parents, Joseph et Jacqueline
iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chair Advisor, who has always provided me with the greatest care and encouragement
and was just the right person to work with to address this comprehensive subject; Dr.
Steven Wolf, for the intense discussions we had and for the guidance he provided me
in entering the domain of science and technology studies; Professor Ronald Herring,
permanent feedback to my writing; and all of them, for the trust they had in me and
the freedom they granted me for conducting my research. Thanks also to Norman
Uphoff, Peter Marks, Charles Geisler, Davydd Greenwood, Paul Gellert and Louise
Buck, for the great discussions we had and the new domains of knowledge they helped
me to discover.
Frédérique, Marie-Line and Cathy, and my great friends, François, Angèle, Guilhem,
Misa, Narindra, Reni, Dada, Pascale, Olivier, Antonie, Virginie, Mickael, Isabelle,
Narivo, Erica, Jutta, Simon, Farasoa, Valery, Myriam, Lovasoa, Minohery, Malala,
Sarah, Federica, Pierre and Frank. They know they are in my heart and that this work
villages, especially the Vavankaka and the Tangalamena, who are my second family.
Thanks also to the people of Beforona, the staff of the NGOs Zanaky ny Ala, MITA
and FFA and of the projects LDI, PTE and ERI, especially Mparany, Adrien and Faly,
with whom I had great time in Madagascar. Thanks also to all the colleagues with
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whom I worked in Madagascar, the staff from the Ministry of Environment, Water and
Forest, and of the many organizations that collaborate with them. Thanks to all of
them for the exchange of ideas and the discussions, sometimes intense, that we had
together.
Hallé from the University of Montpellier and Marc Dufumier, Marcel Mazoyer and
and Development, the Mario Einaudi Foundation and the discretionary research funds
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1
vii
Chapter 2. Environmental conservation policies and programs 43
1. Introduction 43
2. The first forest management and conservation efforts 43
3. The colonial period 45
4. The first republic 50
4.1. Economic context 50
4.2. The new legislation about vegetation clearing and fires 51
4.3. Forest control 53
4.4. The first environmental conferences 54
5. The transition to the second and third republic 55
6. Toward the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) 58
7. The Environmental Program, phase 1 (EP1) 62
7.1. Presentation of EP1 62
7.2. EP1’s impact 65
7.3. Conclusion 71
8. The Environmental Program, phase 2 (EP2) 72
8.1. Presentation of EP2 72
8.2. EP2’s impact 79
8.3. Conclusion 81
9. The Environmental Program, phase 3 (EP3) 82
9.1. Presentation of EP3 82
9.2. EP3’s implementation 90
9.2.1. The Durban Vision 90
10. Conclusion 107
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3.8.2. Paddy fields 151
3.8.3. Home gardens 151
3.8.4. Ginger cultivation 153
3.8.5. Vegetable 157
3.8.6. Improved fallow 157
3.8.7. Livestock husbandry 157
3.8.8. Forest and fallow exploitation 160
3.9. Farming-systems 162
4. Conclusion 167
Chapter 4. Methodology: comparative agriculture 169
1. Introduction 169
2. Key methodological principles 169
2.1. Participant observation 169
2.2. Qualitative methods, narratives and comprehensiveness 170
2.3. From enquiries to experience 171
2.4. Validating knowledge 174
3. A reading grid: comparative agriculture 176
4. Conclusion 182
Chapter 5. Ambodilaingo, a slash-and-burn farmers’ village 184
1. Introduction 184
2. Brief social history of the area 191
2.1. Settlement 191
2.2. Brief economic history 195
2.3. Social and cultural changes 199
2.3.1. Evolution of traditional ceremonies 199
2.3.2. The loss of solidarity 202
3. The present social organization 206
3.1. Traditional and legal authorities 206
3.2. Land tenure 207
4. Land uses 210
4.1. Cropping systems 210
4.1.1. Slash-and-burn systems (tavy) 210
4.1.2. Paddy fields 218
4.1.3. Home-gardens 221
4.1.4. Other cropping systems 222
4.2. Livestock systems 224
4.3. Forest products extraction 226
5. The strategies for intensification 229
6. Relations with Projects 231
7. An emotional portrait of the local economy 232
8. The influenza epidemic 239
9. The Agrarian system 241
10. Conclusion 247
Chapter 6. Rural development projects in Beforona 249
1. Introduction 249
2. The search for alternatives to slash-and-burn 251
ix
2.1. The BEMA/Terre-Tany research about alternatives 251
2.1.1. Agro-biological alternatives 252
2.1.2. Intensification of indigenous alternatives 255
2.1.3. Toward new farming systems 258
2.2. Nambena’s (2004) research on agroforestry alternatives 260
2.3. Styger’s (2004) research about fireless alternatives 261
2.4. Conclusion: future land uses in Beforona 268
3. The LDI and PTE projects 271
3.1. Main objectives 272
3.2. The CDIA 272
3.3. The Kolo Harena 274
3.4. The ban on tavy 275
3.5. Economic support 280
3.6. Technical support 283
3.7. LDI’s perception by beneficiaries 289
3.8. Conclusion 291
4. The Ankeniheny-Mantadia-Zahamena Corridor Restauration project 292
4.1. Context 293
4.2. Presentation of the AMZCR project 294
4.3. The transmission of fashionable alternatives 300
4.4. Overlooking the economy 303
4.5. The consequences 307
4.6. Some solutions? 309
4.7. Conclusion 315
5. Conclusion 317
Chapter 7. Changing realities: a socio-economic experiment in Beforona 325
1. Introduction 325
2. Presentation of the non-governmental organization Zanaky ny Ala 325
3. Implemented activities 328
3.1. Irrigation of bottom land 328
3.1.1. The Marofody dam 331
3.1.2. The Hiaranana dam 335
3.1.3. The Ankorakabe dam 337
3.1.4. The other dams 339
3.1.5. Technical Supports 339
3.1.6. Socio-organization 341
3.1.7. Cost-efficiency 341
3.1.8. Conclusion 343
3.2. The agricultural contest 346
4. Activities planned but not implemented 351
4.1 Micro-credit 351
4.2. Construction of secondary roads 354
4.3. Land entitlement 356
4.4. Community granary 358
4.5. Community based natural resource management 359
4.6. Health and education 361
4.7. Others? 362
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5. Activities not planned 363
6. Critical comments 364
7. Conclusion 366
Conclusion 368
VOLUME 2
xi
3. Bruno Latour’s epistemology 425
3.1. Latour’s key principles 425
3.2. Latour’s departure from Foucault 428
4. Synthesis 429
5. Avoiding the trap of relativism 432
6. A new model 434
7. Conclusion 439
Chapter 10: The Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn discourse (ASB) 442
1. Introduction 442
2. The birth of the ASB paradigm 442
3. Agroforestry at ICRAF 444
4. The received wisdoms about slash-and-burn cultivation 454
5. The first phase of the ASB Consortium 457
5.1. Main statements 457
5.2. Biophysical outcomes 458
5.3. Socio-economic outcomes 459
5.4. Outcomes in term of recommendations 461
5.5. Conclusion 464
6. The second phase of the ASB Consortium 464
6.1. A continuation of the first phase? 465
6.2. Toward a political economy of slash-and-burn cultivation? 468
7. Conclusion 476
Chapter 11: Community based natural resource management (CBNRM) 480
1. Introduction 480
2. The Participatory discourses 481
3. A few short case studies 485
3.1. Tsinjoarivo 487
3.2. The Zafimaniry area 489
3.3. Ikongo 491
3.4. Beforona 493
3.5. Two sites in western Madagascar 493
3.6. Conclusion 495
4. The GELOSE approach (Secured Local Management) 496
4.1. Background and origin 497
4.2. The GELOSE legislation and its potential effects 499
4.2.1. The contract 499
4.2.2. The COBA 501
4.2.3. The dina 507
4.2.4. Environmental mediation 508
4.2.5. The relative land tenure security (RLTS) 510
4.3. Conclusion 512
5. Pushing the GELOSE in the Malagasy environmental policies 513
5.1. The PCP evaluation 514
5.1.1. Methodology 514
5.1.2. Results 515
5.1.2.1. The integration into local, regional… policies 515
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5.1.2.2. Environmental impacts 517
5.1.2.3. Social impacts 520
5.1.2.3.1. Observed impacts 520
5.1.2.3.2. Potential impacts 522
5.1.2.4. Economic impacts 524
5.2. The IRD evaluation 525
5.2.1. Methodology 525
5.2.2. Results 526
5.2.3. The institutional driving of the IRD’s recommendations 530
6. Confrontation with other research outcomes 532
7. Conclusion 535
Chapter 12: The antifire discourse 541
1. Introduction 541
2. The antifire received wisdom according to Kull (2004) 542
3. Kull’s thesis about human impact on the environment 544
4. Kull’s conclusion 547
5. Conclusion 548
Conclusion 549
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Chapter 14. Toward new epistemologies 598
1. Introduction 598
2. Confirming and strengthening an epistemological frame 599
2.1. Bruno Latour’s parliament of things 599
2.2. Actor-Network Theory 607
2.3. From Latour’s to Popper’s epistemology 612
2.4. Karl Popper’s epistemology 614
2.4.1. The falsification principle 614
2.4.2. The problem of induction 616
2.4.3. Dogmatism, critical attitude and uncertainty 618
2.4.4. The growth of knowledge 619
2.4.5. What is truth and can we know it? 621
2.4.6. Summary: three epistemologies 624
2.4.7. Application of Popper’s model to the subject of this
dissertation 625
2.5. Paul Feyerabend: beyond Popper? 629
2.6. Edgard Morin’s science of complexities 634
3. Nature and culture 640
3.1. Introduction 640
3.2. What is nature? 640
3.3. The value of nature 643
3.4. The environment 645
3.5. Nature in political ecology 646
3.6. The dialogy of nature and culture 646
4. Conclusion 647
Chapter 15. Toward new practices 654
1. Introduction 654
2. Metis 656
3. Propositions to solve the issues of deforestation 661
3.1 Are tavy farmers the main cause of deforestation? 661
3.2. The reasons to stop deforestation 662
3.3. Solving the tradeoff between conservation and local livelihoods 665
3.4. Proposition of solutions 666
3.4.1. The role of legislation 666
3.4.2. Mitigation by supporting agriculture intensification 669
3.4.3. Subsidies 670
3.4.4. Conclusion 680
4. Institutional approach 680
4.1. The open society 682
4.2. Piecemeal social engineering 683
4.3. The open project 685
5. Conclusion 688
Conclusion 694
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PART VI: GENERAL CONCLUSION 697
1. Introduction 698
2. Summary of outcomes 698
2.1. The conclusions from Part II 698
2.2. The conclusions from Part III 699
2.3. The conclusions from Part IV 703
2.4. The conclusions from Part V 705
3. Conclusion 712
4. Future research 720
APPENDIX 726
EP3’s logical framework 726
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LIST OF FIGURES
xvi
LIST OF TABLES
xvii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xviii
Photograph 20: Meat distribution after a zebu sacrifice 200
Photograph 21: The impact of wildfires in Ambodilaingo 205
Photograph 22: The main street of Ambodilaingo 234
Photograph 23: Visitors at the CDIA-LADIA in Beforona 273
Photograph 24: The CDIA-LADIA in Beforona 273
Photograph 25: Vegetation in Ambavaniasy 298
Photograph 26: Land improvement in Ambavaniasy 306
Photograph 27: Villagers from Ambodilaingo digging an irrigation canal 330
Photograph 28: Irrigation canal and Rayamendrany in Ambodilaingo 330
Photograph 29: A “tavy” farmer in Ambodilaingo, with her paddy field 332
Photographs 30, 31 and 32: The Marofody bottom land in Ambodilaingo 333
Photograph 33: Paddy fields irrigated by the Hiaranana dam 336
Photograph 34: Paddy fields suffering from water shortage in Ambatoharanana 336
Photograph 35: The Ankorakabe dam, in Beforona 338
Photograph 36: The Ankorakabe canal, with irrigated paddy fields 338
Photograph 37: Farmers’ improvement in the Andriamanavana site 340
Photograph 38: Failed irrigation canal in Ambodilaingo 340
Photograph 39: New paddy fields in construction in Ambodilaingo 344
Photograph 40: Canal built by villagers to irrigate paddy fields, Ambatoharana 345
Photograph 41: Masonry on a canal section in Ambodilaingo 345
Photograph 42: Vegetable cultivation for the agricultural contest 348
Photograph 43: Participants of the agricultural contest 348
Note: all photographs except when indicated (# 3, 42 and 43) are by myself
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
xx
DEF Direction des Eaux et Forêts (Water and Forest Directorate)
DGE Direction Générale de l’Environnement (Environment General
Directorate)
DGEF Direction Générale de Eaux et Forêts (Water and Forests General
Directorate)
DSRP Document Stratégique de Réduction de la Pauvreté (Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper)
DVG Durban Vision Group
DWCT Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
EMC Environnement Marin et Côtier (Marine and Coastal Environment)
EP1,2,3 Environment Program Phase 1, 2, 3
ERI Ecoregional Initiative
ESFUM Ecosystèmes Forestiers à Usage Multiple (Multiple-Use Forest
Ecosystems Management)
ESSA Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques (school of agronomical
sciences)
EU European Union
FAGEC Fond d’Appui à la Gestion Environnementale Communautaire
(Community Environmental Management Support Fund)
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
FFEM Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (French Global
Environment Fund)
FID Fonds d’Intervention pour le Développement (Social Fund Project)
FMg Franc Malgache (Malagasy Franc)
FOFIFA Foibe Fikarohana momba ny Fambolena (Malagasy national research
center for agriculture and rural revelopment)
FORAGE Fonds Régional d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement (Regional
Fund for Environment Management)
FSP-GDRN Projet Gestion Décentralisée des Ressources Naturelles du Fonds de
Solidarité Prioritaire (decentralized natural resources management
project of the priority solidarity fund)
FSP-ADRA Food Security Program of the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency
FTM Foibe Taosaritanin’i Madagasikara (Malagasy National Geographic
Institute
GCF Gestion Contractualisée des Forêts (Community Forest Management
Contract)
GDRN Gestion Décentralisée des Ressources Naturelles (Decentralized
Natural Resources Management)
GEF Global Environment Facility
GELOSE Gestion Locale Sécurisée (Secure Local Management)
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GNP Gross National Product
GoM Government of Madagascar
GTZ Gessellschaft fyr Technische Zusammenarbeit (German cooperation
agency)
Ha Hectare
ICDP Integrated Conservation and Development Project
ICRAF International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (now the World
Agroforestry Centre)
IDA International Development Agency
IEFN Inventaire Ecologique Forestier National (National Forestry Inventory)
IMF International Monetary Fund
IRD Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (Development Research
Institute)
IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature (now the World
Conservation Union)
Km Kilometer
LDI Landscape Development Interventions
MECIE Mise en Compatibilité des Investissements avec l’Environnement
(environmental impact assessment)
MEF Ministère des Eaux et Forêts (Ministry of Water and Forest)
MINENVEF Ministère de l’Environnement, des Eaux et Forêts (Ministry of
Environment, Water and Forest)
MT Management Transfer
NEAP National Environmental Action Plan
NGO Non-governmental organization
NR2 National Road 2
NTFP Non Timber Forest Product
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
ONE Office National pour l’Environnement (National Office for the
Environment)
OSIPD Office Statistique et Informatique pour Programmation du
développement (office for data processing and statistic applied to
development programming).
PA Protected Area
PAGE Projet d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement (Environmental
Management Support Project)
PADR Plan d’Action pour le Développement Rural (Rural Development
Action Plan)
PSDR Projet de Soutien au Développement Rural (Rural Development
Support Project)
PTE Programme de Transition Ecoregional (Ecoregional Transition
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Program)
SAGE Service d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement (Service for Support
to Environmental Management)
SAPM Système des Aires Protégées de Madagascar (Protected Area System of
Madagascar)
SRA Système de Riziculture Améliorée (Improved Rice Cultivation System)
SRI Système de Riziculture Intensive (Intensive Rice Cultivation System)
UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
UNDP United Nations Development Program
USA United States of America
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USD United States Dollar
VMCRCC Vohidrazana Mantadia Corridor Restoration and Conservation Carbon
Project
WCED World Commission on Environment and Development
WCS World Conservation Society
WHO World Health Organization
WWF World Wildlife Fund
xxiii
PART I
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1
1. The subject
on a piece of land, burning it and growing crops that will benefit from the nutrients
stored in the biomass and made available in the form of ashes (Conklin 1957; Nye and
Greenland 1963; Peters and Neuenschwander 1988; Ramakrishnan 1992). After one or
a few years of cultivation, fertility is depleted and the land is temporarily abandoned to
fallow. Vegetation develops again, which leads to the reconstitution of a nutrient stock
that can be used through a new cycle of clearing, burning and cropping. In traditional
systems still in equilibrium, the fallow period lasts 10 to 30 years. Farmers rotate the
location of their crops across a wide landscape, sometimes moving their village, and
Slash-and-burn systems are often located in remote areas with low population
density, where primary forests still exist. As in any agricultural system, these forests
are perceived as reservoir land. They are cleared at the rhythm of population increase,
or when communities are pushed away from their ancestral land by groups that
practice more intensive land use. For this reason, slash-and-burn systems are
frequently involved in deforestation dynamics, whereas they are not necessarily the
cause of deforestation.
systems in the eastern rain forests of Madagascar. It considers these two issues as
linked but distinct, and will examine how they are addressed by Malagasy and
questions:
eastern rain forest, despite the fact that international organizations have
2
• Why do the current policies and programs dealing with this issue fail,
the reality of slash-and-burn farmers and deforestation dynamics on one hand, and the
perception of these realities by those who act upon them on the other hand. In other
words, the discourses produced by the organizations which address these issues are
biased, incomplete, and describe realities that do not exist, or are significantly
different from these descriptions. It is not necessarily the complexity of the reality that
is causing this mismatch. It can merely be the subjectivity of those who produce
these farmers and the development and environmental discourses within which these
projects are embedded. The outcomes are presented according to the following plan.
2. Plan
1
A commune is an administrative unit. Madagascar is divided into six autonomous provinces (faritany),
22 regions (faritra), about 115 districts (departamenta) and about 1400 communes (kaominina) which
can be rural or urban. Communes are divided into fokontany which are administrated by a fokontany
President nominated by the commune.
3
associated with slash-and-burn cultivation (Chapter 1) and portrays the environmental
Part III addresses the same issues at local scale through the collection of
commune of Beforona, located on the eastern verge of the Malagasy rain forest, and
this area. The first chapter (Chapter 3) is an overview of the area using general
to collect original field data. Chapter 5 is a narrative drawn from first hand qualitative
data collected in Ambodilaingo, a village where I resided six months, from July to
December 2001. Chapter 6 analyzes the main projects that operate in the area and their
ny Ala” 2 that I created with my research assistant. This project was the translation into
experiment aimed at testing these outcomes. Part III ends with a synthesis and
conclusion that lists the main mismatches between discourses and realities, based on
the outcomes of Chapters 5, 6 and 7. This led to the identification of three discourses
understanding the causes of the mismatches identified in Part III. It starts with an
2
Children of the Forest in Malagasy language.
4
literature (Chapter 8) and introduces the methods (Chapter 9) I utilized for analyzing
discourses. These discourses, which have been identified in Part III, are the
more precisely its translation into community based natural resources management
policies (Chapter 11), and the antifire discourse (Chapter 12). In these three chapters,
the literature is regarded as material providing me with empirical facts for the analysis
of discourses, in the same way that the practices of farmers and projects provided me
discipline that addresses similar issues to those I address in this dissertation and
developed similar narratives and explanations, whereas some differences also exist.
mismatch between representation and realities. It calls for a paradigmatic shift and
synthesizes the outcomes of Parts II and III in the light of this shift. Chapter 15
Eventually, the general conclusion (Part V) attempts to extract the main lines
of this dissertation and to articulate its empirical and abstract content in a way that
between chapters.
5
PART I: General introduction
(Research question and epistemological framework)
Part V: Synthesis
Chapter 12: Toward a political ecology of
deforestation and slash-and-burn cultivation
Chapter 13: Toward new epistemologies
Chapter 14: Toward new practices
6
3. Epistemological background
The tools and methods used to collect empirical data will be presented in detail
in Chapters 4 (for the analysis of realities) and 9 (for the analysis of discourses). In
this section, I merely present the general epistemological framework of the research.
network of biophysical and social interactions that links a group of human beings,
their ecosystem and their land uses. At a larger scale, it includes a social, economic,
political, cultural, and “scientific” context which determines ecosystems and land uses
transformations. Biologists, sociologists, economists, policy makers and donors are all
interested in understanding this object because they are committed to act upon it and
determine its future. They each analyze it from their own perspective and draw
comprehensive picture emerges from this, as revealed by the general failure of projects
and policies. In order to avoid this pitfall, I chose to depart from conventional
researches that “look at” aspects of this broad reality. Instead, I tried to understand
why knowledge gaps always remain, committed to fill these gaps and adopted a
In this endeavor, I had to depart from conventional science because it does not
provide appropriate tools to study broad and complex objects. This raised several
nonscientific facts, ideas, discourses and theories? Where is the frontier between
7
information that relates to it. Do we have to use this information to build up our
additional scientific protocols to collect this same information with more rigor? Is this
always possible, technically and practically? If not, what to do? What is more
scientific: to limit our enquiry to aspects of the reality that can be “scientifically”
closer to the reality, the incomplete or the imperfectly completed? In order to tackle
are its limits to address complexity and how to go beyond these limits.
systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world
through observations and experiment" 3 . More recently, the social world has been
is that it privileges quantitative methods. This leads to produce representations that are
hypothesis), then gathers empirical facts that validate or invalidate these hypotheses,
that allows to prove that these representations match with the reality. We call
3
The New Oxford Dictionary of English 1998.
8
recognizes that truth cannot be known and considers that steps apparently “backward,”
or the refutation of false theories, matter more than steps forward (the verification of
existing theories). This conception, which can be called negativist, defines scientific
knowledge, more modestly, as knowledge that can be refuted (Popper 1963). But still,
an omnipresent “attractor” puts linear order into knowledge, with the risk of
The positivist conception of science makes sense for a large series of subjects,
as has been shown by the fast technical progress that science enabled. But it also has
some limitations that are revealed by the increasing doubts about the capacity of
science to engage human civilizations in social and spiritual progress, and by the
blurring of the frontier between sciences and humanities, or between physical, natural
and social objects. Few processes are actually linear in the real world. Very simple
ones are or can be regarded as being so, by approximation. But in most cases, social
objects are too complex to be fully represented into a sum of quantifiable processes.
been shown by the theory of chaos. This theory led to paying more attention to the
objects (Gleick 1987). The system of forces that operates on such objects produces a
complex behavior that can be represented in a geometrical space that is not determined
nonEuclidean space, in a sort of microcosmic turbulent area where entropy that could
not generate Euclidean order would plummet. Concerning this research, inward
complexity appears quite abstract and I did not expect that addressing it would have
9
direction of “outward” complexity, acknowledging that perfect bidirectional
comprehensiveness is unattainable.
Scientists address complexity by dividing objects into elements that they study
separately (reductionism), but still have some difficulties in explaining the functioning
of the whole system when they reconstitute it in the form of a model. Some parts are
always missing, or remain in the state of black boxes. These missing parts relate to
elements with less biophysical and more social content, resulting in a relative isolation
of the studied object from the society it belongs to. The observer is also missing from
the models, a sign that reflexivity has not made its entry in mainstream sciences yet. In
System analysis has been a first answer to complexity proposed over several
limited to the survey of objects and phenomenon that can be directly observed in the
state they exist. They give little room to experimentation and have difficulties
predicting what will happen in the future, which limits their role for action. They
provide conclusions that are supposed to guide practitioners engaged in modifying the
real world, but these field actors often fail in valorizing excessively complex sets of
data. They prefer to ask system analysts to provide more precise guidelines for action,
when considering the whole. They end in viewing all relations between micro and
macro levels as constraints. They analyze well the global state of a system, its
connectivity with external factors, its general dynamics, but not enough its capacity to
10
absorb shocks and reorganize itself under perturbation. The comprehensive object that
system analysts describe thus remains "frozen 4 " by the description of multiple
actors from most pathways they envision for changing realities. These actors then fall
back into the reductionism paradigm that they eventually perceive as more appropriate
models that they call “expert systems.” Unfortunately, the reluctance or difficulties to
go beyond the positivism and reductionism paradigms limits these models to a series
of simple linear processes that can be computed. Key social issues are skipped in the
process or regarded as black boxes. A significant part of what was gained by system
discarded because they cannot be translated into clear algorithms, whereas human
skills and intelligence, which go far beyond the capacity of such algorithms, could
have addressed them. These models are certainly useful, if properly used, but are
always strong simplifications. They cannot be regarded as being the last step in the
The limits faced by science to investigate complex objects may reflect the
limits of the capacity of humans to express in rational terms the experience of their
4
Thanks to Patrice Lamballe, a development expert who worked in Vietnam for the GRET (Groupe de
Recherche et d’Echanges Technologiques; Solidarity and International Cooperation Association), a
French NGO, for expressing and discussing this idea.
11
world. The assertion that “everything is rational,” for instance, is at the corner stone of
believe that these polemics result from a misunderstanding about the sense of the word
"rational.”
Does saying that "everything is rational" simply means that all phenomenon in
our world are determined by the mechanistic laws of physics and chemistry and could
theoretically be described using these laws? Or does it also mean, beyond that first
assumption, that humans can in practice describe all phenomenon in rational terms,
through expressions derived from these same mechanistic laws? The positivist
paradigm that appeared in the enlightenment period produced a Western culture where
the implicit answer given to both questions is yes. Kant (1787) criticized this radical
positivism but his work, while influential, did not suffice to impede the mystification
of science. Scientists framed in the positivist myth have the promethean belief that
their rational methods can lead them to know the truth. They attribute to science the
power of a god. I would agree that a perfect rationale spirit connected to all physical
phenomenon and using science could have, through an unbiased perception of its
microcosm to the macrocosm. This perfect spirit would be capable of putting the
global world in a system of equations that would take account for its least
components. He could also delineate the boundaries between the predictable Euclidean
world and the fractal space that absorbs the excess of disorder on its microcosmic
verges. But humans would be of an excessive arrogance if they would pretend to have
such skills and achieve some day such an absolute objective comprehensiveness. The
universe is rational but not rationalizable, or at least not rationalizable using human
skills.
12
Hence the belief on which my methodology is based is that we should answer
“yes” to the first question and “no” to the second one. Science and reason must not be
rejected but we must acknowledge that scientific tools and methods have some limits,
and that we ourselves have limitations in the use we can make of them. Science has
failed to address social and complex objects that may be those that matter the most for
our future. We thus have to go beyond the positivism and reductionism paradigms and
the myth that rational thinking is the only way to produce scientific knowledge.
Nature provided us with intellectual skills other than rationality. Intuition for
example is a key intellectual faculty that helps to make decisions whose logic is not
apparent, but whose sense can nevertheless be confirmed by the successes it helps us
to achieve. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) showed that if we consider a five-step scale in
the process of building personal skills and knowledge (1: novice; 2: advanced
key faculty for reaching the most advanced stages (4 and 5). Computed “expert
systems,” because they are incapable of intuition, cannot go over stage 3 and should
revolutions and to open new realms of knowledge, as shown by Khun (1970), but as
soon as revolutions are done, scientists go back to what Khun (1970) called normal
could help to bring humanity as far forward as it brings individuals when it is used in
13
their life’s experiences. It may be a more efficient way to summarize complex
experiences than rational algorithms developed from sets of objective data. It may also
justify taking some liberty with established methods, as Feyerabend (1975) argued.
It is viewed as a source of subjectivity due to its connectivity with emotion, a skill that
Emotions are felt, for example, when looking at a painting, having sympathy for a
person or falling in love, events that matter much in our life but cannot be properly
described in rational terms. But how can things that are necessary for peoples’
personal progress not be necessary for the progress of a group of people, i.e., of
ourselves and our world in order to drive our destiny better, how can a mode of
perception such as emotion be absent of scientific enquiry? Philosophy, ethics and arts
skills. Can the overall progress of human societies be possible with a separation of
objective and rational modes of cognition. It is now widely recognized that scientific
researchers contributes to determining the direction they give to their work. Damasio
(1994) showed that people who have been wounded in the area of their brain that
relates to emotion are unable to act rationally. They can determine what they need to
do, but they will not do it. This does not mean that emotion plays a role in the
information treatment process itself, but shows that it is at least an incentive that helps
to translate ideas into decisions and action. We can wonder what would be a scientist
without emotion: what would be his/her capacity to go beyond the thinking dictated by
14
his/her culture. How could he/she engage in new hypothesis or theories and gather
personal energy for achieving key challenges? Scientists, like any human, have
emotional complexes, or affects, which have been built along their history. These
Having an emotion is maybe not a scientific act and can go against science, but the
scientific method has to find ways to use emotions positively, managing side effects
that go against objectivity but also using them as incentives for more innovative,
powerful, in depth, holistic and committed thinking. This would lead to establish more
connections between science and philosophy. Even art, eventually, may not be
separated from science (Feyerabend 2003). Scientists would then contribute to the
embellishment of the world we live in, a world for which they already helped to build
3.5. How to check the validity of knowledge if rationality loses its exclusivity
We saw that the use of intuition and emotion can increase efficiency in the
advancement of knowledge, but may also increase the risks of subjectivity. This issue
First, as contended above, emotion and intuition are already present in science
because scientific research is carried out by people. Recognizing these skills as part of
the cognitive processes, with the series of precaution it would imply, would not
necessarily make science more subjective. To the contrary, it could help to delineate
Second, whatever the tools used to acquire knowledge are, there is only one
conclusion and to check that this prediction actually occurs. Biophysical sciences
already engaged in this logic and put experiments at the core of their methods. But
15
social sciences are not yet clearly engaged in it. I advocate for this engagement to
occur, following the arguments of Bent Flyvjberg in his essay “Making social sciences
matter” (2001). Thus, the matter is not whether a given knowledge is scientific or not,
but whether it is useful for making a prediction and is validated or not by the occurring
of this prediction. The frontiers between sciences, philosophy, humanities and arts
could then be definitively blurred. Scientists could dare to go beyond the limits of
their field and of what they supposedly could infer using only “objective,” rationale
and “rigorous” arguments and methods. They could use any method and any of their
skills, but they could also be systematically controlled in return by the results of their
experiments. They would be accountable to the reality, rather than to their discipline
Does this mean that we would transform societies into guinea pigs submitted to
experiments? It may be that societies are guinea pigs already, but that politicians, not
the scientists, are those who conduct the experiments. What I propose hence is to
make scientists (those who “know”) and politicians (those who “decide”) work
together, making them deal with the same objects: our physical and natural world and
the societies built upon them. There will be two ways to assess the results of their
common experiments: through social feedback resulting from democratic control, and
through biophysical feedback resulting from scientific monitoring. This would help to
avoid knowledge traps such as fashions, unique thinking, received wisdoms, myths,
would be responsible, together with politicians, for their discourse on behalf of the
societies they are studying. Blurring the frontier between science and politics would
lead to redefine not only science, but politics as well. Aristotle, two thousand years
ago, developed the concept of phronesis that was aimed at bringing science into a
16
similar direction. Phronesis is a "true state, reasoned, and capable of actions with
regard to things that are good or bad for humans" (Aristotle 1976, in Flyvbjerg 2001).
"Phronesis goes beyond both analytical, scientific knowledge (episteme) and technical
knowledge or know-how (techne) and involves judgments and decisions made in the
manner of a virtuoso social and political actor" (Flyvbjerg 2001, 2). Phronesis is thus
the only state of knowledge that implies the responsiveness of the researcher vis-a-vis
society. It is the most mature state of knowledge due to this responsiveness. If science
could evolve to satisfy the phronesis ideal, it could enter a new paradigm where the
overall progress of human societies would be its only goal. It would deal with the real
world, instead of constructing idealized societies that run perfectly in models (the
communist society, the market society, and maybe, soon, the “sustainable” society)
but would be, at best, of little spiritual, ethical or esthetic value, and at worst
enslavement for human beings. In this new model, objective and rational thinking
could be used with and not against our identity, which is that of beings that think but
I must now go back to my dissertation topic to see how these quite abstract
Because I try not to do conventional science, the question I ask is neither “what
are the effects of slash-and-burn cultivation on the Malagasy environment,” nor “what
these questions have already been given by scientists belonging to the fields of
biology, soil sciences, crop sciences, social sciences, and economics, using
17
modeling. Their results show that slash-and-burn cultivation leads to deforestation,
soil degradation, and poverty. The solutions they propose to stop it are good
birth control. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that almost half a billion USD was
spent to implement these solutions, the Malagasy forest continues to be slashed and
burned, the soils to degrade, and the Malagasy farmers remain poor, including in the
small areas where most of the technical and financial support provided by this aid has
been concentrated. So, were the wrong questions asked, were the wrong answers
Consistently with the previous sections, I believe there is a mix of these three
reasons. But more importantly, I am convinced that escaping from this situation of
deforestation in Madagascar, why do farmers still slash-and-burn the forests, and why
did the Malagasy state and its partners fail in addressing these issues?” These
questions do not look like usual scientific questions but are those that matter. They are
environmentalists. But they have never been asked by scientists, who limit their work
to certain aspects of the reality that they select according to their backgrounds, the
disciplines they belong to and the methods they acquired. This dissertation is an
attempt to fill this gap. It concerns a broad object which includes a biophysical
environment; a local society that uses this environment and has its own history and
culture, its own way of interacting with it, it own land use (slash-and-burn
agriculture); and a global society that gets more and more concerned by this
18
environment and this land use and also has its own identity and culture. These local
and global societies live on the same planet, exploit the same global environment,
exchange things through a common economic system and share ideas through various
communication means. In other words, they depend on each other for the construction
of their destiny. Understanding deforestation dynamics and the land uses associated
with them lead to a questioning of their identity, the discourses they generate, the
activities they implement and the interactions between these two realms. Two cultural
poles are involved, which for simplicity I will call the modern and the traditional. Two
systems of values, two systems of knowledge, two systems of power and two senses of
esthetic are derived from these two poles. We need to be more than “competent
performers” (Dreyfus and Dreyfus 1986, see Section 3.3) to understand these two
poles and the systems associated with them, and to merge these elements into a single
representation. We have to experience the reality in depth, not only to measure it. As
observers, we belong to one of these poles only. We must then be aware of our own
culture and identity and question ourselves while doing our observations. We will
need, as far as our methods and capacities will allow us, to deconstruct our
representations and reconstruct more objective and comprehensive ones. How else
than using all the skills that have been granted to us, including intuition, and by
creating positive synergies between reason and emotion, can we get a slight chance to
achieve such comprehensiveness and reflexivity? And how else than by testing
number of narrower issues that have already been addressed, including in the area
where I conducted my field work, I will not hesitate to dedicate large sections to
summarize and critically examine these works and insert them into my comprehensive
picture. The same knowledge does not need to be produced twice, but different realms
19
of knowledge have to be articulated together, questioned by their confrontation,
improved in the light of new facts, and completed by filling up knowledge gaps. All
these, rather than the addition of new knowledge on a narrow issue, is be the endeavor
of this dissertation.
5. Conclusion
recognized in order to valorize in science, or with science, other faculties that can also
play a positive role in the advancement of knowledge, for the benefit of human
societies and their environments. The exclusion of knowledge domains, which is the
corollary of reductionism and positivism, leads to the creation of artificial objects that
are incomplete, mutilated and nonfunctional. These artificial objects are not the
cultural determinants and personal affects contribute to shape them. Hence they may
not reflect properly the reality and in this sense be irrational. But as they are regarded
as “scientific,” they are considered to be the only grid for understanding ourselves and
our world. They are excessively trusted and are allowed to determine our future. In
beyond this mode of thinking that denies an essential part of our identity and skills;
that makes us blind to the spiritual, ethical and esthetical dimensions of our lives; that
isolates us from people with different values, but engaged with us in determining the
future of our world. We must not refuse the positive role that intuition and emotion
can play for the advancement of knowledge. To recognize the presence of these skills
will help us to better control the biases introduced in our representations by affects and
between logic and intuition, between us and the others, between science and politics,
20
is necessary for not passing over key realities that can reveal the essence, the
least did not experience each other. They are issues that reveal high tensions between
the local and the global, the social and the natural, and for these reasons crystallize
significant attention from organizations engaged in the search for a better future. They
21
PART II
22
INTRODUCTION
This second part will set the issues addressed in this dissertation (deforestation
Madagascar based on the existing literature on the subject. Chapter 2 will describe the
the National Environmental Action Plan, started in 1991 and still ongoing. It will be
mostly based on the grey literature produced by actors involved in rural development
5
I worked for the FSP-GDRN Project (Projet Gestion Décentralisée des Ressources Naturelles du
Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaire; Decentralized Natural Resources Management Project of the Priority
Aid Fund) of the Malagasy-French Cooperation, from February 2004 to February 2006.
23
CHAPTER 1
1. Introduction
ecosystems, from the first human settlement to present. It will show that
environmental degradation has occurred for as long as people have lived on the island,
but may have accelerated in recent times. Section 4 will formulate a preliminary
social and environmental histories, with a particular emphasis on the social groups
involved in the clearing of eastern rain forests. It will show that Madagascar is still in
a process of conquest by its inhabitants and that unequal competition leads to the
where astonishing animals, such as lemurs and chameleons, can be found, but which is
threatened by humans who burn its land and clear its forests. Madagascar is indeed a
land with striking ecological features. Located southeast from continental Africa, it is
the fourth biggest island in the world with an area of 587,000 km2. It occupied a
central position in the Gondwana continent in Cretaceous time but separated early
from other continents (Wells 2003). This ancient isolation explains the presence of
24
numerous archaic groups of plants and animals, the high rate of endemism and the
Now three hundred kilometers away from the African coast, the island is
marked by a mountainous axis extending from north to south, the highest point being
2876 m. This escarpment is bordered by uplands on its west side, with altitude ranging
intrusions are also encountered but do not cover vast areas. The climate is sub-
equatorial to sub-tropical. The highest rainfall (3000 mm) is recorded on the east coast
which is subjected to trade winds coming from the Indian Ocean, and the lowest (400
mm) in the semi-arid southwest. The dry season lasts from June to October but is
absent in the east and more marked in the west and the south. It coincides with the
lowest temperatures. Cyclones are frequent. They cause flooding and significant
and a very high biodiversity (Humbert 1965; Koechlin et al. 1974; Jenkins 1987; Du
Puy and Moat 1996; Lowry II et al. 1997; Gautier and Goodman 2003). Due to
clearing for agricultural purposes and frequent burnings, most of the land is now
covered by secondary vegetation. Primary vegetation covered 18% of the land in the
1970s (Map 1, from Du Puy and Moat 2003), still less at present. Secondary
vegetation is dominated by grasses and sometimes invasive shrubs and trees. The
primary ecosystems related to this dissertation are the mid altitude and lower montane
evergreen, humid forests. They form a corridor that stretches from the north to the
south of the island but which is fragmented in several locations (Map 1). Throughout
this dissertation, I will employ the term rain forest for more convenience.
25
Map 1 : Remaining primary vegetation in Madagascar
Source: Du Puy and Moat (2003, 52). Derived from Faramalala (1995) and based
on aerial photographs taken from 1972 to 1979.
26
3. Environmental and social history
Madagascar was settled relatively recently, around 2000 years ago (Mac Phee
et al. 1991). The pattern of settlement is quite complex and not well known, with
Indonesia and Africa. According to Deschamps (1972), the first settlers shipped from
Africa and were Indonesian navigators. They had partially integrated some elements
of the African culture and could have been accompanied by populations from the East-
African coast.
The first proven record of human presence shows that groups of hunters may
have been present on the Malagasy coast as early as A.D. 100 or A.D. 300 (Wright
and Rakotoarisoa 2003). The first known encampment site is dated around A.D. 450
and “archeological evidence of settlement on the coast increases significantly for the
period after A.D. 800” (Wright and Rakotoarisoa 2003, 113). Traces of human
settlement during the first millennium are nevertheless scarce and evidences of
important settlement in several parts of the island are only attested for the tenth
Anthropogenic fires occurred in the second century A.D. on the west coast, and
in the seventh century in the central highland (Wright et al. 1996; Burney 1997b).
They were probably ignited for hunting. At this time, the natural vegetation in the
highlands was a complex mosaic of savannah, grassland and forest (Lowry II et al.
1997, Burney 1987). Fossils of now extinct hunted animals such as giant lemurs, a
pigmy hippopotamus, a local elephant, giant birds (Aepyornis), turtles and other big
animals have been discovered (Wright et al. 1996). It is possible that hunting and
anthropogenic fires caused the extinction of megafauna but this thesis is still disputed
(Dewar 2003).
27
A broad trade network across the Indian Ocean was later developed by Arabs
settlement systems” (Wright and Rakotoarisoa 2003, 114). These ports facilitated a
and the importation and exportation of slaves. The first known major port, Mahilaka,
was established in A.D. 1150 in the Ampasindava bay and flourished until about 1400.
arboreal pollen became frequent again (Burney 1999, in Wright and Rakotoarisoa
Concerning the highland, many villages were found as early as the thirteenth
century (Dewar and Wright 1993, in Wright and Rakotoarisoa 2003). Settlement was
grasslands, as shown by a new increase of charcoal sediment and grass pollen during
the twelfth century. Castor bean pollen (Ricinus communis L. 6 ), a commensal plant
found in disturbed areas near villages, also appeared during this period (Burney 1987,
organized societies developed in several parts of the island during the second
6
Euphorbiaceae.
28
millennium (Wright et al. 1996). The most powerful group was probably the Merina,
who developed a kingdom with a high level of political organization and conquered at
least half of the island in the nineteenth century. It probably originated from new
waves of Malaysian and Indonesian settlers who moved from the east coast to the
highlands (Deschamps 1959). The Merina established around a cluster of lakes and
marshes, close to the present capital Antananarivo (Wright et al. 1996). They
African settlers (Wazimba). They developed irrigated rice cultivation and raised cattle
(Wright et al. 1996). Their land uses allowed the production of a surplus which made
together with the raiding of slaves from the surrounding territories, allowed a tripling
of the highland population between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries (Wright et
al. 1996). Due to this prosperity, the whole central highlands have been almost
al. 1996). Warfare may have played a role in this transformation, as denuded land
facilitated the displacement of armies and control over territory. Large fortified
bastions appeared in the eighteenth century and the frontier was repeatedly moved
The end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century was the
Radama 1 (1810-1828), who conquered most neighboring polities and created the
Malagasy Kingdom (1815-1895). As the Merina did not efficiently control this vast
territory, the unity was relative. Nevertheless, the political organization allowed the
development of larger irrigation systems and favored trade exchanges with coastal
villages. Guns and powder were imported and New World crops such as manioc were
29
introduced. Close relationships were established with foreigners, first with British, and
later with French, leading to the establishment of the French protectorate in 1896
(Section 3.3.). As the Merina were the main beneficiaries of education effort during
colonial time, their descendants still dominate the administrative and economic life in
independent Madagascar.
The history of the Betsileo is quite similar to that of the Merina, with whom
they share the appellation of “people of the highlands,” distinguishing them from the
“Coastal people,” a mosaic of groups living on the coast. The Betsileo history started
with the settlement of groups coming from the east and mixing with Wazimba
(Deschamps 1959). They created kingdoms south of the Merina region, where the
conditions for rice cultivation were less favorable due to a hilly topography. The
Betsileo never achieved complete unity and were conquered by the Merina in 1830
(Kottak 1980). However, they benefited from education efforts under colonial times
The Sakalava created the most powerful coastal kingdom. They once had a
territory that covered extensive areas from the west coast to the central highlands in
the seventeenth century, but were also conquered by the Merina, in the eighteenth
century.
Most other groups were village societies whose centers were located on the
coast or closer to it. They benefited from links with Arab trade networks and had a
quite sophisticated cultural life. Their military activities were limited to raids aimed at
supplying slaves. Among these groups are the Betsimisaraka and the Tanala, who are
the two main groups practicing slash-and-burn cultivation in the eastern rain forests.
The Betsimisaraka (“the many who will not be sundered”) constitute most of
the population in Beforona, the commune which will be studied in Part III. They result
30
from the unification of several tribes of the eastern coast by King Ratsimilaho in the
early eighteen century. But this unification did not last due to internal conflicts and
slaves raids by Sakalava and Sihanaka people. The Betsimisaraka were conquered by
the Merina in 1823. Nevertheless, they have always been quite prosperous, due to the
abundance of rice, tubers and fruits grown in slash-and-burn cultivation systems, and
to trade exchange and piracy along its coast. They transformed the landscape of the
secondary vegetation and cultivated and grazed land (Flacourt 1658, Ellis 1858, in
Althabe (1969) and Cole (2001). The eastern coast provided favorable conditions for
growing cash crops such as coffee, which interested colonists. On the other hand, the
stigmatized as a bad practice as we will see later. The Betsimisaraka suffered much
from the imposition of a per capita tax, the obligation of growing cash crops to pay
this tax, and the repression of slash-and-burn cultivation. They resisted by claiming
their right to practice tavy, which was a way to express their culture and maintain their
identity and unity (Althabe 1969). However, lowland rice cultivation was part of their
aggregation of individuals fleeing from raids and slavery or removed from the coast
and the central highlands by new settlers. The first Tanala were probably black people
(Wazimba) coming from the coast and the highlands and fleeing other populations to
find refuge in the forest. They practiced hunting, gathering, slash-and-burn agriculture
and had a low level of social organization. In the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, they
have been joined by noble Islamized groups who migrated to these areas. Migrations
31
of Tanala seem to have increased in the sixteenth century. This was probably due to
the arrival of new settlers on the east coast and in the coastal valleys, to the
taking refuge in the forest (Beaujard 1983). The Zafirambo constituted the aristocracy,
unified the various tribes, and created the Ikongo kingdom (Deschamps 1972). This
process was a reciprocal assimilation rather than the subjection of one to the other, as
dominant groups such as the Merina. The current chiefs of the Tanala tribes (the
Changes in land use occurred at that time and wet rice cultivation was
developed in the most favorable valleys (Beaujard 1985). The existence of both
lowland and upland rice systems is attested by a traditional Tanala tale which explains
Merina kingdom in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The Tanala were obliged to
pursue their flee to the forest and to abandon their land, for conserving their freedom
or not becoming slaves (Beaujard 1985). Nevertheless, the need to resist to the Merina
kingdom encouraged them to organize into a stronger chiefdom (Beaujard 1985). The
immigration and assimilation of Betsileo, who had more experience in irrigated rice
32
cultivation, allowed a second development of paddy fields in the second part of the
nineteenth century (Beaujard 1985). But in the twentieth century, colonization exerted
a new pressure on Tanala people, resulting again in the abandoning of their land and
This history shows that the Tanala have various ethnic origins and are instead
defined by their marginal social situation, their standard of living in the forest and
their quest for free land. Migration of Betsileo people to the Tanala region is ongoing
today, as attested by the existence of mixed Betsileo-Tanala villages where the social
organization of the Tanala is adopted by both entities. This history also shows that
Tanala people are not simply forest tribes practicing slash-and-burn agriculture. As
most other groups in Madagascar, they have experience in both lowland and upland
rice cultivation. But as they have been repeatedly marginalized and removed to remote
areas, they never had the opportunity to definitively establish permanent settlements.
Land use would thus be more a question of physical environment and economic
resources than a matter of culture and traditions. Establishing sustainable paddy fields
is a long process which can take generations, especially in mountainous areas where
large plains are absent, and when political instability and conflicts impede farmers
The first Europeans visiting Madagascar were the Portuguese around the year
1500. They established trade settlements and missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries but later abandoned the island. The Dutch, the British and the French
followed them. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the missions organized
military expeditions into the central regions of the island but had no clear policy
7
The main sources used for this section are Brown (1995) and Deschamp (1959; 1972).
33
concerning the exploitation of resources and colonization. Colonization at that time
Madagascar became a shelter for pirates until the eighteenth century. When piracy
declined, around 1825, the British and French created new establishments on the coast.
The British developed an alliance with the dominant group, the Merina, on whom they
had a large influence. The French colonized the coast but also developed links with the
Merina Kingdom. In 1890, the British abandoned the island to the French in exchange
for Zanzibar. France established a protectorate in 1895 and the colonization followed,
The twentieth century history will be narrated in more detail in Chapter 2 but
environmental degradation.
services. But the goal was rather to serve the interests of the mother country. Taxes
and forced labor (corvées) were instituted, land was taken to indigenous people and
which was repressed by the military in 1947. Colonial pressure was loosened after
these events and the country entered into a state of relative prosperity, leading a
demographic boom in the second half of the century. Independence was gained in
1960. The political life of the independent state was dominated by the Merina, who
were the main beneficiaries of educational efforts by the French. A socialist regime
34
was instituted in 1972 and enforced by a coup in 1975. But Madagascar later
liberalized its economy and opened to foreign investors and international aid agencies,
national environmental program was launched in 1990, with significant support from
rate of 3% (CIA 2007) and an average density of 26 inhabitants/ km2. Most people live
in rural areas and practice agriculture, which represents 26.9% of the gross domestic
using different methods and the definition of “forest” varies according to the authors.
For these reasons, comparison is difficult 8 and there is controversy about the exact
rate of deforestation (Agarwal et al. no date). All estimations agree that it was very
8
According to Jenkins (1987), forest covered 25 to 30% of the land in Madagascar in 1987. According
to Chauvet (1972), it covered 16.7 million hectares in 1972, including 4.3 million hectares of degraded
forests. According to the World Bank (1988), 12 million hectares of forest remain in Madagascar,
which represents 25% of the initial cover. Jolly (1989) estimated 7.7 to 10 million hectares of natural
forest still remained in 1989, disappearing at a rate of two to 4 % per year. At this rate, the last patches
of primary vegetation may disappear in a few decades.
35
8.5 million hectares in 2000, reflecting a national average rate of
deforestation of about 0.86% per year. (World Bank 2004, 6)
More precise data are available concerning the eastern rain forests, which are
certainly the richest in terms of biodiversity. Sussman et al. (1994) and Green et al.
(1990) estimated that rain forest probably covered 11.2 million hectares in eastern
Madagascar before colonization by the French, of which 7.6 million remained in 1950
(calculated from the vegetation map of Humbert and Cours Darne 1965) and 3.8
these figures, the pace of rain forest clearing between 1950 and 1985 would have been
111,000 hectares per year. In the most densely populated areas, this pace would have
decreased from 2.5% or 51,000 hectares per year, between 1950 and 1973, to 0.79% or
16,000 hectares per year between 1973 and 1984 9 . For Green and Sussman (1990),
this decrease after 1973 may result “from a diminishing pool of accessible forest
These figures are, however, disputable. Dufils (2003) reviewed existing data
sets and compared the estimation methods. He concluded that only three data sets can
be compared concerning the eastern rain forests: the estimations by Humbert and
Cours Darne (1965) (10.74 million hectares in 1953), by IEFN 10 (6.25 million
hectares in 1993) and by JRC 11 (5.53 million hectares in 1999). According to these
sources, 102,000 hectares would have been deforested every year between 1953 and
1993, and the same pace would have persisted between 1993 and 1999. The recent
9
No total coverage is available for the year 1973.
10
Inventaire Ecologique Forestier National (National Forest Ecological Inventory).
11
Joint Research Institute of the Space Application Institute, Ispra, Italy.
36
programs during the 1990s. They measured a 0.3% loss per year in the Zahamena
Mantadia corridor 12 , for the period 1993 to 2000, and a 0.5% loss in the Ranomafana-
Andringitra corridor, located in southeast Madagascar. These two sites are targeted by
USAID 13 funded projects. These authors further measured a 1.1% loss in the Anosibe
An’ala-Ranomafana corridor, which is not targeted by USAID projects and has been
neglected by environmental programs (still for the period 1993-2000). The results of
the comparison are exhibited in the form of posters in the office of many Malagasy
state representatives, such as at the Water and Forest General Directorate. But in
reality, the correlation between intervention and less deforestation does not mean there
is a causal relationship. The situation may differ from one area to the other in terms of
factors, rather than the impact of projects, could explain the differences measured by
Hawkins and Horning (2001). Project interventions can further lead to displaced
pressures due to the mobility of Malagasy people. The higher rate in the control site,
as well as the lower rate in the targeted sites, could both be the consequences of
environmental programs.
The main causes of deforestation during the twentieth century may have been
railways induced the colonization of new areas, the burning of forest for producing
charcoal, and the concession of forest land for extraction of precious woods, rubber,
12
The commune of Beforona, which will be studied in Part III, is located in this area.
13
United States Agency for International Development, a major donor of NEAP.
37
raphia and other products (Olson 1984). Despite this diversity of causes, slash-and-
burn cultivation (tavy) was regarded as the main cause of deforestation and the French
administration tried to regulate its practice (Chapter 2). There can indeed be little
doubt that tavy was the most significant proximal cause. But if we adopt a more
comprehensive frame, the role of slash-and-burn may not have been so significant.
Slash-and-burn cultivation implies vegetation regrowth on the cleared land, after one
or two years of cultivation. This secondary vegetation can be cleared again and the
system can sustain itself, at least when the population density is low and stable. This
could have been the case in Madagascar until 1950. According to Jarosz (1993), the
population growth in Madagascar was very close to replacement level between 1900
and 1941, whereas huge areas of forest have been cleared during this period. Censuses
between 1900 and 1950 expressed the anxiety of the French over population
stagnation (Olson 1984), while millions of hectares of forest were cleared. The
dramatic demographic explosion only occurred after 1950 (Olson 1984). Rather than
the demographic increase or the unsustainability of tavy, the real “cause” of massive
clearing could have been up-side dynamics obliging farmers to clear new land in
forests.
I already pointed out such up-side causes in the case of the Tanala people, in
Section 3.2. These up-side causes may have been exacerbated and generalized to the
whole country during the colonial period, leading to the disorganization of the local
economy and land tenure systems. The institution of forced labor and taxes, the
people in a search for new land and income opportunities (Jarosz 1993; Olson 1984).
As forest is the only land that appeared to be in free access and with no owners,
38
farmers with few resources and little capital had no other choice than to exploit forest
biomass when pushed away from their previous land by colonists’ settlements or by
saw in Section 3.5 that this was not the case. That it did not decrease could be
market forces. “Real income per capita has fallen by 40% since 1960 to about 240
USD per person in 1999” (Dorosh et al. 2003). During the 1980s, the Malagasy state
was in bankruptcy 14 , forest controls stopped and poverty peaked, leading many
GNP 15 growth but also created an increasingly risky economic environment, which
affected the most vulnerable farmers and may have led to more deforestation (Barrett
small scale agricultural households “have been extending their land use by clearing
Today (in 2001), 69.6% of Malagasy people live under the poverty line, and 85% of
This massive deforestation does not mean that a large part of the country has
been put under cultivation. According to Jolly (1989), only 5% of Madagascar is under
14
The economical crisis of the 1980s will be analyzed in Chapter 2.
15
Gross National Product.
39
Koechlin (1974), grassland covered an estimated 420,000 km2 in 1974, i.e., 72% of
the surface of the island. This number may, however, include savannah, as aerial or
agricultural landscape. They are used as pastures and are frequently burned, to provide
early forage when the first rains arrive and to favor runoff and provide nutrients to
paddy fields located in bottom valleys (Raison 1984; Kull 2000). But most fires are
uncontrolled, cover extensive areas, and extreme erosion often occurs, creating huge
gullies called Lavaka (Wells et al. 1997). The consequence is extensive flooding and
be conquered by farmers who have the capacity to develop more intensive land uses,
to the detriment of those who currently occupy the land and practice extensive systems
(mostly pastoralism). Conquest of the “grassland frontier” also needs more investment
to be achieved than in the case of the forest frontier. Fewer natural resources are in
place and investments have to be made in the form of work to complete improvements
such as terracing, irrigating and reforesting. It is only when they already have some
assets, or when they have no other choice, that farmers in the search for new land
direct themselves to this second frontier. Those who establish more successfully and
found the most prosperous communities are often Merina and Betsileo people, who
have higher economic levels and have already developed intensive land uses and faced
the problem of natural resource shortage for decades or centuries. Raison (1984)
40
5. Conclusion
Land degradation has been occurring ever since humans settled on the island, and
For this reason, humans have significantly transformed the ecosystems of the earth for
as long as they have existed (Thomas 1956; Turner et al. 1999) and fires and forest
clearing have played a central role in these transformations (Ponting 1991; Redman
I can further assert that the main proximal cause of deforestation is the seeking
of new land for cultivation, and that forests are mostly cut by farmers who practice
slash-and-burn cultivation (tavy). But these farmers must not be blamed for that.
Deforestation results from the mobility of the whole population, the extension of the
most prosperous groups and the marginalization of the poorest ones. The expansion of
the Merina kingdom and colonization by the French were probably the main forces
that put the Malagasy forests and its resources under pressure. More recently, market
reforms have not reduced, and may even have increased these pressures. Tavy farmers
have been stigmatized as the main agents of forest clearing but they are just one aspect
of a more global and complex dynamic that involves other groups. They are in the first
line of the move to the forest, but they are not the main force that provokes this move.
For this reason, they cannot be regarded as the main cause of deforestation. They are
only the proximal cause, playing an instrumental role for the “benefit” of all actors
41
need to build their representations inside this broad picture in order to avoid the
focused on the last step in the chain of reactions that leads to deforestation, i.e., on
what happens to the soil, the vegetation and the economy when a tavy farmer clears a
piece of forest land to cultivate it, then we may fail in finding solutions to the problem.
42
CHAPTER 2
MADAGASCAR
1. Introduction
programs in Madagascar. Sections 2 and 3 will describe the first environmental and
forest policies under the Merina kingdom and during the colonial period. Sections 4, 5
and 6 will continue this story from independence in 1960 (first republic), to the
socialist revolution of 1972-75 (second republic), and the return to a liberal economy
in the 1980s. Sections 7, 8 and 9 will analyze the three phases of the National
Environmental Action Plan, with a special emphasis on its impact and on the socio-
economic and political context of its implementation. Section 10 will conclude and
Before the arrival of Europeans and the organization of a modern state, the
Malagasy society was feudal. The land was owned by kings or lineage leaders who
allocated it to the population. The forest served as a reservoir of land for the
measures revealed awareness that the forest was the only resource available for the
43
to worry them, because the small activities they will have will allow them
to become, like the others, good subjects of their sovereign… Concerning
my vassals and relatives, they will be free to take in the forest the materials
they will need, for example to build a house, because nice houses are the
beauties and the glory of my kingdom. It is however forbidden to burn the
forest and to burn its wood, except to make charcoal for the forge. This
interdiction is in your interest and is aimed at avoiding the complete and
irremediable disappearance of the forest 16 .
Radama (1861-1863) issued the first known legislation dealing with forest
products extraction, the “Charte Lambert,” signed on June 28, 1855. This regulation
authorized the free exploitation of mines and forests by a company owned by a foreign
investor, Lambert. The Code of 70 articles, promulgated in 1862, included five articles
of the “charte” and added two more for the regulation of mining and forest products
extraction.
On March 29, 1881, Queen Ranavalona II promulgated a code of 305 articles,
which is regarded as the first significant move from a feudal society to a modern state.
It included six articles (101 to 106) dedicated to forest protection and management
(Lavauden 1934). Article 101 forbids forest burning and punishes it by “ten years in
iron” (in prison). Article 102 forbids charcoal production in or close to forests, while
article 103 forbids the use of big trees to make charcoal. Article 104 forbids settlement
(Lavauden 1934). Article 105 forbids clearing and burning of forests for agricultural
16
From Julien (1909), in Lavauden (1934), translation from French to English by Pollini. Original
citation in Lavauden (1934): “Voici la forêt, patrimoine non susceptible de répartition entre mes sujets.
C’est là que les orphelins, les veuves, et tous les malheureux viendront chercher leur moyen
d’existence, car sans cela, ils n’auraient aucune ressource, ne pouvant rien vendre. Que personne ne les
inquiète, car les petites industries auxquelles ils se livreront leur permettront de devenir, comme les
autres, des sujets utiles à leur souverain …. Quant aux grands, mes vassaux et parents, ils auront, eux
aussi, toute liberté pour faire prendre dans la forêt les matériaux dont ils auront besoin, chaque fois, par
exemple, qu’ils voudront faire bâtir une trano kotona (maison en bois), car les belles constructions sont
l’agrément du pays et la gloire de mon royaume. Il est, néanmoins, interdit d’incendier la forêt et d’en
brûler les bois, si ce n’est pour fabriquer le charbon qui sert aux travaux de forge. Cette interdiction,
prise dans votre intérêt, a pour but d’éviter la disparition complète et irrémédiable de la forêt.”
44
purposes and limits the practice of slash-and-burn to secondary vegetation. Article
106, eventually, forbids cutting or damage of trees growing on the littoral. This
immediately sent by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 1896 (Lavauden 1934). Its
objectives were to assess the forest resources, to organize their rational extraction, to
control the permits that had been allocated (mostly to European that exported wood to
Mauritius and La Reunion) and to prepare legislation that would organize forest
• 1897: Publication of the first legislative order (July 5), launching of the
vines),
45
• 1925: development of fisheries in the forestry research stations
• 1923: creation of ten forest Natural Reserves (an eleventh will be added in
• 1930: publication of the third decree (November 17), modified later but
October 8, 1933,
• 1958: creation of the two first National Parks, opened to scientists and
Until 1930, the enforcement of the forest legislation was almost ineffective.
There were only two forestry officers for the whole country until 1927, assisted by no
more than five forestry employees until 1922 (Lavauden 1934). Local administrators
were flexible and continued to tolerate indigenous practices and forest clearing
economic local realities, the legislation hesitated concerning the way to address fires.
According to Kull (2004), Bertrand and Sourdat (1998), Ramanantsoavina (no date)
and Lavauden (1934), pasture fires were forbidden in 1897, authorized in 1904,
limited to indispensable ones in 1907, forbidden again by the second decree in 1913,
and tolerated after 1913 because exceptions to the ban became the rule. The policy and
the legislation about tavy had similar hesitations until the early 1920s.
Madagascar was also visited by many biologists and naturalists during the
nineteenth century, one of the most prominent figures being the French explorer and
46
naturalist Alfred Grandidier (Andriamialisoa and Langrand 2003). Under their
influence, the French Governor Gallieni founded the Malagasy Academy in 1902. The
first years of scientific surveys were accompanied by polemics concerning the original
extension of forests and the type of ecosystems that existed in the highlands and the
west before the arrival of humans. Perrier de la Bâthie (1921) estimated that 200,000
hectares of forest were cleared every year. He noticed that all species of the highlands
parts or sexually by producing seeds under a short cycle. Humbert (1927) renewed the
arguments that tavy and pasture fires were the cause of this destruction. He drew the
before the arrivals of humans, except for a few swampy lands with bad drainage
(Humbert 1949).
declared that Madagascar had only two botanical regions, the oriental region covered
by evergreen forests and the occidental region covered by deciduous forests. He later
contended that before the uplands were deforested, the climate was wetter and
evergreen forests extended across the whole island, giving to it a uniform cover
(Bertrand and Sourdat 1998). He created the myth of a lost evergreen forest paradise
The third forest decree, adopted in November 1930, was strongly influenced by
this myth and by the botanists’ call for more conservation efforts. It put a ban on any
form of vegetation fire. According to article 36, “the fires, the destruction or clearing
of forests and the bush fires for the preparation of crop fields or pastures are forbidden
in the whole domain of the colony 17 .” When individuals were not identified, the
17
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “les incendies, destructions ou défrichements de forêts
et les feux de brousse pour la préparation des cultures et pour les pâturages sont interdits dans tout le
domaine de la colonie.”
47
communities were regarded as responsible and fined (article 58). Pasture fires were
The 1930 decree was followed by a series of strict instructions for its
and exceptions supported by more or less legal administrative acts still proliferated.
The forest services were, however, significantly strengthened (six forest officers and
39 employees working in six forests districts in 1931) and the population heard of
these new authorities and of the regulations they enforced. This raised an awareness
that something significant had changed: ancestral land now belonged to the state, an
external and quite abstract entity, and accessing forest land through customary rights
was rendered illegal (Bertrand and Sourdat 1998). This change was confirmed by the
arrival of colonists and other outsiders who were granted land ownership and
authorizations for forest resource extraction, with no respect for the traditional land
tenure system. In consequence, local means of regulation started to erode, while the
colonial administration was not strong enough to enforce the law, except along the
main roads. Competition for access to natural resources increased, especially when
colonists took part in it. Burning became a way to contest the taking of land by
outsiders and to claim indigenous rights. This change, and the demographic explosion
after 1950, are certainly the key explanation for the acceleration of environmental
degradation in Madagascar during the twentieth century, as Jarosz (1993) and Kull
(2004) argued.
18
Reference not in list of work cited because cited but not readable in the bibliography of my copy of
Bertrand and Sourdat (1998).
19
Page of document not readable on my copy of Bertrand and Sourdat (1998).
48
the most exalted indigenous people declared that it was better to destroy
the neighboring woods than to see them fall into the hands of others. They
ignited fires secretly and thousands of hectares of beautiful forests
disappeared in a few weeks. As soon as they belonged to the state, they
were no longer protected.
Parrot was the first to propose to implement community based natural resource
The taking of land by the state and by colonists was not the only cause of
tension. Farmers fled to escape forced labor as we saw in Chapter 1. They moved to
remote areas, mostly into forests that they cleared to open new agricultural land. In
some cases, the administration forced them to have a permanent settlement along the
roads, to abandon tavy and to cultivate crops for export. Althabe (1969) showed how
the Betsimisaraka people developed a dual system to resist to these pressures. They
established permanent dwellings and coffee plantations but continued to practice tavy
that culminated in 1947. As in most colonized countries, the Second World War
provoked an increasing demand for services from the population. Labor and products
were requisitioned to support the war effort. But the war also showed that colonial
power could lose a battle. People from the eastern region, led by strengthening
nationalist movements, rebelled. Forest plantations were a prominent target (Kull
2004). The main forestry research station, in Analamazaotra, was destroyed and
evacuated; the installations of four forest reserves were destroyed; in the eastern
region many forest posts were attacked and the extent of tavy increased significantly
(Ramanantsoavina no date).
After the rebellion was repressed, and until the last years of the colonial period,
applied and the need to support farmers to develop alternatives to tavy, such as
49
irrigated rice cultivation, was more and more widely recognized. Pasture fires were
increased, the infrastructure developed, the economy expanded rapidly and the
population started to boom. But not until independence would a new law be issued to
provide a legal framework for a softer approach to fire and tavy control.
During the first decade after independence the first republic, under the
prosperity. There was a regular increase in industrial production and cash-crop export
(coffee, vanilla and cloves), a self sufficiency in rice and a low inflation rate. The
trade balance was in deficit, but this was never a threat due to membership in the
Franc Zone and the substantial aid received from multilateral and bilateral donors
(Brown 2000). Economic growth benefited the urban elite more, but the countryside
clothing and there was little sign of real hardship or deprivation.” (Brown 2000, 304).
The road network was more developed than it has ever been since, providing to most
regions an access to market and allowing state services to work more efficiently.
50
4.2. The new legislation about vegetation clearing and fires
Not only the economy was more favorable to the population at this time. The
repression of fires and tavy was more reasonable than it used to be under the colonial
period. A new law was issued in 1960 to regulate vegetation clearing and fires
clearing as
the series of operations aimed at allowing the cultivation of a piece of land
that was previously covered by ligneous vegetation, and which consists in
the slashing of all or part of this vegetation, followed or not by incineration
and aimed at establishing crops or plantations. 20
The ordinance 60-127 is the reference to which Forest Services still refer.
According to its articles 3 and 4, clearing is forbidden in the national forest domain,
on slopes of more than 50%, on land subject to intensive erosion, on sand dunes of the
littoral and on river banks. The Forest Service can grant clearing authorizations on
20
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “on appelle “défrichement” la suite des opérations qui
destinées à permettre la mise en culture d’un terrain préalablement recouvert d’une végétation ligneuse
et qui consiste dans l’abattage de tout ou partie d'une végétation ligneuse suivi ou non d'incinération,
dans le but de procéder à des plantations ou semis d'ordre agricole.”
21
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: « Les feux “de culture” ou de “nettoiement” ont pour
but “soit d’incinérer la végétation ligneuse peu dense qui recouvre un terrain cultivé de manière
permanente en vue d'y préparer de nouvelles cultures, soit de nettoyer les abords de champs de cultures
pérennes ou d'installation à des buts social et économique”; “Les feux de pâturage qui ont pour but le
renouvellement de la végétation herbacée sur les pâturages”; “Les feux sauvages qui se propagent sans
51
Tavy practiced on dense ligneous vegetation matches with none of these
categories, probably because the section about clearing indirectly addresses them.
“cleaning and cultivation fires.” According to article 8, “cleaning and cultivation fires
can be ignited without authorization if they occur outside the national forest domain
and the artificially reforested land.” 22 Tavy on low density ligneous vegetation is thus
interpretation of the term “low density ligneous vegetation.” Most fallow land in
eastern Madagascar is invaded by exotic weeds such as Rubus mollucana and Lantana
camara, which are ligneous in the sense that their stems produce lignin, but which do
not produce real wood, except on short stumps. These species are not even used as
firewood and the term sub-ligneous may be more appropriate to qualify them. If they
are mixed with herbaceous species, there is no ambiguity about the nondense character
of the ligneous vegetation and tavy can be practiced without authorization. But if
ligneous or sub-ligneous species dominate and form a dense vegetation, it is not clear
ligneous,” and whether a tavy practiced in it would imply authorization for “clearing.”
that crops are sown every year on the same land, then tavy fires on low density
that they would not be addressed by the law in this case, because they could not be
controle, sans limite, a travers n’importe quel type de végétation et sans utilité d’ordre économique.”
(article 6).
22
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: "Les feux de culture et de nettoiement peuvent être
allumés sans autorisation, à condition que ce soit hors du domaine forestier national ou d'une parcelle
artificiellement reboisée." (article 8).
52
regarded as a clearing in the sense of article 2 either. If we consider, to the contrary,
that the fallow period is part of the cultivation cycle, then a tavy land can be regarded
as a permanently cultivated land. The first interpretation makes more sense for
agronomists, who usually use the term “permanent cultivation” to designate cropping
systems with very short or no fallow periods. But only the second interpretation is
Due to a situation of relative stability and prosperity, the forest may have been
under lower pressure during the first republic. The Forest Service had a level of
efficiency they have not experienced since. Forestry staff remember this period as the
golden age of their career. Rangers were respected and feared by the population. Their
salary and field indemnities provided them a decent living and corruption was not
cultivation land and control forests clearing and exploitation. They also identified sites
suitable for building dams and creating irrigation schemes. This last responsibility
they lost it later in favor of civil engineering services attached to the Ministry of
Agriculture. The state efforts to develop communication infrastructure and the lower
vulnerability of households also eased the rangers’ tasks. Certainly, land shortage and
migrations still resulted in significant forest clearing and some communities may have
suffered from repression campaigns. But we will see in the case of Beforona that
farmers initiated a move to reduce their dependence on tavy and forest resources and
53
4.4. The first environmental conferences
and treaties and took the following steps for the implementation of environmental
policies:
Conservation in Alger (1968), ratified by the law 70-004 of June 23, 1970.
organized by UNESCO 25 .
23
In French: Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature.
24
In French : Conseil Supérieur pour la Protection de la Nature.
25
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
26
In French : Conférence Internationale sur la Conservation de la Nature et ses Ressources.
27
In French : Commission Conservation de la Nature et Environnement.
54
The vice president of the Malagasy Republic, in his allocution at the
needs with the conservation of nature. He asserted that “the only realist attitude was a
Malagasy 1972, 40). The report addressed issues such as natural resource management
and pollution, but also regional planning and rural and urban development. It
contended that “in a world where economic rules do not allow increased prices and
(Repoblika Malagasy 1972, 37-38). But it also perpetuated the simplistic explanation
of environmental degradation that developed during the colonial period. The Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development, in his allocution, sent a “SOS” to gain support
to fight against bush fires ignited by pastoralists. Several sections of the conference
report put at the forefront the need to educate farmers to change their “mentality,” to
repress their practices, to sensitize them to environmental issues and to propose them
new techniques (Repoblika Malagasy 1972, 37-38). But after this conference,
Madagascar entered into a period of political and economic turmoil and the new
commitments would not be translated into programs and actions until the mid 1980s.
The relative prosperity of the first republic did not last and political protest
28
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “la seule attitude réaliste [est] celle d’une utilisation
rationnelle des ressources naturelles, celle-ci englobant nécessairement les impératifs essentiels de la
conservation afin d’assurer la permanence des ressources.”
55
First, there was a “growing perception that little had been changed by
independence and that behind the facade of a Malagasy government, the French were
still running the country” (Brown 2000, 307) – import-export trade was largely
Rochefortaise, and the Havraise. About 1000 technical assistants filled half the senior
posts in the central administration. About 80% of the teaching staff at the university
and state secondary schools were French. The consequence for the Malagasy youth
and elite was fewer opportunities to get jobs and advance in their careers, and a feeling
Second, the terms of trade started to degrade, which widened the economic gap
between the rural mass and the urban elite. Impoverished farmers migrated to cities
but were not completely absorbed by economic growth, which increased the number
doctrinal differences, personalities, and ethnic or regional origins developed inside the
regime. President Tsiranana contained them as long as he was in full vigor, but when
his health started to decline, criticisms became increasingly open and were sharpened
The political turmoil peaked after President Tsiranana resigned, during the
transition from the first to the second republic, between 1972 and 1975. Large-scale
protests destabilized the economy, security forces killed protesters, a President was
and cultural influences were opposed. In 1973, Madagascar left the French Franc
Zone. French technical advisors left the country and secondary education was required
56
stabilize the political situation. But he launched a Socialist Revolution that led the
The impact of this turmoil on the environment was severe. The pace of
balances of public and external finances were in good shape and remained so until
1977-78 (Jolly 2004) 29 . But there was no growth due to nationalizations that caused
investment industrialization policy that created only white elephants and expanded
stagnated due to the inefficiency of state farms and cooperatives that had replaced the
foreign concessions, and to the low buying price of export crops by the state: between
20 and 30% of FOB price (Brown 2000). The worsening of the terms of trade and the
second petrol shock aggravated the situation, leading to a total bankruptcy with a
foreign debt of one billion USD in 1981. In the early 1980s, the debt service was not
met despite a 65% debt relief. Madagascar went to World Bank and IMF and started
its first structural adjustment programs in 1980. It came back, step by step, to a free
market economy, lost its support from Moscow and resumed cooperation with France
The social consequences of this economic collapse were huge. Rural bandit
groups (Dahalo) proliferated. Crime, insecurity, and begging developed in the main
cities, especially Antananarivo. The infrastructure was not maintained and degraded
29
This information is from an interview, reported in Jolly (2004), of Leon Rajaobelina, Director of the
Central Bank at that time.
57
quickly. Many rural secondary roads disappeared, leading rural communities to revert
to an autarky economy, as in the case of Beforona that will be studied in Part III. The
living standard of the whole middle class declined and corruption proliferated.
Not until the late 1980s did the economic situation start to improve. Growth
was 4.9% of GNP in 1989 but the external debt amounted to 2.6 billion USD in 1986
(Brown 2000). Growth benefited urban people, but for most of the rural poor,
impoverishment and degradation of the environment have continued until the present
time. The crisis eventually forced the state to completely abandon the socialist
(the third republic) was adopted in 1993, together with the election of a new President,
Albert Zafy.
With the launching of the IMF and World Bank programs in 1981, Madagascar
opened again to foreign investments and influences. The 1980s were a period of
increasing international concern about environmental issues, while forest clearing and
land burning still peaked due to the collapse of the economy. Among the first visitors
were biologists who put lemurs and fires under the media lights in order to inform the
government understood the opportunity it could get from this situation to capture the
foreign aid that was so necessary for solving the debt crisis (Jolly 2004). In 1984, it
Sustainable Development, called for by IUCN, UNEP and WWF (Kull 2004). The
30
An estimated 100 persons were killed by security forces during a peaceful protest march to the
President’s palace in Iavoloha, on August 10, 1991.
58
strategy was adopted in 1984 and a second international environmental conference
was held in 1985 to launch it. The Malagasy state engaged to improve its institutions,
to adopt tools and methods for environmental management and to implement actions
“remembered by many as the moment when Prince Philip, the international president
Several programs were initiated after the conference. They were funded by the
World Bank, bilateral donors (especially the U.S. and Switzerland), WWF and
conservation and included an environmental education program that reached all school
districts (Kull 1996). They gave the opportunity to Malagasy biologists to be trained
Lovejoy of the World Wildlife Fund. In 1986, the De Heaulme Family won the J. Paul
Getty Prize for Conservation for the private reserve they managed in Berenty, south
Madagascar. This prize had been won by conservation figures such as Jane Goodall. It
decisions makers (the Ministry of Water and Forest, the Ministry of Higher Education
and the Ministry of Applied Research) made their first trip to the United States to
working on environmental issues. They met representatives of the WWF, the New
York Zoological Society (World Conservation Society), the Duke University Primate
Center, the San Diego Zoo, the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, the Missouri
59
Botanical Garden, and Yale University to prepare a collaborative plan (Wright 1996).
The terrain to receive grants for environmental issues was very favorable at that time.
The World Bank itself was in need of greening its activities. A few years before,
crusading environmentalists scaled a building in Washington across the
street from the World Bank. They hung out a huge banner whose dripping
red letters proclaimed: THE BANK MURDERS RAINFOREST! The bank
could not deny it. Bank-funded development in the Brazilian Amazon
shouted its record of forest destruction to satellites in the sky. Madagascar
was just what the World Bank – and all the donors – needed. Here was a
virgin country where they had no project at all, so they had not yet been
able to make any environmental mistake. Go for biodiversity aid to
Madagascar! (Jolly 2004, 211)
Hence, all the conditions were met to establish an ambitious National
When this plan was written in 1988, there were two National Parks, 11 Integral
hectares or 1.76% of the country. These protected areas were poorly managed, some
terrestrial ecosystems were not yet protected and there were no marine reserves
(World Bank 1988). The main goal of NEAP was to set up a national network of about
The plan was written under the coordination of the Malagasy government, by a
Directorate 33 . Financial and technical support was provided by the World Bank (leader
of the donors’ group), USAID, the Swiss aid, UNDP, UNESCO and WWF. One
hundred fifty national specialists from a wide range of disciplines were mobilized;
31
In French: PAE or PNAE (Pland d’Action Environnemental or Plan National d’Actions
Environnementales)
32
In French : Comité Technique Permanent (CTP)
33
In French : Commission Nationale pour la Conservation et le Développement (CNCD)
60
eight working groups were set-up and trained and regional workshops were organized
The philosophy displayed by the plan was to favor dialog and communication
than on their constraints, and to set up mechanisms for funding a myriad of small
projects (World Bank 1988). According to the World Bank (1990), the
interdependence of conservation and development was the key tenet that guided the
preparation of the plan, consistently with the recommendations from the United
Nation World Commission for Environment and Development (WCED 1987) and of
the UNESCO program Man and the Biosphere. This same World Bank report (1990)
noted that Madagascar was one of the richest countries in terms of biodiversity, but
one of the poorest with respect to its economy, and that “this contrast provoked,
probably more than elsewhere, a tension between the partisans of conservation and
The Plan was legally recognized as being the translation into action of the
environment is constituted of the whole natural and artificial milieu, including human
milieu and social and cultural factors that contribute to the national development 35 ”
(Gouvernement de Madagascar 1990: article 2). According to article 6, its main
34
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “Ce contraste a engendré, probablement plus
qu’ailleurs, une tension entre les partisans de la conservation et ceux du développement.”
35
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French:“On entend par environnement l’ensemble des milieux
naturels et artificiels y compris les milieux humains et les facteurs sociaux et culturels qui intéressent le
développement national.”
61
sustainable development” (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1990: article 6). This would
phase program funded by the World Bank and other donors. I will now detail these
three phases.
institution to address environmental issues (World Bank 1990). The only operational
structures were the National Commission for Conservation and Development (CNCD)
and its Permanent Technical Committee. They only had a consultative role. The Water
and Forest Department of the Ministry of Animal Production, Water and Forest was
universities and other international organizations, but this was insufficient (World
Bank 1990). EP1’s main goal was to create an appropriate policy and institutional
framework for environmental management (World Bank 1996). The program started
36
In French : Gestion et Protection des Forêts (GPF). Crédit N° 1878-MAG.
62
by creating the National Office for Environment (ONE), a small agency attached to
the Ministry of Economy and Plan that would be in charge of EP1’s coordination.
EP1 had a planned budget of 85.5 million USD for six years (World Bank
1990). Donors included the World Bank, (26 million USD granted by IDA 37 ), UNDP,
UNESCO, USAID, the French, German, Swiss and Norwegian governments, WWF
and CI (42.3 million USD in total) and the Malagasy government (17.2 million USD).
The actual cost of EP1 was eventually 150 million USD (World Bank 1996).
Projects (ICDPs) in the buffer zones of protected areas. Support would also
classified forests, despite the fact they would not be regarded as Protected
37
International Development Agency, a branch of the World Bank specifically dedicated to the poorest
countries.
38
National Association for the Management of Protected Areas (in French : Association Nationale pour
la Gestion des Aires Protégées).
63
projects for erosion control, agroforestry and watershed management.
this objective.
information systems for the areas concerned by the program (10.14 million
of Agriculture,
These objectives reveal a concern about rural development issues, which were
expected to be addressed by ICDPs (9.00 million USD) and by the soil conservation
component (9.35 million USD). Hundreds of millions USD were further expected to
arrive soon from other programs. In spite of this, EP1 was launched in an atmosphere
of controversy about whether it was dealing with the right priorities in a country where
39
National Association for Environmental Actions (in French : Association Nationale d’Actions
Environnementales).
40
In Malagasy: Foiben-Taosaritanin’i Madagasikara
64
poverty and misery were at a peak. Philippe Rajaobelina, Deputy Director of the Plan,
“wrote to say that even in the biodiversity sector it was unacceptable to have more
money allotted to the reserves than to peripheral development around the reserves” (in
Jolly 2004, 215), because “there are more important primates in Madagascar than
and its actual logic. This tension and the ideological debates associated with it will
After four years, the fulfillment of the program’s objectives was regarded as
“generally satisfactory” by its main donor, although it “varied from one component to
another” (World Bank 1996, 6). “Main strengths include[d] the effective development
both domestically and internationally, and effective field results” (World Bank 1996,
8). Weaknesses were “a slow take-off, insufficient program integration, consolidated
concerns when formulating policies that require hard choices, whether at the national
The Beneficiaries’ Evaluation Reports provide some explanation for this lack
operational in 1993 only and its links with the Ministry were not clear.
65
especially at the Water and Forest Directorate (DEF 41 ). Staff at the new line agencies
(ONE, ANGAP and ANAE) had better salaries and working conditions and were
better trained than those at the DEF, resulting in low motivation of the later. In its
majority, staff from the DEF seemed to distance themselves from the donors, from the
line agencies and from other partners such as consulting firms. DEF complained that it
was set apart by ONE (lack of information, delay in payment). Similar problems also
occurred at the FTM (in charge of mapping activities) and at the Direction of Domains
(in charge of land entitlement) (MIARA-MITA 1995). In sum, the plan appeared to be
like a graft that had some difficulty being accepted by the institutions in charge of its
implementation.
the Staff Appraisal Report of the Second phase, most of EP1’s objectives were in the
41
Water and Forests Directorate. In French : Direction des Eaux et Forêts. It will be later changed into
Water and Forest General Directorate (DGEF).
66
But the impacts of these activities on the ground are difficult to assess.
According to the World Bank (1996), “inadequate attention has been given to the
(World Bank 1996). Overall impact on the ground was regarded as limited “given that
field activities ha[d] so far been limited in scope,” and because “the central objective
was the creation and reinforcement of national institutions.” However, “ad hoc
regard to the first component. They recognized that the creation of protected areas was
effective but criticized the ICDPs for the excessive priority given to conservation
objectives.
Tanala and Betsileo people (Chapter 1). This park is one of the three most visited in
programs (Wright and Andriamihaja 2002). But beyond the image presented by the
promoters of the park (Wright and Andriamihaja 2002), the real situation in
Ranomafana was difficult to assess. The OSIPD evaluators noticed certain constraints
for accessing information. “The chief technical advisor of the ICDP required a
National Park employee to accompany the evaluators and to be present during the
interview” (OSIPD 1995, 67). Harper (2002) reports a similar control on her access to
information when she implemented her research field work in the park. An
anthropologist formerly working in the area would have been submitted to the same
42
Institute for Conservation of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Stony Brook University.
67
type of pressures. Nevertheless, the evaluation team managed to collect detailed
information.
conservation actions (OSIPD 1995, 70). Eighty three percent “expressed their
traditional chief summarizes the situation in these words: “we are like trapped rats: we
are here like in a jail and we cannot utilize all these things that are in our place 43 ” (in
OSIPD 1995, 75). The fact that resources are “utilized” by foreign people (tourists and
scientists) increases the frustrations still more. A frequent joke in Ranomafana would
be that “Ranomafana is not a national park, but a family park,” 44 (OSIPD 1995, 77)
meaning that only a few privileged people get benefits from it.
Development activities were are also criticized. The evaluators reported that
for achieving conservation objectives. Forty-eight percent of the interviewees did not
know who chose the project activities and asserted that they were not involved in the
process. Fifty-seven percent complained that activities did not solve their problems
activities were inefficient and that inequalities and thefts had increased in the area,
because most aid was concentrated in a few villages. Community granaries were
created but resulted in a division inside communities, because literate people had been
put in charge of their management while traditional authorities had been marginalized.
The evaluators concluded that activities were designed according to top-down logic. In
the end, 25% of the interviewees (19 out of 77) considered that the project had
43
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French (translated from oral citation in Malagasy by OSIPD
1995): “Nous sommes comme des rats pris aux pièges: nous sommes emprisonnés ici, et nous ne
pouvons pas utiliser toutes ces choses qui sont chez nous.”
44
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French (translated from oral citation in Malagasy by OSIPD
1995): “Le parc de Ranomafana? Ce n’est plus un Parc National, mais un Parc familial!”
68
positive socio-economic impact, while 75% considered that it had no or no significant
positive impact (OSIPD 1995, 76). Concerning job opportunities, 20 out of the 24
conservation and development agents working for the project were recruited from
would be
like a wild oxen that one wants to tame: he is attached to a tree during two
weeks and is not fed; after the two weeks, he is “broken,” and even kids
can pet its nostrils and pull its ears without danger. 45 (OSIPD 1995, 78)
In sum, after having been marginalized by slavery and colonization by the
Merina and the French, the Tanala people are now squeezed in between the pressures
The OSIPD evaluation team also investigated the case of Andringitra and
cultivate their paddy fields because they were located inside the park. Twenty hectares
of paddy fields would be involved and the situation would be dramatic for the owners
famine, the project proposed alley cropping technologies and beneficiary farmers
complained about the distribution of seeds that were “not edible” and just served to
control erosion (OSIPD 1995). Overall, 48% of the interviewees considered that the
discrimination, and 21% that it had positive impacts. Most beneficiaries contended
that in compensation for restricting access to land, the project should support the
extension of paddy fields. For a program officer of the WWF, such a contract would
be the wrong strategy because it would put the park in a position of blackmail, and
45
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French (translated from oral citation in Malagasy by OSIPD
[1995]): “Cette population ressemble a un boeuf sauvage qu’on veut dompter: on l’attache a un arbre
pendant deux semaines sans lui donner a manger; au bout de deux semaines, il est “cassé,” si bien que
même un gosse peut sans danger lui caresser les narines et lui tirer les oreilles.”
46
Implemented by ANGAP and WWF.
69
because ICDPs should not be confused with rural development projects (OSIPD
1995). Two thirds of the beneficiaries, however, appreciated the project activities,
despite the fact that conflicts emerged in the northern part of the intervention area
Ranomafana: the project had limited or no positive impact due to the priority given to
conservation over development activities. On the whole, they concluded that the main
about the objectives of this institution: “TMM appears to consider development first
and soil conservation second, while ANAE seems to put soil conservation first and
development second” (OSIPD 1995, 23). The evaluators recommended reversing the
priority at the ANAE level, arguing that development activities could help to “open
Other evaluation reports (CAST 1995; CCR 1995) provide less detailed
analyses and are less pessimistic, but identified similar issues in several sites
(activities not adapted to the situation of most farmers, discrimination in favor of the
Harper (2002), who implemented her research work in Ranomafana between 1993 and
1996, depicted a dramatic situation where residents struggle against malnutrition and
diseases while access to the resources that could help them to survive is closed. She
70
concluded that conservation and development policies “were implemented in
Madagascar with little or no regard for the rights of human subjects” (Harper 2002,
224). Ferraro (2002a) calculated that the cost for communities living in an area
which is very substantial given the deep poverty, high vulnerability and low health
status of people living around the park (Kightlinger et al. 1996; Kightlinger et al.
National Park, Peters (1998; 1999) and Hanson (1996; 1997) describe a situation of
conflict or tensions between local communities and park and ICDP’s managers. I
myself visited Ranomafana and a few villages of the buffer zone in 2002 and
witnessed that the park still had deleterious impacts on farmers’ livelihoods, due to
ongoing (I myself took part in it) but never translated into action with significant
Concerning other sites, Shyamsundar and Kramer (1997) calculated that the
creation of the Mantadia National Park (located close to the area that will be studied in
Part III) cost 23 to 64 USD per year per household living around it. Moreover, some
households were displaced when the park was created, provoking a deep economic
crisis (McConnell 2002). Ghimire (1994) and Kull (1996) provide more case studies
showing that the negative socio-economic impacts of NEAP and ICDPs were far from
7.3. Conclusion
In conclusion, it seems that the first phase of NEAP failed to satisfy the
71
were envisioned mostly as a way to facilitate the acceptance of conservation policies.
whereas the negative impacts of restriction on access to land and resources was clear.
conflicts rather than synergies emerged. In sum, the results of the implementation of
NEAP’s first phase were unfortunately consistent with the early criticisms of the
program.
areas (nine national parks, 11 natural reserves and 23 special reserves), covering 1.4
million hectares or 2.3% of the total land area. Over half of the highest priority
research and conservation areas were still located outside parks and reserves (World
and coordination problems. The objective of second phase was thus to extend and
consolidate the results of the first phase. This would be done by creating new
protected areas and by achieving a better integration of the whole of the components,
would remedy this by using participatory approaches. As the staff appraisal report puts
it,
The overall development hypothesis of the program is that depletion of
Madagascar’s natural resource base can be reduced by changing the
enabling policies, institutions, incentives, and other conditions so that
resource users have the authority to manage their own resources, and the
72
responsibility and the incentive to do so in a sustainable manner. (World
Bank 1996, 11)
The lessons learned from EP1 also gave more momentum to the will to
million provided by the Malagasy government. The main donor was still the World
Bank (38.1 million USD). Other donors were UNDP, USAID, the French, German,
Swiss, Japanese, Norwegian and Dutch governments, and WWF. The components of
the program and their cost (consolidation of all donors) were as follows (World Bank
1996):
following activities:
o Sustainable Soil and Water Management (GCES 47 , 43.5 million USD).
2) ANAE is still the main execution agency (30.5 million USD). The
47
In French: Gestion Conservatoire des Eaux et des Sols.
73
practices by other farmers” (World Bank 1996, 17). In addition, bigger
These activities would be carried out by the Water and Forest General
o National Parks and Ecotourism (CAPE 49 , 43.1 million USD). This key
o Urban environment 51 .
48
In French : Ecosystèmes Forestiers à Usage Multiple.
49
In French : Composante Aires Protégées et Ecotourisme.
50
In French : Environnement Marin et Côtier.
74
• Component 2: regional planning and local management (14.5 million
management policies and to propose a revised land law for the longer
that could address conservation issues at their root causes. After the
51
I do not detail these two last components because they are out of the scope of this dissertation’s
subject.
52
Local Secure Management. In French : Gestion Locale Sécurisée.
53
In French : Appui à la Gestion Régionalisée et à l’Approche Spatiale.
54
In French : Fonds Régional d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement.
75
o Upgrading the legal framework and the formulation of environmental
by ONE).
research programs.
CFSIGE 59 , 2.0 million USD). The objective was to improve the general
55
Policies, Strategies and Instruments. In French : Politique, Stratégies, Instruments.
56
In French : Mise en Compatibilité des Investissements avec l’Environnement.
57
In French : Recherche Environnementale Finalisée.
58
In French : Education et Formation Environnementales.
59
In French : Centre de Formation aux Sciences de l’Information Géographique et de l’Environnement.
60
In Malagasy: Foiben-Taosaritanin’i Madagasikara.
61
In French : Système d’Informations Environnementales.
62
In French : Coordination Générale du Programme.
76
such as the National Environment Council, the Interministerial
Environmental Council (CNE), created by the Decree N° 97 822 of June 12, 1997.
CNE played a consultative role, giving its opinion on new legislation before it was
presented to the Ministries’ Council. CNE’s roles were to advise the government
Environment Committee (CIME) attached to the Prime Minister. The roles of CIME
were to provide advice to the Prime Minister for the implementation and monitoring
sectors. CIME also played an arbitration role between line agencies in case of conflict.
Its members were mostly the Secretary Generals of the concerned ministries. The
creation and functions of CNE and CIME were confirmed by the Law N°97 012 of
June 6, 1997.
The operational level was carried out by state services (mostly the Water and
Forest General Directorate of the Ministry of Water and Forest, the Domains
Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and the FTM 63 ) and by the line agencies
that were set up under EP1, mostly ANGAP and ANAE. General coordination was
Not surprisingly, this structure was quickly criticized for its excessive
63
National Geographic Institute.
77
EP2 was a highly complex operation to be implemented nation-wide, and
its stated development objective of reversing environmental degradation
was ambitious and unrealistic in the time framework allotted (in retrospect)
as it involved:
- The implementation of a wide range of activities (improved
management, inventories, coordinated planning, production,
introduction of new technologies, input supply, marketing, research,
GIS, management transfer to local communities, and land tenure) on
the local, regional, and national levels at the same time involving seven
implementing agencies (some still new, the others in need of serious
capacity building);
- Extensive and ambitious policy formulation/reform, some politically-
sensitive (Legal and Regulatory framework relating to the environment
and environmental product exports; Mining, Energy, Industry,
Tourism, Roads, Fishing, Aquaculture, Urban, Macro-economy,
Biodiversity and Bioprospecting, Agriculture (e.g. use of agro-chemical
inputs), and Mitigation of Unexpected Disasters); and
- The challenging task of coordinating 10 multilateral and bilateral
donors, four international nongovernmental organizations, and seven
implementing agencies (AGEXs). (World Bank 2003, 7)
Following the recommendations of supervision missions, EP2 has been
simplified in 2001. The AGERAS, GELOSE, EMC and REF components have been
grouped into a new operational component implemented by a new line agency called
SAGE 64 , while the PSI, MECIE, SIE and CGP were grouped into a new component
called PIIGE 65 . The FORAGE component has been stopped and activities relating to
land security have been reduced. The number of line agencies has also been reduced,
64
Environmental Support Service. In French : Service d’Appui à la Gestion de l’Environnement.
65
In French : Politique, Instruments et Informations pour la Gestion de l’Environnement.
66
Protected Areas.
78
- Sustainable soil and water management in priority zones: to increase
the capacity of the rural population for a sustainable management of the
productive natural resources (mainly soils and water); and
- Environmental policies and institutions: streamline
environmental/biodiversity concerns; create an enabling environment
for the sustainable management of the environment and biodiversity
resources; capacity building of the related institutions; communication;
training; etc. (World Bank 2003, 10)
In sum, EP2 is basically a continuation and consolidation of EP1’s key
areas, and the extension of soil conservation practices. But it adopted a much more
complex structure, at least during its early implementation. It attempted to solve the
performances depended also on the root-stock upon which the graft was fixed. EP2
a new tool to achieve this: the GELOSE approach, which will be analyzed in detail in
Chapter 10.
problems similar to those encountered during the first phase: lack of coordination and
line agencies. This may be the consequence of the excessively complex structure that
objectives similar to those encountered during EP1. The rural communities targeted by
the project considered that its main objectives were to protect forests and lemurs, and
complained about the lack of support for development. According to the consultants,
“it appears clearly that EP2 does not answer to the needs regarded as a priority by the
79
population. This is obvious in the regions of Antananarivo, Toamasina and Toliary, a
little bit less in the other provinces” (OSIPD 2000, 50). Rural communities and
regional and local authorities considered that just a few activities had a positive impact
The persistence of these problems put into question the legitimacy of the
program. The analysis of this issue is central in the OSIPD evaluation but is done
are two aspects that do not necessarily mirror each other. A totally illegitimate
program could be perfectly understood, and a perfectly legitimate one could be totally
misunderstood. Assuming that these two aspects are positively correlated is equal to
assuming, before starting the analysis, that the program is judicious, which renders the
evaluation tautological!
67
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “La légitimité se mesure par le niveau de connaissance
du programme et de ses composantes, par le niveau d’intégration du cadre logique dans le milieu
bénéficiaire, par la qualité de la perception des actions menées au niveau des composantes.”
80
so long as they are explained in a well conceived and well implemented act
of communication. 68 (ONE-OSIPD 2000, 48)
Five years before, the conclusions of EP1’s evaluation report (OSIPD 1995)
showed that the program lacked impact in terms of development. They also made it
clear that this failure created a crisis of legitimacy. Hence, when OSIPD conducted
EP2’s evaluation in 2000, the supposed “lack of understanding” had lasted indeed for
seven years already. Moreover, according to EP1’s evaluation (OSIPD 1995), the lack
Research efforts, mostly the work of Peters (1998; 1999) in Ranomafana, confirmed
this and provided guidelines for more appropriate strategies. Because they assumed
that the lack of legitimacy could be just the result of a lack of understanding and
appropriation, the EP2’s evaluators did not verify whether or not the issues identified
by their colleagues under EP1 were still a concern. Without providing rigorous
8.3. Conclusion
EP2 faced similar difficulties as EP1 but its external evaluation concluded that
communication was the key for successful implementation and for achieving impacts.
reality. NEAP, in its second phase, may have entered into a process of self-
construction where instead of putting itself into question, correcting its mistakes and
realities. The problem then would not only be that there would be a mismatch between
68
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “La preuve est faite, primo, qu’il faut un certain laps
de temps, en tout cas plus de deux ans, pour qu’une activité puisse être légitimée, et, secundo, que les
sigles, si mystérieux soient-ils, peuvent être compris par la population, pourvu qu’ils soient expliqués
dans le cadre d’une action de communication bien pensée et réalisée.”
81
representations and realities. It would also be that this mismatch would be encouraged,
leading to knowledge regression. The more sophisticated and abstract methods used in
EP2’s evaluation (OSIPD 2000), where numbers and statistics replaced the narratives
and direct citations of EP1’s evaluation (OSIPD 1995), may have contributed to this
regression. The fact that researchers working in Ranomafana have been submitted to
pressure for not publishing their results (Harper 2002) provides more evidence of this
EP3 started in 2003 and is still under implementation at present. Its overall
objective is to manage eight million hectares of natural forests and 100,000 hectares of
coastal zone and marine resources in a sustainable way. The target is to increase the
area under protection status from 1.7 to six million hectares and to decrease the
degradation rate of forest and wetland resources to less than half the 1993-2000 rate
government, adopted in September 2003. This letter asserts that the environmental
policy is part of the poverty reduction strategy, as did the Environmental Charter in
“sustainable development for the benefit of the Malagasy population” (World Bank
Bank 2004, 4). This commitment is not new but it remains to assess if it is actually
82
The program expressed an awareness of the negative economic impacts of
conservation on local communities. The activities financed by the IDA/GEF grant are
expected to induce a cost of 276 million USD and to generate a total benefit 292.7
million USD, resulting in a balance of +16.7 million USD (World Bank 2004, 82). But
tavy farmers would be the “losers” of the program as the abandonment of this land use
would represent a cost of 94 million USD (Carret and Loyer 2003). Restrictions upon
charcoal production and the collection of nontimber forest products would also result
in significant costs (28.9 and 31.5 million USD, respectively). These costs are
World Bank (IDA, 40 million USD) and by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF,
nine million USD), was ratified on August 19, 2004 69 , after a preparation period that
started in December 2002 and was supervised by a “Task Force” created for this
purpose. The first disbursement was made on November 7, 2004 (World Bank 2005).
According to the Project Appraisal Document (World Bank 2004), the IDA-GEF
69
Decree 2004-804 of August 19, 2004, ratifying the signature of the grant agreement from the
International Development Agency of the World Bank, and Decree 2004-805 of August 19, 2004,
ratifying the signature of the grant agreement from the Global Environment Facility.
70
In French : Direction Générale des Eaux et Forêts.
83
Water and Forests (MINENVEF 71 ) (18 million USD 72 ). This component
includes:
(22.5 million USD). When the program started, park entrance fees covered
71
In French: Ministère de l’Environnement, des Eaux et Forêts. Having 835 staff, it resulted from the
fusion of the Ministry of Environment with the Ministry of Water and Forests, in January 2003.
72
When the program started, the annual budget of DGEF was about 400,000 USD (World Bank 2004a).
73
In French : Observatoire du Secteur Forestier.
74
In French : Réserves Foncières pour le Reboisement (RFRs).
75
It is estimated that 85% of domestic energy needs are covered by charcoal and firewood, which
represents about 10 million tons of wood per year (World Bank 2004a, 6).
76
National Agency for the Management of Protected Areas. In French: Agence Nationale pour la
Gestion des Aires Protégées. With a staff of 708 persons, it managed 1.7 million hectares of protected
areas when the project started.
84
o The reduction of pressure around protected areas (1.5 million USD), by
society.
protected area system (7.5 million USD). This trust fund will be
Water and Forests, the Environment National Office (ONE) and the EP3
includes:
systems.
85
o Environmental compliance (3 million USD), by supporting ONE to
In addition to the 49 million USD granted by IDA and GEF, funding has been
provided by other donors, mainly the USAID, the French Cooperation, the German
aid, and Conservation International. The total amount granted to EP3 was eventually
171 million USD. About 75% of the MINENVEF budget was provided by donors
(World Bank 2006). Table 1 summarizes the contributions by donor for each activity
of the project. Table 2 lists the main projects related to biodiversity conservation
initiated since 1997 (list established in 2003). The Malagasy State engaged to provide
a contribution equal to 20% of the program’s global cost, i.e. 9.8 million USD, as a
counterpart of the IDA grant, and 1.8 million as a counterpart of the GEF grant.
(MINENVEF 79 ). The CELCO supports the line agencies for procurement, financial
Bank 2004).
77
Environmental Impact Assessment for Investments. In French : Mise en compatibilité des
investissements avec l’environnement.
78
This unit will eventually be named CELCO (Cellule de Coordination du PE3), or EP3 Coordination
Cell.
79
Ministère de l’Environnement, des Eaux et Forêts, resulting from the fusion of the Ministry of
Environment and the Ministry of Water and Forest.
86
Table 1. Contributions to EP3 by donors in million USD
COMPONENTS 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.1 2.2 2.3
Forest ecosystems
and conservation
Protected areas
Environmental
Environmental
education and
development
sensitization
governance
Sustainable
Sustainable
Marine and
ecosystems
funding
coastal
sites
CONTRIBUTORS TOTAL
The World Bank 2.0 10.2 17 2 8.8 9 49
USAID 7.2 5.6 5.8 3.8 3.3 5.1 31
French cooperation 8.7 2 0.26 5.8 0.56 3.8 0.4 21.5
CI 0.07 4.25 9 1.8 2.5 1.4 0.4 19.4
WWF 0.73 0.15 1.18 0.13 0.67 1 0.86 6.1
87
88
Overall guidance and strategic orientation is insured by a joint committee
presided over by a delegate of the Minister of the Environment, Water and Forest (the
Secretary General) and co-presided by a representative from the donors (the USAID
environment task manager). Other members of the joint committee are the heads of
ANGAP, ONE, DGEF, DGE, CGP, the CELCO coordinator, representatives from
ANAE, CI, WCS, DWCT, WWF, Tany Meva, Fanamby), and other relevant
stakeholders. The joint committee verifies that operations are consistent with the
logical framework and informs the Ministry of the advancement of the program.
The main differences between EP3 and the previous phase are the following:
through ANAE’s activities under EP2. These activities are now transferred
Support Project (PSDR) 80 of the World Bank (69.2 million USD grant for
the period 2002-2007) and other projects funded by USAID, the French
(Component 3), and by the creation of the trust fund, which will finance
80
In French : Projet de Soutien au Développement Rural.
89
• The creation of a National Agency for Water and Forest Management
of forest resources outside the protected areas system. Its creation has been
ANAE and SAGE, in partnership with these institutions and with other
service providers.
groups, whose members are staff from the MINENVEF and its partners (donors,
will present here the work of the Durban Vision Group (DVG), which coordinated the
creation of Conservation Sites. This commission confronted with the key challenges of
EP3 and its work is a good illustration of the overall logic of the program.
81
In French : Agence National pour la Gestion des Eaux et Forêts.
82
In French: Fond d’Appui a la Gestion Environnementale Communautaire.
90
protected area coverage from 1.7 million to six million hectares, in order to put 10% of
the country under conservation and meet IUCN recommendations. The MINENVEF
created the Durban Vision Group (DVG) to guide the achievement of this objective.
Forest General Director (DGEF), the Environment General Director (DGE), the
Director of the Minister’s Cabinet, and the ANGAP General Director. A Technical
Secretariat, which included representatives of CI, WCS and WWF, coordinates the
At the beginning, the objective of the DVG was to facilitate the creation of
Conservation Sites (Component 1). This new category of protected area was expected
to be less costly than the existing ones managed by ANGAP. Conservation Sites
would not be managed by this organization but would be under the MINENVEF’s
Conservation Sites were also intended to provide more room for human
activities and to be managed in a more decentralized way, with the strong involvement
of communities and other local partners. Seventy five percent of the area would be
The main tasks of the DVG commissions were to identify priority conservation
areas (marine and terrestrial), to define the minimal management rules for
Conservation Sites, to set-up new legislation for giving them legal status, to support
communications between actors and between regional and central authorities and to
raise funds.
91
The categorization commission identified areas to be reserved for the creation
of Conservation Sites (Map 2). The management commission worked on the definition
propositions, in 2004, were quite restrictive and at odds with what could be expected
(Groupe Vision Durban 2004), ”no mining activity is accepted in Conservation Sites,”
show that the population of the concerned species would not be threatened. A
In sum, a ban would be put on the extraction of the most valuable products on
six million hectares of forest, among the 7.5 million hectares remaining. Moreover,
Map 2 shows that almost all forest patches of significant size were planned to be put
under protection status. The remaining patches (the green area or dots on the map) are
mostly fragmented forests submitted to intense pressure and it is unclear whether they
communities would be given priority for obtaining extraction permits. But due to the
lack of knowledge about “modern” rules and regulations and the low literacy rates in
remote villages, it is doubtful that these communities could master the procedure and
be the actual beneficiaries of NTFP extraction. Instead, a local elite or a few outsiders
could use the legislation to appropriate the resources. I will come back to this issue in
92
Provincial capital
Existing protected areas
Areas reserved for conservation sites
Sensible areas (not reserved for
conservation sites)
Map 2: Existing protected areas and areas reserved for conservation sites.
Source: Durban Vision Group, September 24, 2004. Legend translated by Pollini.
93
the chapter dedicated to community based natural resource management approaches
(Chapter 11).
Restrictions on mining activities were the subject of negotiation between the Ministry
of Energy and Mines and the MINENVEF, through the mine-forest commission.
Concerning the ban on ligneous products extraction, some organizations, such as the
German cooperation (GTZ 83 ), the French cooperation, the SAGE, UNESCO and to a
lesser extent UNDP and the WWF, advocated for a softer position where this
extraction would not be excluded a priori from the whole protected area system, unless
it would take an industrial form. The CIRAD 84 , with funding from the French GEF
project was implemented in the Ambohilero forest (Map 6, page 123), which is
wood per hectare and per year, which was compatible with the creation of a protected
area while providing significant income to local communities. On the other side it was
the Lakato region, that such management schemes would never be respected by
communities and that the ban on extraction was the only realistic option.
development where the exploitation of natural resources would allow a primary capital
83
In German: Gessellschaft fyr Technische Zusammenarbeit.
84
French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development. In French: Centre International
de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement.
85
In French : Fond Français pour l’Environnement Mondial.
94
accumulation that would later serve to develop other sectors. However, the more
restrictive conservation approach was officially adopted because it was the one
has been particularly efficient maintaining this strategy. The discovery of illegal wood
involved a joint venture between a Malaysian and a Malagasy firm. A road was
opened across the forest and 17 kilometers had already been built when the operation
was discovered. A sawmill was under construction on the site and heavy machines
(bulldozers, trucks) were being used. This may have been one of the first industrial
forest wood exploitations in Madagascar 86 . The Ministry stopped the extraction and
granting of new mining and forest resources extraction authorizations in all areas
reserved as Conservation Sites (the areas in red on Map 2, page 93) for a period of two
years 87 . This ban was renewed in 2006 for an additional two years. The Ministerial
order 21694/2004, signed on November 11, 2004, canceled all existing wood
ligneous resources in these same areas 88 . In spite of this, illicit wood extraction
86
In Madagascar, trees are usually cut up manually inside the forest and transported by people or oxen
to the closest road (see the case of Beforona in Part II).
87
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “l’octroi de tout permis minier et de tout permis
forestier est suspendu dans les zones réservées comme site de conservation, dont les limites sont
annexées au présent arrêté” (Gouvernement de Madagascar 2004a, article 1).
88
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Toute activité d’extraction de ressources ligneuses
est prohibée dans les zones réservées comme sites de conservation tels qu’ils sont définis a l’article 2 de
l’arrêté interministériel No 19560/2004 ” (Gouvernement de Madagascar 2004b, article 1). “ Les permis
d’exploitation ou d’extraction de produits ligneux en cours dans ces zones réservées doivent être
suspendus ” (Gouvernement de Madagascar 2004, article 2).
95
precious wood, including rosewood harvested in Masoala National Park, were
unsustainable wood exploitation will continue to occur. Moreover, the ban may create
a situation of monopoly, by putting the forest sector into the hands of a few exploiters
rendered untouchable by their strong political networks. The ban will also provide
these exploiters with the “guarantee” that they will not pay taxes. Having these issues
be worth trying again. Protected areas, which can afford to pay forest rangers and
which may increasingly lack legitimacy in the future, may be appropriate locations to
In this context, the French aid had developed a new concept to challenge the
DCT would consist of one or several core sites protected for their high biodiversity,
rural development objectives. The approach is similar to that of the French Regional
Natural Parks 89 and the DCT would match with the IUCN fifth category of protected
Protected Areas Network managed by ANGAP. The new protected areas are expected
to fill the gap and to belong to categories V and VI. The Conservation Sites could
match with the sixth category while the DCT would correspond to the fifth.
89
In French: Parcs Naturels Régionaux.
96
Table 3: Categories of protected areas according to IUCN (2002)
97
Category V “is unique among the six categories by making the core idea the
between people and nature” (Phillips 2002, 10). It is defined as follows (IUCN 1994,
The DCT concept has been widely accepted by the Malagasy government and
its partners as a tool for regional planning. But the idea that it would correspond to a
protected area has been rejected. The main objection was that the focus of Category V
“is not on nature conservation per se, but about guiding human processes so that the
area and its resources are protected, managed and capable of evolving in a sustainable
way” (Phillips 2002, 10). Emphasis is put on the cultural dimension of the landscape
rather than on its natural dimension. Cultural landscapes exist in Madagascar, but their
to be the main objective of any protected areas system, even if other aspects are
considered, the sixth category, which also authorizes multiple use of resources but
Table 4 (page 97) summarizes the main differences between these two categories.
In sum, the DCT concept may have been inappropriate in the context of
planning tool. It can be compared to the AGERAS approach of EP2, which was based
98
on the same statement that conservation programs failed due to a lack of integration
with regional development schemes. In spite of this, advocacy for considering the
confusion if not schizophrenia. At the political level, strict conservation policies were
level, there was a clear willingness to open the system, though it was not clear whether
Eventually, IUCN experts were hired in March and July 2005 to calm the
debate and provide more objective guidelines. The experts belonged to the World
Social Policy of IUCN. They insisted on the new orientations of global conservation
(2004) and Bangkok 93 (2004) defined. According to IUCN (2005a), some key
recommendations from these congresses were the need to respect human rights; the
stakeholders and answering to the aspirations of the whole society; the co-
community protected areas. The consultants also pointed out that for the IUCN,
the extraction of wood, of nonligneous forest products and even of mining
products is not forbidden a priori in a protected area, in particular in the
categories V and VI, but that this does not mean that these activities must
90
I took part in the advocacy effort.
91
Protected Areas World Congress, September 2003, Durban, South-Africa.
92
Seventh Conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity, February 2004, Kuala Lumpur.
93
Third Conservation World Congress, November 2004, Bangkok.
99
be appropriated, and can be accepted. 94 (Borrini-Feyerabend and Dudley
2005a, 31)
The consultant further reminded that management objectives have to be chosen
with regard to biodiversity conservation objectives, which must remain the main goal
of all protected areas 95 . The central question is to know if this extraction would result
in biodiversity loss. The experts also contended that zones where biodiversity is not
significant should not be included inside protected areas, but could constitute a
advocated for an open approach that would not be limited to protected areas with very
limited use rights, but confirmed the arguments that led to rejection of DCT as a
In the end, the IUCN team proposed adopting an open, logical framework
where all management objectives and governance modes could be combined (Borrini-
Feyerabend and Dudley 2005a). Their second mission, in July 2005, was aimed at
supporting the creation of this new framework, through a participatory process that
would start at the local level. The new framework would be formalized by a new
legislation, constituting a Protected Area System (SAPM 96 ) that would render obsolete
the notions of DCT and Conservation Sites. The proposition was accepted and from
that moment, the SAPM became the new conceptual and legal framework within
to give a preliminary status to the newly created protected areas. According to this
94
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “ Du point de vue de l’UICN, l’exploitation du bois ou
des produits forestiers non ligneux et même des produits miniers n’est pas interdite a priori dans une
aire protégée, en particulier dans les aires protégées de catégorie V et VI, mais cela ne veut pas dire
pour autant que ces activités peuvent se révéler appropriées, et donc être acceptées.” (IUCN 2004a, 31)
95
The IUCN definition of a protected area is “An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the
protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and
managed through legal or other effective means.” (IUCN 2002, 8)
96
Malagasy Protected Areas System. In French: “Système des Aires Protégées de Madagascar.”
100
order, the sites would be submitted to the “special regime,” a modality created by
52 of this same law, “these perimeters cannot be object of any extraction, under any
form. Clear cutting, clearing, burning and grazing are forbidden in them.” 97 These
strict restrictions are, however, contradicted by the order, which authorizes nontimber
This order was followed by the Decree 2005/848, issued on December 13,
(Gouvernement de Madagascar 2005b). This decree addresses most of the issues that
had been debated. For example, article 1 asserts that management objectives can
include the conservation of cultural heritage. Article 2 creates four new categories
which are the natural park, the natural monument, the protected landscape, and the
from the first two categories, but not necessarily in the last two (protected landscape
and the natural resource reserve), showing that the debate had eventually been fruitful.
Articles 6 and 7 further insist on the necessity to consult local populations and
However, the decree does not propose clear rules nor guarantees concerning
the way to address the potential negative socio-economic impacts. First, the
formalized by official documents, but at the community level, the consultation is not
97
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “ces périmètres ne peuvent faire l'objet d'exploitation,
sous quelque forme que ce soit. Les coupes rases, les défrichements et les mises à feu, ainsi que le
pâturage y sont interdits.”
98
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Parc naturel,” “monument naturel,” “paysage
harmonieux protégé,” and “réserve des ressources naturelles.”
101
their access to resources is limited (Gouvernement de Madagascar 2005b), meaning
situation is quite astonishing as there can be little doubt about the environmental
benefits of gazetting a protected area, while negative socio-economic impacts for local
communities seem to be the rule, as shown in the evaluations of EP1 and EP2 (OSIPD
1995; 2000), by other consultant reports (Carret and Loyer 2003; Hockley and
Shyamsundar 1997; Peters 1998; Peters 1999; Harper 2002; McConnell 2002; Ferraro
2002).
In sum, the decree reveals the same asymmetry and incapacity to address
socio-economic aspects that led ICDPs to failure. Paradoxically, the only negative
indirect and will never be addressed by experts in charge of implementing the MECIE
legislation. They are the leakages provoked by the volunteer displacement of farmers
In spite of these concerns, the issue of this regulation allowed the creation of
hectares in 2006 (16 sites 100 ). In January 2007, the new protected areas were still
99
Sahamalaza (130,000 hectares), Ankeniheny-Zahamena (425,000 hectares), Makira (371,217
hectares), Anjozorobe-Angavo (52,200 hectares), and Loky-Manambato (70,837 hectares).
100
According to a presentation made at the EP3 Joint committee on December 31, 2006, the sites are
the following: Nord-Ifotaky (22,256 hectares); Kodida (10,744 hectares); Ambatotsirongaronga (834
hectares); Mandena (230 hectares); Ambato Atsinanana (747 hectares); Central Menabe (125,000
hectares); Tampolo (675 hectares);Forest Corridor Bongolava (60,589 hectares); Montagne des Français
(6,092 hectares); Multiple Use Forest Station Antrema (12,270 hectares); Forest Corridor Fandriana-
Vondrozo (499,598 hectares); Analalava Forest Foulpointe (204 hectares) ; Andreba (31.7 hectares);
Mahavavy-Kinkony (268,236 hectares); Amoron’I Onilahy (52,582 hectares); Alaotra Lake(42,478
hectares).
102
under temporary protection status 101 . More protected areas are expected to be created
during 2007 and 2008, leading to a total of 4,539,000 hectares under protection by the
end of 2008 102 . The objective to achieve 6,000,000 hectares has been postponed to
Madagascar.
In this context of frantic gazetting, the debate about the potential negative
impacts of protected areas on local communities emerged again at the end of 2006.
protected areas. The Bank explained these difficulties by the fact that,
when the EP3 was conceived, it was envisioned to establish six new
protected areas (three terrestrial and three marine) for a total area of
324,000 hectares, [while] complementary rural development projects such
as the FID 103 and the PSDR 104 would finance support activities. However,
none of the rural development projects had legal conditions that obliged
them to finance the support activities of EP3 (although the PSDR and EP3
had established the protocols of the partnership agreement). 105 (World
Bank 2006b)
The PSDR (World Bank 2001) eventually did not contribute significantly to
the financing of development activities around protected areas. The consequence was
a financial gap that increased significantly when the Durban Vision planned the
101
Special Regime status, defined by Gouvernement de Madagascar (2005a).
102
According to a World Bank note (World Bank 2007), based on data from ANGAP and other
partners.
103
Development Intervention Fund. In French: “Fond d’Intervention pour le Développement.”
104
Rural Development Support Project. In French: “Projet de Soutien au Développement Rural.”
105
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Quand le PE3 a été conçu, il était envisage d’établir
six nouvelles aires protégées (trois terrestres et trois marines) pour une superficie totale de 324,000
hectares. Les projets de développement rural complémentaires comme le FID et PSDR financeraient
des mesures d’accompagnement. Néanmoins, aucun des projets de développement rural avait des
conditionnalités légales qui les obligeait à financer les mesures d’accompagnement du PE3 (bien que le
PSDR et PE3 ont établi des protocoles d’ accord).”
103
Table 5: Malagasy protected areas in 2007
Category Number Total area in Date of
hectares creation
Existing ANGAP protected areas 39 1,612,000 Before EP3
Extension of ANGAP protected 11 359,000 During EP3
areas
Creation of ANGAP protected 5 272,000 During EP3
areas
New protected areas, non-ANGAP 4 919,000 2005
New protected areas, non-ANGAP 15 1,080,000 2006
New protected areas, non- 47 1,619,000 2007-2008
ANGAP, with identified promoter
New protected areas, non- 38 595,000 2007-2008
ANGAP, without identified
promoter
New marine protected areas 4 325,000 2007-2008
Total expected 2008 163 6,456,000
104
The supervision mission further pointed out that the Malagasy government
by the creation of protected areas, Conservation Sites and land reserves 106
(Association Nationale pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées and MINEVEF 2003, 4).
A technical note of the World Bank (2007) estimated that the financial gap to
finance these mitigation was about 2.58 million USD for the 12 newly created
protected areas, which cover a total of 1.8 million hectares. This gap extends to 12
million USD if we consider all of the protected areas newly created by EP3 or to be
created through 2008. If this gap was not filled, the safeguard policy of the World
Bank would be at risk of not being implemented, which would slow the creation of
protected areas and put the Bank at risk of being criticized by human right lobbies.
106
“Cadre de procédure pour la mitigation des impacts de la création des aires protégées, des sites de
conservation, et des réserves foncières.” Prepared by experts of the World Bank and adopted by the
Malagasy government on October 3, 2003.
107
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French:“Il est évident que la composante gestion des aires
protégées (AP) peut causer des restrictions d'accès aux ressources naturelles dans les AP à créer. De
même, la composante gestion des écosystèmes forestiers peut causer, dans une certaine mesure, des
restrictions d'accès aux ressources naturelles.”
105
This problem was intensively debated during the EP3 joint committee of June
12, 2006 108 . Two issues were raised. First, the term “compensation” created a certain
fear on the side of partners involved in the creation of protected areas on the ground. It
suggested the idea of financial compensation that they could not afford to provide,
whose amount would be difficult to calculate and which could provide disadvantages
to the communities that had already engaged in new activities with no negative impact
on the environment. The term “mitigation” was preferred because it did not imply an
exact match between the negative impacts and the alternatives, and because
on the ground. Second, the partners rejected the idea of being subjected to a
procedural framework defined by the World Bank. The Malagasy government had
adopted this procedural framework, but it was not clear whether it applied to all new
protected areas or only to those financed by the World Bank. Eventually, this last
option was accepted, but the partners would engage in mitigating the negative impacts.
Third, the partners pointed out that EP3 departed from the previous phase of NEAP 109
addressed by the Rural Development Action Plan. They agreed, however, that the
concerns were justified and accepted the idea that the government issued a regulation
that would define the mitigation measures associated with the creation of protected
areas. At the end of 2006, the target date for achieving the Durban Vision (i.e., six
million hectares under protection status) was postponed to 2012, which would help to
108
This paragraph synthesizes the information provided by 5 informants interviewed in February 2007.
109
During EP1, rural development aspects were addressed, although unsuccessfully, by the ICDP.
During the second phases, the AGERAS component enlarged this approach at a larger scale.
106
10. Conclusion
objectives persisted during the three phases of NEAP, despite the fact that the
activities led to a rejection of EP1’s ICDP approach and to replacing it with regional
economic impacts persisted during the second phase of NEAP. The case study in Part
III and Chapter 10 in Part IV will provide more insights for understanding the reasons
and assessing the consequences of the failure of mitigation measures. The case study
in Part III and Chapter 10 in Part IV will also confirm that communities of farmers
that practice tavy are first in line to pay the price of conservation.
NEAP was not able to adjust its strategy to face these difficulties. Instead of
addressing realities, the project’s techno-structure favored representations that did not
question its own strategy, as shown by the tautological arguments of EP2’s evaluation
report (OSIPD 1995). Parts IV and V will explore more in depth the reasons for this
aspects. The PADR (World Bank 2001) was expected to achieve development
objectives, but did not do so, probably because it adopted the same ill-designed
approach to rural development, and because it preferred to target areas with more
productive potential and to work with rural entrepreneurs rather than ordinary farmers,
as we will see in Chapter 6. Due to the significant increase of areas under protection
status (Durban vision), the tensions between protected area managers and local
communities may increase significantly in the future. During a period that might last
107
one or two decades, these tensions may be limited because forest clearing will be
“possible” in areas not under protection status. After these unprotected forests are
cleared, the protected areas will be at peril if no solution is found to support viable
alternatives and compensate for the restrictions on access to resources and land.
108
PART III
THE REALITIES:
SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURE IN
BEFORONA
109
INTRODUCTION
located on the eastern edge of the Malagasy rain forest corridor: Beforona, 160
kilometers east from Antananarivo (Maps 3 and 4). Beforona has already been
investigated in depth due to its easy access: it is crossed by National Road 2 which is
well maintained and links the capital Antananarivo to Toamasina, the first port in the
country. More than 10 PhD dissertations and about 20 Masters theses addressing this
region have been completed during the two last decades, mostly with support of the
Swiss funded BEMA and Terre-Tany projects, during the 1990s, and of the USAID
funded LDI and PTE projects, from 1999 to 2004. For this reason, I did not deem it
the existing knowledge (Chapter 3) and attempted to fill the most significant gaps. The
main gap concerns the situation in villages having limited access to market, which
road (Chapter 5). A second gap concerns the reflexive analysis of development
practices, which justified analyzing the work of rural development projects working in
the area (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 eventually, will present a social experiment
5 and 6.
110
Map 3: Localization of the study area
Source: FTM (National Geographic Institute) and BEMA project, in Rakotoarijaona
(2005, 3)
Note: the left map indicates the six provinces of Madagascar. The right map shows the
limits of the 13 Fokontany of Beforona.
111
Beforona
Ambodilaingo
Notes:
• National Road 2 is indicated in red.
• The distance from Moramanga (Department capital) to Beforona is 49 kilometers.
• The roads indicated in black and some roads indicated in white (including the
road to from Vatomandry to Ambalabe) are impractical by car.
• The forest cover (dark green) is based on aerial photographs taken in the 1950s or
1960s.
• The light yellow lines indicate the locations I visited.
• The blue square delineates the area visualized on map 6 and 7 (page 123 to
125).
112
CHAPTER 3
1. Introduction
In this chapter, I provide an overview of the study area using material available
and the human and social environment (Section 3). Most information, including the
majority of figures, was extracted from research conducted by the Terre-Tany and
2. Biophysical environment
2.1. Location
Toamasina Province (Map 3 page 111). It is 160 kilometers away from Antananarivo,
on National Road 2 which links Antananarivo to Toamasina, the main port of the
country (Map 4 page 112). A railway also links these two cities and crosses the
commune. It was mostly abandoned during the past decades but has been rehabilitated
recently.
2.2. Topography
500 meters, dominated by small hills with steep slopes, 150 meters higher in elevation.
meters. This mountain chain, called the Betsimisaraka escarpment, separates Beforona
from the Mangoro depression where the city of Moramanga is located. It is still
forested (Vohidrazana forest), whereas the rest of the land is covered by secondary
113
Studied villages
Primary forest National Road 2
Agricultural and fallow land River
Grassland Watersheds investigated in details
Notes: the Salampinga site has not been studied in this dissertation.
114
vegetation. This topography is summarized in Figure 2 (from Le Bourdiec 1974), and
2.3. Climate
The area experiences a tropical wet climate (Figure 3). The average annual
the eastern slope of the escarpment and decreases on its western slope (Analamazaotra
station).
The strongest rains last from late December to March. Cyclones are quite
frequent during this period, with winds of more than 100 kilometers per hour.
Cyclones Hutelle, Daisy and Geralda in 1993 and 1994 were particularly destructive.
Their impact has been described in detail and mapped by Brand et al. (1997). Home
gardens and lowland crops were destroyed by inundations and landslides. Houses and
Precipitation is lower during the rest of the year but takes the form of drizzle,
which falls almost every day in the winter, from early July to late August. September,
October and November are the driest months but rain can still occur. As some people
say, we can only distinguish a rain season (with big rains) and a rainy season (with
drizzle). Nevertheless, dry periods of about 10 days can occur with significant
having 18 consecutive dry days is 0.1, meaning that such dryness occurs only 10% of
the time during this period (Brand 1997a). In sum, the climate is quite favorable to
agriculture overall, but risky due to rainfall irregularities during the “dry” period and
115
Zoning
Dense forest
Mixed fallow
Grassland
Swamps
Transect
Panganalana
canal
Iaroka river
Coast
Ranomainty line
Iaroka river
Vohidrazana swamp
mountain
Ambodilaingo
116
Photograph 1: The Betsimisaraka escarpment. Altitude ranges from 550 meters
(where the picture has been taken, 10 km south from Beforona) to 1220 meters (peak
in the background). The vegetation on the escarpment is a primary forest (Vohidrazana
forest) whose valuable wood has been exploited. The rest of the land is covered with
fallow, a tavy, and a temporary dwelling visible in the middle ground (left).
Photograph 2: Bottom lands and hills in Beforona. This photograph is taken from
the same location as photograph 1, but on the opposite side (looking west). This
bottom land belongs to the Fokontany Ambatoharanana, where the NGO Zanaky ny
Ala built a dam (see chapter 7). Altitude ranges from 500 to 650 meters.
117
Rainfall
Temperature
J. A. S. O. N. D. J. F. M. A. M. J.
Rain (mm) Tº (Cº)
Meteo-
station
Road
Railway
Forest
J. A. S. O. N. D. J. F. M. A. M. J.
J. A. S. O. N. D. J. F. M. A. M. J. J. A. S. O. N. D. J. F. M. A. M. J.
Source: Nambena (2007, 14). Data from the National Meteorology and BEMA project
Note: The study area corresponds to the Marolafa station. The Analamazaotra and
Moramanga stations show the lower rainfall on the western side of the Betsimisaraka
escarpment. Translation and adaptations by Pollini.
118
Air is wet all the year round, with a maximum of 100% humidity in the night
and a minimum of about 70% at noon. The average humidity ranges from about 75%
running all year round in all rivers and most streams. Flooding is frequent on the
alluvial plains that border the rivers, making the cultivation of these fertile soils quite
risky. When big rains occur, it becomes dangerous to cross the rivers, which
The average temperature ranges from about 16C° in July to 26C° in January
(Figure 3). The minimal temperature can reach 6C° at night in the winter and maximal
by trees from the genera Tambourissa 110 and Weinmania 111 (Fara Lala 1999).
Palisander (Dalbergia sp. 112 ), a tree with a high market value, is abundant but has
been widely exploited. The flora is similar to what is encountered in Andasibe, where
it has been studied by Razakanirina (1986). Several species of lemur live in the
Vohidrazana forest, including the Babakoto (Indri indri) and the Varika (Propithecus
diadema diadema).
The wet climate prevents frequent natural fires and rain forests may have
covered the whole region, including the coast, initially. The costal area was probably
inhabited from the tenth century and may have been covered by a mosaic of Savannah,
110
Monimiaceae.
111
Cunoniaceae.
112
Fabaceae. The genus Dalbergia, in Madagascar, includes a few species of rosewood, which are
harvested for export, and many species of Palisander, which are less valuable and are sold on the
domestic market and are utilized for making furniture. Rosewood is not found in Beforona.
119
primary forest, secondary vegetation, and agricultural land at that time (Chapter 1).
Brand and Zurbuchen (1997), based on bibliographical review, studied the dynamic of
deforestation during the last century. When Europeans first arrived on the east coast of
Madagascar, they noticed that grassland and savannah dominated the slopes and the
top of the hills, whereas forests were mostly located on bottom land and along streams
(Hastie 1817, in Brand and Zurbuchen 1997). Further west, a contiguous forest existed
that had no or almost no inhabitants. During the first part of the nineteenth century, the
savannah area progressed further west and in the second part, the forest between
Ampasibe and Beforona was partially cleared, resulting in a mosaic pattern of forest
and fallow land. This clearing may have been quite complete by the end of the
nineteenth century (Ellis 1856, in Brand and Zurbuchen 1997; Julien 1909, in Brand
eighteenth century. But population density was still low in the nineteenth century, with
Brand and Zurbuchen (1997) used aerial photographs from the years 1957,
1967, 1987 and 1994 to study deforestation dynamics during the last decades (Figure
4). The most intense clearing occurred after 1967, with a rate of 21.2 ha/year from
1957 to 1967, 39.3 from 1967 to 1987 and 46.5 from 1987 to 1994 (measurements
were taken from a sample that did not cover the whole commune). This increase can
be explained by the demographic explosion that started in the 1950s, by the low
control that resulted from the political change in the 1970s and by the economic crisis
in the 1980s. In the 1990s, most of the remaining forests were localized on the
Betsimisaraka escarpment, at an altitude above 800 meters which is not very suitable
for rice cultivation due to high rainfall. This factor, and/or a stronger enforcement of
the ban on forest clearing, led to a decrease of the deforestation rate. Nambena (2007)
studied the deforestation in the area between 1994 and 2000 and complemented Brand
120
Ha/year
100% 60
58,6
63,0
79,1
89,7
51,4
88,0
85,8
46,5
50
39,3
75%
Défrichement Ha/an
40
% de surface
26,6
50% 30
21,2
41,4
37,0
20
25%
20,9
14,2 10
12,0
10,3
0% 0
1957 1967 1987 1994 1997 2000
Pourcentage
Non forested de non
land (%)Forêt (%)
Pourcentage
Forested landde Forêt (%)
(%) Années
Vites s e de défores
Deforestation tation
(Hectare perha/an
year)
121
and Zurbuchen’s (1997) measurement (Figure 4 page 121). He showed that the edge
of the forest main corridor did not greatly move, but that all the remaining forest
patches east from the corridor were cleared during this period.
McConnell et al. (2004) also studied deforestation in the area for the period
1957-2000 (Map 6). They created a model to predict the conversion of forest to
agriculture using five variables: elevation, slope, distance from forest edge, distance
from village, and an estimation of population density. They ran their model to predict
land use change between 1957 and 2000 and compared the outcome with the actual
deforestation. They showed that distance from a village, distance from forest edge and
elevation have the highest explanatory value of observed forest clearing. Slope has the
lower effect, which contradicts the outcomes of Green and Sussman (1990). For Mc
Connell et al., farmers prefer to clear land with less slope but in the end, steep slopes
are cleared as well when no more land is available. In a second step, McConnell et al.
(2004) mapped the difference between the prediction of the model and the actual land
use change (Map 7). They showed that the surroundings of the protected areas and the
eastern side of the escarpment were less cleared than predicted by the model. The
western side, on the other hand, was more cleared than predicted. This could be
explained by an aspect effect that has not been integrated into the model: on the
eastern side, the available land for agriculture is located at the altitudinal limit for rice
cultivation, which seems to be at about 800-900 meters. Above this elevation, rice
cultivation is more risky due to an excess of rain, as said earlier and as we will see in
Chapter 5. On the western side, rainfall is lower and rice can be cultivated at higher
altitude. McConnell et al. assert that facing this natural frontier, farmers “clean-up”
the forest remnants (2004, 183), which is consistent with Nambena’s (2007)
conclusion. On the western side, to the contrary, the pattern is that of recent agrarian
colonization, with land being cleared inside large forest blocks. McConnell et al.
122
Beforona Beforona
1957 1976
Ambodilaingo Ambodilaingo
123
Beforona Beforona
1994 2000
Ambodilaingo Ambodilaingo
Map 6 (continued).
124
Mantadia
National Ambavaniasy
Park
Vohimana
Analamazaotra forest
Special NR2
Reserve
Beforona
Vohidrazana
forest
Ambodilaingo
Comments: Lower values are concentrated around the protected areas (the
Vohimana forest is a concession managed by the NGO MATE). Higher values are
concentrated to the west, which could be explained by an aspect effect not
considered by the model (rice can be grown at higher altitude on the western side
of the escarpment) or by a displacement of pressures.
125
136
(2004, 171) conclude that “while overall land change patterns in the region are largely
reflect the signatures of institutions governing access to land.” In other words, the
displacement of the pressures at regional scale. This conclusion, however, could have
been biased by unforeseen aspect effects not integrated into the model.
different types of secondary vegetation that will be described in the section about land
uses.
2.5. Soils
The soils are ferralitic with strong desaturation, except on forest land and
recently cleared land where they still have an elevated organic matter content, and in
the bottom lands and lower parts of the slopes where they benefit from transfer of
particles by erosion. The level of degradation is correlated with the number and
frequency of clearings and burnings that have occurred and to the vulnerability of the
soils, itself determined by the slope and organic content. These aspects will be
addressed in more detail in the section about land uses. The main constraints for
during cyclones (Brand and Rakotovao 1997; Brand et al. 1997). It is more intense on
soils plowed for ginger cultivation than on slash-and-burn systems (Brand and
Rakotovao 1997).
126
Zahamena
National
Park
Betampona
Strict
Reserve
Ambohilero
forest Mangerivola
Special
Reserve
Mantadia
Analamazaotra National
Special Park
Reserve
Protected areas
Beforona Classified forests
Water
Forest
Ambodilaingo Cleared forest (1993-2000)
Non forest
Cloud on forest
Cloud
Legend translated by myself. Blue square added by myself for showing area on map 7
and 8, page 134 to 136.
127
Map 9: vegetation in Beforona and in the surrounding.
Source: Nambena (2007, 55). Translation by Pollini.
128
Based on Landsat image
from September 1993
Area on
maps 7
and 8
page 134
to 136
129
3. Population and society
3.1. Demography
half of the twentieth century. Annual population growth is now 2.7%, which is close to
the national average. Map 10 shows the demographic density in 1997 in Beforona and
in Ranomafana, a commune located farther east. We can notice that the fokontany
with lowest population densities are not necessarily those located close to the forest.
from these areas that have been inhabited for a longer period. Figure 5 shows the age
pyramid in Marolafa, a fokonany 113 of Beforona. It shows that the population is very
3.2. Ethnicity
have a Bezanozano origin for part of them, as I will show in Chapter 5. The second
most important group is the Sihanaka, who also practice agriculture. The other groups
are the Antesaka, the Merina and the Betsileo, who established mostly to develop
trading activities or take jobs, and a very small minority of Antandroy charcoal makers
and traders of Chinese origin. The Merina and Chinese people dominate the economic,
administrative and political life. Chinese and Merina traders use their earnings to buy
land and are now the biggest landowners. They usually buy the most suitable land for
intensive agriculture, especially the bottom land that can easily be irrigated. They also
appropriate land by matrimonial alliance and by practicing usury: the debtors use their
113
Beforona is composed of 13 fokontany (see note 1 page 3).
130
Map 10: Population density per Fokontany in the communes of Beforona and
Ranomafana, in 1991.
Source: Zurbuchen (no date), in Moor and Bark (1998, 12).
131
Age
Women Men
Number Number
of persons of persons
132
pay back these loans and eventually losing their land. Land appropriated in this way is
3.3. Education
According to Nambena (2004), the first schools in Beforona were built in the
1930s. All fokontany had an elementary school in 1975 and the junior high school
opened in 1979. Children have to move to the district town of Moramanga when they
The education level decreased during the last decades. People educated in the
1950s are more literate than the new generation. In remote villages, state teachers
often refuse to take their positions and parents replace them with nonprofessional
teachers whose skills are not always sufficient. Parents recruit them locally and pay
them themselves. Many schools destroyed by the cyclones have not been rebuilt.
During the rainy season, the danger of crossing rivers can impede school attendance.
Some parents are discouraged by the cost of school necessities or need their children
3.4. Healthcare
A local health center was built in 1983 (CSB I 114 ) and provided with more
equipment and means in 1996 (CSB II 115 ). It is supposed to have a doctor and a nurse,
but the appointed staff often refuses its assignment or manages to be moved to a
bigger city after a short time. Staff with no or little medical training, but fortunately a
long experience in the region, often have to provide healthcare. A private doctor also
works in the commune. Consultation is cheap (a few USD for the most common
114
Basic Health Center Level 1. In French : Centre de Sante de Base de Niveau 1.
115
Basic Health Center Level 2. In French : Centre de Sante de Base de Niveau 2.
133
illnesses, including the cost of pills) but still represents a sacrifice for poor households.
The main constraint to health care is the distance to the health center. Often, only
people living close to the road (less than five kilometers) consult a doctor. Others
Beforona implies some costs they cannot bear (the time of the persons that accompany
them, the need to find a place to stay and to buy food if the health care lasts several
At the time of the first settlements, village life was controlled by the
Betsimisaraka people were organized into small kingdoms or chiefdoms and were
peaceful. But those from the hinterlands suffered from raids for slavery from those
living on the coast, which may explain their move westward and the population
distribution in space.
The economy has always been based on agriculture. There are a few mining
activities in the commune (gold, corindon), but these do not provide significant
income. Slash-and-burn cultivation has always been the main land use and forest
Merina people also introduced forced labor for the construction of the first road that
According to Nambena (2004), the first French colonists arrived at the end of the
116
The information is this section is mostly from Nambena (2004) and Styger (2004).
134
nineteenth century. They introduced the SMOTIG 117 (forced labor) for the
improvement of the road, the construction of the railway and the planting of
eucalyptus to feed the trains’ steam engines. The construction of these infrastructures
attracted labor force and traders from other regions, resulting in a demographic
increase that accelerated deforestation. A per capita tax also was introduced. A
regulation issued on October 30, 1904, stated that those not able to pay this tax owed
labor days to the administration. Farmers were asked to move to the Andasibe camp,
located 25 kilometers west from Beforona, to plant eucalyptus or do other jobs, for the
and bananas) as a way to pay these taxes and to avoid forced labor. Cash crops also
were aimed at propelling indigenous people into a market economy, leading to some
changes in the traditional modes of consumption. Traders from other ethnic groups
moved to the area to open small shops and collect agricultural products (Nambena
2004).
of irrigation schemes and the diffusion of new rice varieties and cultivation techniques
(Nambena 2004). The first veterinaries also toured the region. Forest clearing was
forbidden and the practice of tavy was submitted to increasing restrictions. Agents
from the colonial administration were regularly visiting the area for the purpose of
control. Wood extraction also started during this period, but rather in the neighboring
kilometers west from Beforona), two colonial companies, the “Compagnie coloniale”
and “grande Ile” initiated wood extraction in the 1930s, attracting immigrants that
117
Labor service for General Interest Work. In French: Service de Main d’Oeuvre pour les Travaux
d’Intérêt élevé Général.
135
The colonial pressures provoked strong cultural and social resistances that
have been analyzed in detail by Althabe (1969). The resistance peaked with the revolt
of 1947, which resulted from an increase in the number of forced labor days in the
early 1940s, due to the war effort required by the French government. After these
events, economic and political pressure on the population decreased and a more
prosperous era started. Forced labor was abolished by the end of colonization but the
The period of the first republic, after independence, was relatively prosperous,
as in the rest of the country (Chapter 2). The government provided support to develop
irrigated rice cultivation. The road network provided more opportunities to sell
agricultural products and veterinaries still visited the area. Education was more
efficient than at present and cash crops, mostly coffee, were sold at a satisfying price.
It seems that there was a relative regional specialization, Beforona producing coffee
and buying rice grown in Ambatondrazaka. Staff from Forest Services were still
patrolling the area to control forest clearing. They forbade tavy on the upper parts of
the hills but authorized it on lower parts. They also provided support for creating
irrigation schemes because the forest and hydraulic services depended on the same
direction of the Ministry of Water and Forest at this time, as we saw in Chapter 2.
Paddy fields were more extensive than at present, despite the fact that population
Unfortunately, the situation started to degrade in the early 1970s. The price of
degrade, due to the end of state supports and to the farmers’ lack of resources. The
state entered into bankruptcy and state representatives stopped visiting the area. The
new regime, after 1975, started a “do as you please” policy that encouraged forest
136
clearing. The ban on clearing of hill tops was not respected anymore (Styger 2004)
and the population went back to an economy almost entirely based on tavy.
The trend has been reversed in the late 1980s by the renovation of the road,
which created new market opportunities, mostly to sell ginger and bananas, and by a
return to a ban on forest clearing, which, however, had little effect due to the absence
of Forest Services (Styger 2004). But the low price of agricultural products and the
high cost of transportation limited these opportunities to villages located close to the
road. Due to the permanent degradation of soil fertility, livelihoods have continued to
government started a strong campaign against bush fires. The new president had just
been elected and the donors supporting the National Environmental Action Plan
2002, a decree (Gouvernement de Madagascar 2002) was issued that defined measures
to encourage the prevention and eradication of bush fires. This decree required the
fires, as shown by the fact that they have not been invaded by fires,
137
• failing communes, who did not make efforts and still need to become
communes, and these certificates were the condition for obtaining funding to
This decree does not forbid tavy. It merely defines incentives and penalties for
the communes that control or do not control fires. It is thus consistent with the spirit of
distinguishes different types of fires and does not forbid tavy per se (Chapter 2). But
radio. As in the decree, the word tavy was not mentioned in this discourse. But the
Ambatovolo, the commune located west from Beforona. The information spread very
quickly in the region. Most farmers were afraid of doing tavy, including on degraded
the Toamasina Province confirmed this move by issuing a decree that forbids tavy.
The repression was, however, less strong than in 2002 and the situation returned to
normal in 2004. Chapter 5 will show the impact of the anti-tavy campaign in the
these measures and the presence of rural development projects in the area.
organization frequently changed along time, and traditional authorities, which always
138
The state is currently represented in each fokontany by a “Chef de quartier”
(fokontany chief) appointed by the mayor and supported by a village chief in each
hamlet inside the fokontany. These representatives are not paid but receive a small
indemnity (about five USD/month). The fokontany chiefs sign administrative acts
such as birth and death acts or residence permits. Their tasks are not burdensome.
They have no office and usually live in the same way as other villagers.
allocation for doing tavy. He serves as an intermediary between the population and the
have more influence than him on the population. Usually, all the inhabitants of a
village constitute a fokonolona 118 and are represented by the same Tangalamena and
Vavanjaka, but there can be exceptions. Important decisions are taken by a village
representatives of the young, the women, and a few influential or more educated
people such as the teacher or people who had the opportunity to travel far away
create community laws called dinas. The dinas are usually not written but are the basis
on which the community life is ruled. The most important ones can nevertheless be
written and registered at the commune, which gives them some legal power. Dinas
define behavior rules, offences and punishment, concerning for example the ignition
118
The fokonolona in the traditional sense thus does not correspond to the modern definition, where the
fokonolona is the population of the fokontany.
139
Dinas can also be created at a lower level, by a group of farmers who want to organize
Ceremonies have an important role to play in every day life. They consist
mostly in sacrificing oxen as a cult to the ancestors. The main reasons for these
celebrations are funerals, the birth of a tenth child, circumcision, the obtaining of
rights to cultivate certain land and the violation of taboos. I will describe these
ceremonies in more detail in the Chapter 5 and will show that they changed over time.
Reciprocal aid between households is used for certain agricultural works but
allows a quite equitable repartition of resources. Most land is not legally owned and
belongs to the state. Only traders and a few farmers with more education, more
financial resources and more connection with state domain services manage to obtain
land ownership. These privately owned lands are mostly irrigated rice fields located
along the road. Migrant traders manage to appropriate the best lands by buying them,
by matrimonial alliance or by usury. In this case, the land is used as a guarantee and
taken from the borrower when he fails to pay. The land market concerns both domain
land (not entitled but whose use rights are recognized by traditional authorities) and
land privately owned (entitled). In the later case, the land can be sold at a higher price.
I will describe in more detail the farming, cropping and animal husbandry systems in
140
reviews the alternatives to slash-and-burn cultivation. As an introduction and for a
better understanding of the sections that follow, I will provide a few elements her.
Table 7 lists the main cultivated crops and Map 11 shows the repartition of
land uses in the surroundings of Beforona. Fallow land clearly dominates the
page 187) consists in clearing and burning a piece of land in order to grow rice
associated with a variety of other annuals crops the first year (see list and frequency in
Table 8). Cassava, sometimes sweet potato, and rarely beans are planted the second
year, on part of the plot only. Cassava can also be planted the first year after burning,
if the land is too degraded to support rice cultivation. But in this case, the field is not
called a tavy.
Tavy gives better harvest if it is practiced on forest fertile soils but forest
clearing is forbidden by the state, as we saw. Moreover, the remaining forests are
located on the Betsimisaraka escarpment, which is not very suitable for rice cultivation
due to excessive rainfall. For these reasons, tavy is mostly practiced on secondary
which reveals the lack of space and the integrative approach to land management by
farmers.
Table 9 lists the main species encountered in fallow land. On the most fertile
soils, which are mainly found in recently cleared areas, secondary vegetation is
141
Table 7: Cultivated species in Beforona
142
Villages
National Road 2
Rivers and streams
Home gardens
Slash-and-burn rice (tavy)
Irrigated rice fields
Ginger
Cassava
Irrigated rice fields in fallow
Natural forest
Fallow land
Reforestation
143
Handicraft
Mutual aid
Building
Ceremonies
Other crops
Ginger
Home garden
Paddy fields
Slash-and-
burn
cultivation
Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June.
144
Photograph 3: Tavy in ordinary fallow land, about 7 km south from Beforona.
This tavy is typical of the region. The vegetation that was cleared is a mix of ligneous
(Psiadia altissima), subligneous (Rubus moluccanus), and herbaceous species
(Aframamum angustifolium, visible in the foreground). It is not clear whether these
tavy are forbidden or not by the 60-127 law of 1960 (see chapter 2).
145
Table 8: Plants cultivated in tavy in Ambinantsavolo, a fokontany in Beforona
Malagasy name English name Scientific name Frequency
(38 households)
Tsaramaso Beans Phaseolus vulgaris 92 %
Haricots
Katsaka Corn Zea mays 83 %
Maïs
Kokombra Cucumber Cucumis sativus 58 %
Concombre
Kabaro or Tsidimy Lima bean Phaseolus lunatus 46 %
Tsiasisa or maley Asparagus bean Vigna unguiculata 38 %
ssp sesquipedalis
Vonemba Black eyed pea Vigna unguiculata 33 %
unguiculata
Voatavo or pongy Squash Cucurbita pepo 29 %
Anamamy Black nightshade Solanum nigrum, S. 25 %
americanum,
146
Table 9: Dominant species in fallow in the region of Beforona and Moramanga.
147
148
dominated by woody species 119 which can form a closed canopy of about three to five
meters. Trema orientalis and Solanum Mauritianum indicate the most fertile soils,
usually on land that has been cultivated just one time after forest clearing. On the rest
of the land, the vegetation is dominated by herbaceous perennials 120 or semi ligneous
shrublets 121 when the soils are still in acceptable condition, or by a mix of shrubs and
ferns 122 or grasses 123 when the soil has been degraded by more frequent or numerous
fires. Aluminum toxicity and phosphorus depletion seem to be the main factors
determining soil fertility (Pfund 2000). It is, however, still controversial whether soil
fertility or weed invasion is the main cause of abandonment of degraded land (Pfund
2000).
successive slash-and-burn cultivation cycles and measured the rice yields obtained on
each of these vegetation types. Her results are summarized in Figure 7 (page 148). The
correlation between fertility and the number of previous cultivation cycles is, however,
degradation is faster on steep slopes and slower on the lower part of the slopes, due to
accumulation of nutrients and deeper soils (Pfund 2000). As Beforona has been
inhabited for over a century (Section 2.4), most land has been cultivated more than six
times, meaning that overall land degradation may be slower than what is shown in
Figure 7 (page 148). We will see in Chapter 5 that uncontrolled fires, rather than tavy,
may explain the later stages (ferns and grasses) of this retrogressive succession.
119
Psiadia altissima (DC.) Drake (Asteraceae), Harungana madagascariensis Lam. ex Poir.
(Clusiaceae), Solanum mauritianum Scop.(Solanaceae) and Trema orientalis L. Blume (Ulmaceae).
120
Aframomum angustifolium [Sonn.] K. Schum (Zingiberaceae).
121
Lantana camara L (Verbenaceae), Rubus moluccanus L (Rosaceae) and Clidemia hirta [L.] D. Don
(Melastomaceae).
122
Pteridium acquilinum [L.] Kuhn and Sticherus flagellaris [Bory ex Willd.] Ching.
123
Imperata cylindrica [L.] Raeusch (Poaceae).
149
In Beforona, tavy is often practiced on land more or less densely covered by
Rubus, Lantana and Aframomum, meaning that rice yield ranges from 0.5 to 1 ton per
hectare. Whether the legislation about vegetation clearing and burning (Gouvernement
(Aframomum is not ligneous and while Rubus and Lantana stems are ligneous, they
can hardly be regarded as woody). Farmers living close to the forest have access to
less degraded land and enjoy higher yields (1 to 2 tons per hectare). But in this case,
tavy implies the clearing of dense ligneous vegetation (Trema, Harungana and
Psiadia, small trees or shrubs used as firewood) and is clearly forbidden by the law
Vegetation degradation follows an east to west gradient, the less degraded land
being encountered in the west, where clearing has been more recent. One could
conclude that the region has been populated by successive waves of migrants coming
from the east and presents a pattern typical of most agricultural frontiers. I will show
in Chapter 5 that despite the fact that this tendency is real, things are actually not that
simple.
Vegetation type indicates how much yield can be expected on average from a
tavy, but the variation around this average is very elevated, due to climatic risks and
frequent pest attacks, mostly rats, a small bird called Fody (Foudia madagascariensis)
and Behatoka, a small black coleopterea (Heteronychus plebejus Klug, 1832) that
appeared in the area around 1965.
The practice of tavy just requires a machete, an axe if it is done in the forest
and a stick for sowing. It is accessible for all households. Tavy also resists cyclones
According to Moor (1998b), tavy would be the less profitable system, with a
labor productivity ranging from 2000 to 3000 FMg/ day of labor (about 0.25 to 0.35
150
USD). The average production per household would vary from about 600 to 1200
kilograms of rice. We will see in Chapter 5 that the risk factor, the limited investment
capacity of farmers and the higher opportunity cost of labor during certain periods of
the year can explain why this land use is still practiced, in spite of its low profitability.
Normally, firebreaks are created around tavy to avoid wildfires. These efforts
vary according to the presence of state control. They were systematically made during
the anti-tavy campaign. Overall, wildfires are encountered but less frequently than in
the highland or western Madagascar. They result from the absence of firebreaks, or
from conflicts between villages or families, usually over land tenure issues.
Beside tavy, irrigated rice cultivation is the second most important cropping
system if we consider the labor force allocated to it (Figure 6 page 144). It is however
not practiced on large areas, due to the narrowness of bottom lands, to the limited
schemes. Rice can be harvested twice a year on the same land (in January and in June)
if the plot is irrigated. The government provided some support for the development of
irrigation schemes in the past, mostly during the first republic, but most dams have
been destroyed by cyclones and never rebuilt. Irrigated rice cultivation, and its
profitability in comparison with tavy, will be studied in more detail in Chapter 5 and 6.
appropriate spot to create a home garden is a concern for most new households. This
system is usually located in the lower part of the slopes or along small streams, due to
more fertile soils and wetter conditions. Home gardens are dominated by a mix
151
Photograph 5: A home garden in Sahavolo (Beforona). Photograph by Nambena
(2004, 202). The big tree on the left is an Albizzia. Banana trees are visible in the
foreground and coffee trees grow behind the farmer.
152
bananas and coffee trees, both introduced around 1940 (Nambena 2004). Banana
became an important cash crop in the area after the renovation of the road in 1987. It
has the advantage of requiring little care once established and of providing a low but
The size of home gardens and the number of banana trees decreases when
distance from the road increases (Figure 8), because the cost of transportation renders
income after its introduction during the colonial period, but its price declined in the
late 1990s. Sugarcane, which provides sugar for local consumption and serves for the
fabrication of local rum 124 , plus a few fruit trees, mainly avocado, oranges, grapefruits
and jackfruits, are associated with banana and coffee trees. Their commercialization is
After the decline of coffee cultivation, ginger became the main cash crop. But
as with banana, its cultivation is profitable only along the road (less than ten
kilometers) due to transportation costs. Its price also tends to decline. Ginger can
cover significant areas close to the road. It leads to the appearance of new land uses
because it implies plowing the land, which allows exploiting better soil fertility. Rice
and sometimes other crops are planted on the same plot after ginger is harvested,
which opens the way to an evolution toward new cropping systems where crop
rotation is applied while the fallow period is shortened (Photograph 7). The problem is
that plowing can cause considerable erosion if it is practiced on steep slopes (Brand
and Rakotovao 1997). Farmers attempt to reduce soil loss by creating drainage ditches
124
In Malagasy language: tokagasy.
153
Number of trees
80
Bananas
Banane
Coffee
Café
Nom bre de pieds plantés
Fruit trees
Fruitiers
60 CSugar
annecaneà sucre
40
20
0
5 10 15 20
Distance from the road in Km
Distance (km) à la RN2
154
Photograph 6: Banana transportation. These young men are in good health and live
close to the road (5 kilometers). They carry about 50 kilograms of bananas, which they
will sell for about 300 FMg/Kg (15000 FMg or 1.5 USD in total). By doing this
several times a week, they can buy rice and first necessity products for their family
during the rice shortage period and can invest in intensification (see chapter 7). The
photograph was taken 5 kilometers south from Beforona.
155
Photograph 7: Landscape transformation in Beforona. This hillside announces a
transition from Boserup’s stages 3 (short fallow) to 4 (annual cropping), as we will see
in Chapters 5 and 6. Plowing is the operation which makes this transition technically
possible. Markets (for ginger) provide the opportunities and incentives that render it
profitable to invest significant labor in the new system. Crop rotations are not yet fixed
but farmers collectively learn by a series of trials and errors.
156
around the plot (Photographs 8, 9 and 10). In spite of these problems, the future land
uses of Beforona may be derived from this system (Photograph 7 page 156), as we
will see in Chapter 6. Displacing ginger fields to the bottom part of the slopes or inside
home gardens could be a way to conciliate farmer strategies with better soil
3.8.5. Vegetables
Vegetable cultivation is not much developed. A few vegetables are mixed with
rice on tavy (Table 8 page 146) and some families create small vegetable gardens
close to their house. Chinese cabbage (Brassica chinensis) is the most frequently
usually with support from projects (Chapter 7). Market opportunities are presently too
farmers.
Fallow land and forests also contribute to the household’s economy. Farmers
improve fallow land by planting pineapples that can grow well with almost no care.
This system is highly profitable despite the fact that pineapples are sold at a quite low
price.
Livestock husbandry is very little developed but was much more important in
the past. According to Messerli (2002, in Nambena 2004), the decline started in 1947,
when the colonial power killed many animals to repress the nationalist insurrection. In
157
Photograph 8: Indigenous techniques for erosion control. Confronted by elevated
soil losses on plowed hillsides, farmers create vertical and oblique drains to evacuate
excessive water. These drains are sometimes consolidated with rocks or planted with
maize or cassava. Techniques proposed by projects (contour lines), to the contrary,
provoke water infiltration, which can favor landslides according to (Brand and
Rakotovao 1997).
158
Photograph 9: Manual plowing in a ginger field in Beforona. This plot is on a
steep slope. It is narrow in order to facilitate the evacuation of water by the vertical
drains. The weeds are thrown out of the plot because otherwise, they would regrow
after the first rain. This still increases soil losses.
159
the late 1950s, the invasion of unpalatable perennial plants (Lantana camara and
development of diseases. The end of veterinary services in 1975, the economic crisis
of the 1980s, and the conflicts between herders and agriculturalists would have led to
the current situation where less than 10% of households raise cattle (Messerli 2002;
Nambena 2004).
Pigs are not often raised because of traditional taboos that put a ban on
husbandry and consumption. These taboos tend to disappear and more and more
households raise pigs (Nambena 2004), which they feed mostly with banana stems and
cassava. Sheep and goats are absent. Chicken are raised by almost every household in
an extensive way. They usually eat what they can find around the dwellings. A very
few families, usually those that have a rice surplus, raise fowls in a more intensive
manner. Rabbits recently started to be raised but are stricken by diseases. Manure is
usually not used, but starts to be so in villages with higher population density such as
Madagascar in general. Operators hire the service of intermediaries that live along the
road and collect boards and beams transported by hand up to the road (Photograph 11).
This provides jobs to farmers living close to the forest (Photograph 12). Wood is cut-
kilometers off the road, in total disregard of permit boundaries. Beyond this distance,
first category tree, has been widely extracted from the primary forest over the last ten
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Photograph 11: Wood exploitation in Beforona. Wood is harvested mostly south
from the commune of Beforona, in an area that has been reserved as a potential
conservation site and which includes the Vohidrazana forest and the remaining
primary forests of Ambodilaingo. (Ankeniheny site, see map 2). Exploitation permits
in potential conservation sites were suspended in 2004 (see chapter 2), as well as the
delivery of new permits. This exploitation is claimed to be legal because forest
services provide authorization for stock evacuation, but the trees collected now were
actually cut after the 2004 suspension.
Photograph 12: Wood transportation. Salary for this work is about 15000 FMg (1.5
USD) for transporting a board weighing 30 kilograms a distance of about 20-25 Km..
The income is higher than for Banana transportation for a given weight transported.
Farmers from remote villages, such as Ambodilaingo, were much involved in this
activity over the ten last years.
161
years. Its stock is almost depleted but other types of wood started to be harvested
Wild vegetables, material for the construction of houses, medicinal plants and
firewood are collected in fallows and in the forest (see list of medicinal plants in Table
10 and useful woods in Figure 9). Wild plants collected in fallows represent an
important part, probably the main part, of the vegetables that are consumed. Hunting is
also important and contributes significantly to the diet, at least for the households that
live close to the forest. Fishing is practiced in most rivers and stream. All these
available.
shows that the most profitable system, in terms of labor productivity, is the home
garden, which can be explained by its perennial character and by the low labor
required for its maintenance, once established. Tavy seems to be the less profitable
system, certainly due to land degradation. But secondary crops associated with rice,
measurement. Concerning irrigated rice fields, Moor (1998b) does not provide data in
Beforona, but calculated that in Salampinga, located 15 kilometers east from Beforona
(Map 5 page 114), 118 days of labor are necessary to produce 666 kilograms of paddy
rice, resulting in a productivity of 4231 FMg (about 0.65 USD) per day of labor.
Beforona and Figure 6 (page 144) shows the distribution of work among the different
activities. These two figures show that farmers in Beforona are far from being
162
Table 10: Main medicinal plants in the Vohidrazana watershed (See Map 5 page 114
for localization)
# Local name Scientific name Part used Treated disease
1 Ahipody Panicum brevifolium Entire Wound
2 Akondro Musa spp Leaves Stomach ache
3 Andriambavifohy Cabucala spp Leaves Stomach ache
(F)
4 Angadoha Elephantopus scaber Leaves Stomach ache
5 Antafanala (F) Terminalia sp Bark Stomach ache,
Sexually
transmitted disease
6 Befelatanana (F) Vitex hirsutissima Leaves Protection
7 Dingadingana Psiadia altissima Leaves Stomach ache
8 Dipaty (F) Bosqueia obovata Leaves Tiredness
9 Fatraina Erythroxylum corymbosum Bark Measles
and/or Evodia spp
10 Goavintsinahy Psidium catleanum Leaves Stomach ache
11 Goavy Syzygium spp Leaves Stomach ache
12 Harongana (F) Harungana madagascariensis Leaves Wound
13 Malaomanitra Leaves Protection
14 Mandresy Phyllanthus ninuroïdes Leaves Stomach ache
15 Menahihy(F) Erythroxyllum corymbosum Bark Cold, Measles
16 Nonoka (F) Ficus pyrifolia Leaves Vertigo, Tiredness
17 Ramitsiry Ethulia conyzoïdes Leaves Wound
18 Rarà (F) Brochoneura vourii Leaves Fever
19 Ravinala Ravenala madagascariensis Leaves Bleeding
20 Ravintsompatra Clidemia hirta Leaves Stomach ache,
Wound
21 Rotra (F) Eugenia spp Leaves Stomach ache
22 Sompatra Clidemia hirta Leaves Stomach ache,
Wound
23 Takoaka Rubus mollucanus Leaves Stomach ache
24 Tanamasoandro Tithonia diversifolia Leaves Stomach ache
25 Taolampotsy Ravenala madagascariensis Powder Wound
26 Tsiandrova (F) Pauridiantha lialyi Leaves Tiredness, Nausea
27 Tsilavondrivotra Phyllantus sp Leaves Stomach ache
28 Tsitrotroka (F) Dichaetanthera spp Leaves Wound
29 Vahimainty (F) Agelaea pentagyna Stem Tiredness
30 Voatrotroka Tristema verusanum Leaves Wound
31 Volo (bambou) Dendrocalamus spp Leaves Tiredness
50,78
40,63
46,88 50,00
Figure 9: Main trees used for house construction in the Vohidrazana watershed,
with frequency of utilization.
Source: Razafy (1999, 124). Sample of 128 households.
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Table 11: Performance of cropping systems in Beforona, on less degraded land
Cropping Number of labor Production Production Labor
system days per year per value productivity
household (kg) (FMg/day of labor)
Tavy (rice only) 280 1140 855,000 3050
Home-garden 63 480,925 7685
Ginger 76 424 373,286 4890
Other crops 53 223,082 4222
Source: Moor (1998b). One USD = about 6000 Fmg
Note: In 2006, 1 USD = 10000 FMg. This rate probably doubled from the time these inquiries were
done. As a gross estimate, we can consider 1 USD = 6000 FMg. But the price of most crops increased
less that the USD exchange rate.
165
Ecological cycles Economic cycles
Figure 10: Typical farming system in Beforona (in fokontany located close to the
road).
Source: Messerli (2003, 279). Translation by Pollini.
166
specialized in the practice of tavy, despite the fact that this land use dominates and
shapes the landscape. Figure 11 shows the level and distribution of income provided
(see Map 5 for village location). This diagram applies to most villages located close to
the road (less than five kilometers) but the income provided by coffee, and maybe
ginger, seem to have significantly decreased after these data were collected. Moreover,
the situation is significantly different farther from the road because the main cash-
crops (ginger and bananas) are no longer profitable, due to the cost of transportation.
4. Conclusion
response to increasing pressure on land. Tavy is the main land use but its future is put
into question by land degradation and by the limited access to forest land. Farmers
living close to the road have several strategies to reduce their dependence upon tavy.
They improve bottom land by creating irrigation schemes, extend paddy fields and
home gardens (mostly by planting banana trees), or specialize in cash crops such as
ginger. These alternatives necessitate some investment, at least in the form of labor,
and the most profitable ones (ginger and banana cultivation) are dependant on access
intensification strategies can be applied in villages located far away from National
Road 2. Chapter 5 will show that they may not be applied, meaning that the outcomes
of the farming system research conducted in Beforona may not be representative of the
167
Total annual income: 1,138,832 FMg (about 175 USD)
Figure 11: Income structure in Tanambao, Beforona (See map 5 page 114 for
location of village)
Source: Moor and Rasolofomanana (1998, 45). Translation by Pollini.
168
CHAPTER 4
1. Introduction
intervention area. This methodology has mostly been applied to the village of
Ambodilaingo, presented in Chapter 5, during the six months I spent in this village. It
was also used to collect the field data of Chapters 6 and 7, in a less formal manner,
Section 2 will present the key methodological principles that sustain the
method for data collection. Section 3 will present the key concepts of comparative
agriculture, a discipline which provided me with a grid for reading realities. I will
conclude (Section 4) with a brief statement about the difficulties of satisfying both the
need of efficiency and the nondisciplinary ideal which this dissertation adopted.
Initially, I planned to spend two years in Ambodilaingo, from July 2001 to July
learnt and everyday activities would be shared with villagers. As the initial subject
Eventually, staying two years in the village was not possible due to budget and
schedule constraints and the subject changed to the analysis of environmental policies.
I only spent six months in Ambodilaingo, which I dedicated to data collection using
169
measurements to satisfy the initial subject. In order to compensate for this limited
time, it was proposed to five Malagasy students to conduct their Masters research in
Ambodilaingo. They all spent several months in the village and four of them
completed their degree. Their theses provided relevant information that will be used in
this chapter. As I eventually stayed four years in Madagascar 125 , I continued to make
short but frequent visits to the village, from 2001 to 2007. The creation of the
President was my translator, also allowed for complementary data collection as I will
explain later.
Qualitative methods have been privileged over quantitative ones because they
methods imply making replicate measurements of the same variable in order to apply
statistical procedures and obtain a satisfying level of accuracy. There is a price to pay
for replication, in terms of time and budget, which leads to elimination of certain
disciplines that determine which variable to collect and which method to use.
Qualitative methods, conversely, are less time consuming and can more easily let the
reality drive the investigation. The “qualitative researcher” can make observations
about all that is presented to his senses. He will open all black boxes because he
prefers uncertainty to ignorance. He will produce a narrative that will attempt to tell
125
This includes six months in Ambodilaingo from July to December 2001; 13 months based in
Antananarivo, but doing frequent visits to Ambodilaingo, from June 2002 to July 2003; two years
working as a technical advisor at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forest, and supporting the
work of the NGO Zanaky ny Ala, from February 2004 to February 2006; five months based in
Antananarivo and making frequent visits to Beforona and Ambodilaingo, from March to July 2006; and
one month interviewing people and doing field work in Beforona and Andasibe in February 2007.
170
true stories about what is actually going on in the real world. He will extent his
research object without limit, along a chain of actors and processes that goes from the
local (a farmer who slashes and burns a piece of forest) to the global (international
time to address large objects. But for any research work, there is a point of departure
which is the studied object, and a point of arrival which is the level of detail the
researcher wants to address. The time spent to implement the research depends on the
distance between these two points. Whatever is the point of departure, the point of
arrival can be at an infinite distance (the structure of molecules, atoms, quarks, etc.) or
can be very close (a simple look at the elements that constitute a large object). This
and to stop at the level of detail that can be addressed given the time and resources
available. This choice resulted from the statement that most previous research work
dealing with deforestation and tavy in Madagascar looked at some aspects of the issue,
Only a few formalized enquiries have been implemented during this field
work. One reason is that a large number of enquiries have already been conducted in
the area. Their results provided the knowledge basis that was presented in Chapter 3
and will feed the discussion about alternative land uses that will be presented in
Chapter 6. These investigations mostly concern villages located close to the road,
where the situation is quite different from Ambodilaingo, but they provide references
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The second reason for few formalized enquiries is that farmers living in remote
villages are reluctant to respond to enquirers who “do not bring anything good in
return.” 126 They are hostile to projects and see foreigners, as well as urban educated
Malagasy people, as intruders who come to “take their land” and disturb their
by the vicinity of the Mantadia National Park, where land had actually been taken
Development project staff are not welcomed because projects are perceived as
associated with anti-tavy policies, which they actually are, as we will see in Chapter 6.
Students who do enquiries are regarded as the first signs of future intrusion and
livelihood disturbance. In this context, making quick visits to fill questionnaires would
problem arises. Most students that did their field work in the area collected data in a
few fokontany located close to the road (less than ten kilometers). Farmers developed
a discourse which they expect would fit the expectation of these enquirers. They
minimize the environmental impact of their land use because they know projects are
associated with antifire and anti-slash-and-burn policies; they exaggerate their poverty
and hide certain resources because they expect projects will target the poorest
communities first; they hesitate to criticize government policies and project activities.
126
This expression has been formulated in a similar way by many farmers during enquiries. In this
chapter, expressions between quotation marks are citations of farmers’ words, as I recorded them during
my enquiries. These citations result from a double translation, from Malagasy to French by my
translator, and from French to English by myself. I did not use a tape recorder and translation may
sometimes have been imperfect. Only expressions that relate to clear and explicit facts have been
quoted in this chapter, in order to minimize the risks of mistranslation. When long citations are
presented, they associate answers to several questions, separated by comas.
127
Despite the fact that I centered my analysis on Ambodilaingo, I also conducted interviews in other
villages, mostly to understand how rural development projects are perceived in the region.
172
villagers and gaining their confidence. But they cannot be completely avoided and are
deforestation and tavy. The consequence is that drinking a cup of coffee with farmers
was a more efficient data collection methodology than filling out questionnaires.
call “experiencing the reality.” It consists of a long immersion in the village’s life, in
(our enquiries, our focus groups, our MARP). In contrast to ethnologists’ participant
more actively involved. This involvement does not mean to go hunting, to plow the
land with farmers or to participate in their ceremonies. These things can be done if
they happen naturally; if they are done selfishly for “us” and not artificially to please
“them.” Experiencing reality simply means to play our own role, which in my case
was that of an external person that wants, as a student, to understand the way
other words, it means to be genuinely curious of who the people are, what they do and
what they want, while still doing our own job, remaining aware of who we are and of
and relevance.
The type of data I collected partly depended on the events that occurred
everyday. When a series of people visited me to ask support to buy rice seedlings for
their tavy, I paid attention to investment and credit issues. When an eight year old
child walked far away to purchase firewood while eucalyptus grew close to the
village, labor force availability and land tenure became my concern. When another
person left the village with a gun and returned after only a few days, I had a starting
173
point to investigate lemur hunting. Some facts remained hidden, but at least what was
apparent had more chance to be significant, whereas things which people would lie
about remained unapparent. But the events of each day were not the only determinants
My position with regard to questionnaires is, however, not radical. I did pass a
objective was to compare the information obtained in this way with the information
obtained by “experiencing the reality,” to assess the biases of each approach and to
measure a few quantitative variables such as income level and investment capacity in
remote villages. The results of these inquiries have not been processed yet, due to
Due to the informal methods employed for data collection and to the ideal of
possible to test the overall validity of knowledge by confronting data together and
point was reached where answers to most questions could be anticipated from the
informants. The attainment of this point was a first validation of the representation. It
174
introduction. Quantitative methods can help to solve this problem, but the choice of
what variable to measure, how to do the measurements and what statistical procedure
to use can be subjective as well. The psychology of the surveyors and of the
“surveyed” can introduce strong biases, especially when dealing with sensitive issues
such as tavy and deforestation. Emotions are always present when two people interact
in order to share knowledge and transmit information and no method can pretend to be
and the representation derived from it would be corroborated. They would not be
proved but they would become less uncertain, which already represents progress. The
There is nothing new in this approach in the sense that data collection is
Beforona, there have always been research programs and rural development projects
working hand in hand. But I contend that a procedure that consists in successively
collecting data, processing them and implementing activities derived from the
conclusions, each step being implemented by different persons and organizations, does
not result in appropriate action. Some knowledge is transmitted at each step but not the
contrast, the method I employed had the advantage of employing the same persons at
175
all steps of the process. In case of failure, researchers cannot be excused by a
misunderstanding of their work, and development actors cannot complain about the
irrelevance of research work. The responsibilities of both, who are the same person,
are strongly engaged, by doing what Aristotle (1976) called phronesis (Part I).
(2001), Dufumier (1996) and Cochet (2005). Based on this method, I used the
choices that answer better to their interests, given the resources that are available to
them. Their interest can be the maximization of yield, the maximization of labor
maximization of yield will be the main objective. If labor force is limiting, then the
b. In the case of strategies based on risk minimization, neither high yield nor
high labor productivity may be the main goal. Farmers prefer to diversify their
crops. They choose the systems that are less subject to market instabilities and less
be the one that produces more in the worst years, not necessarily the one that
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c. The asset that is perceived as a sign of wealth (as capital) differs
capital can take the form of herds (pastoral societies), fertile land (societies where
access to this resource is unequal and competitive), water (if irrigation is vital and
needs investments) or valuable trees. The “rich” households are those with the
largest herd, the most fertile land, the largest irrigated fields or the largest tree
plantations.
nutrients are pumped from the subsoil by the ligneous vegetation and
returned to the topsoil in the form of ashes. The longer the fallow, the
more biomass there is and the more available nutrients there are after
which sets a limit to the amount of nutrients that can be stored (as in the
brought onto cultivated land or into cowsheds during the night. Manure
cultivated land. If the cattle graze on the same cultivated land where
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have a positive impact by improving biomass and nutrient
management.
cultivated land in Egypt by the flooding of the Nile River, but all
can find slash-and-burn cultivation systems in most regions of the world that are
density and abundant biomass, even if no contact or historical link exists among
these systems.
reaching the limits of the system, which forces the development of a new system
with higher carrying capacity. This change is dependent on the adoption of new
technologies and on the capacity of farmers to take risks and invest labor or
financial resources to acquire these technologies. If these conditions are not filled,
the system enters into a Malthusian crisis: the resources are excessively tapped to
satisfy short-term needs, and the land degrades. The asset that represents capital is
tapped to fill the productive gap: fallows are not allowed sufficient time to produce
new technology is possible, then intensification occurs and a new asset replaces the
178
one that has been lost. Soils can be rebuilt, for example using animal manure after
they have been degraded by shortened fallows. Some authors call this process
around the world. Different pathways of change are encountered according to the
type of environment (great flooding plains, mountain areas, hilly landscapes), but
polyculture using draft animal traction, and then by specialized agriculture based on
the use of chemical inputs, machines and fossil energy. The two first stages are
high labor productivity and low land productivity. Less work is necessary to feed a
household and more free time is available for social events. This situation is
reversed when intensification occurs. However, animal traction and draft force later
increase both land and labor productivity. This succession is only a general trend
that should not lead to adoption of deterministic views. Variations of this general
produce surpluses. The more surpluses there are, the more possible it is to sustain
societies with fewer surpluses, nonagriculturalist groups can be absent but there is
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i. Agrarian systems are constituted of farming systems usually managed at
the household level. Several types of farming systems are encountered due to social
assets. Those unable to produce surpluses, or having a deficit, typically hire out
their labor to those who can produce surpluses but lack a labor force to do so.
households in good health with not many children are able to produce more surplus.
More children, or the necessity to feed elders not able to work results in less
surplus. Aging households with a low labor force can fall into poverty unless they
guarantee the future. Along their lifespan, households concentrate their effort on the
accumulation of the asset that is a sign of wealth (capital) in their society (large
cropping and livestock systems. The opportunity cost of labor is a more important
criteria than daily cost (salary) to understand these combinations. All working days
are not equal. A farmer can be reluctant to do a well paid job if this opportunity
occurs when he is very busy, whereas he can accept a job with a low wage if he has
nothing else to do. This remark is quite trivial but we will see that this aspect of
crops, the varieties that are used, a succession of technical operations, the calendar
180
of operations, the labor cost of each operation, and the tools that are used. In this
chapter, I will not analyze the details of cropping systems because they have
necessary to measure:
the area under cultivation. These investments are mostly the buying of
• The cost of the inputs that have to be used, proportionally to the surface
• The labor productivity of the system, per day of work or per laborer,
and the yield. The first criteria matters more when labor force is scarce,
• The maximum area that can be cultivated per laborer. It depends on the
because only a very short period is available to sow, between the arrival
of the first rain and a limit date that depends on climatic factors.
yield times the maximum area that can be cultivated by one worker. It
agricultural calendar.
181
o. Livestock Husbandry Systems are characterized by a forage system, a
Most of the information necessary to conduct this analysis was provided by the
researchers of the BEMA,Terre Tany, and LDI projects (Chapter 3). For this reason, I
did not conduct detailed investigations. For example, I did not calculate the variables
listed in point n. But I attempted to test the outcomes of previous research studies, to
compare them with the situation in Ambodilaingo and to fill knowledge gaps, on the
basis of direct observation and discussion with farmers. I assumed that the criteria
making system and that qualitative approaches can even render them more accurately
and finely, as soon as the reality matters more than the model that can be created out
of it.
4. Conclusion
methods which I called “experiencing the reality,” and which can be regarded as a
form of active participant observation. I did not reject quantitative methods but
considered that the priority, given the large amount of data already available for this
and clear primary forest in a given economic, social, cultural and political context. It is
a broad and complex object that links local and global realities. Due to this
complexity, the representation I will produce will have to be tested in real world, by
In spite of this ideal of being driven by the reality itself, I also chose to use the
182
efficiency. Farmers know their reality because they experience it from their birth. But
in my case, the time available to acquire knowledge was severely limited. There is
unfortunately a trade-off between objectivity and efficiency, between method and the
absence of method, which, again, justifies the translation of my outcomes into a social
experiment.
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CHAPTER 5:
1. Introduction
the National Road 2 (Map 3 and 4 page 111 and 112 and Map 12). It consists of five
covers an area of 32 square kilometers and has a population of about 288 households
or 1500 inhabitants. Four of these five villages (Ampasintsiry is the exception) still
have primary forest on their land (Photograph 13). This forest is cleared for practicing
tavy (Photographs 14 and 15) and many families live on its verge to find more fertile
soils to cultivate. The density is about 38 inhabitants per square kilometer (Map 10
page 131). The people (Photographs 16 and 17) belong to the Betsimisaraka group but
have some Bezanozano origin, as we will see. They live scattered in the whole
conducted in Ambodilaingo (the village) between late July and late September 2001.
Interviews often last several hours and sometimes included a visit to farmers’ fields.
There were no sampling strategies nor interview guidelines. Each interviewee created
determinant as myself of the direction taken by the interview. The reading grid
(Chapter 4) was utilized to classify the quotes and to organize the results, not to
orientate the discussion. Questions were formulated in the most imprecise and simple
way and answers were never suggested 128 . To give just a few examples, it was asked
128
To make no suggestion about answers is an obvious necessity, but I experienced that enquirers rarely
respect this essential rule.
184
Map 12: The 5 villages of the Ambodilaingo Fokontany.
Source: Institut Geographique National (1963). Based on aerial photographs taken in
1957.
Additions by Pollini. The blue circles show the five villages of the fokontany.
185
Ambotanefitra
Ambohimiadana
186
Photograph 14: Tavy on the forest frontier in Ambodilaingo. The effect of fires on
the forest edge is clearly visible. Farmers purposely let fires burn the edge in order to
increase their land without explicitly “clearing” the forest.
Photograph 15: Tavy inside the primary forest in Ambodilaingo. This situation,
typical in areas recently colonized, is uncommon in Ambodilaingo. We can distinguish
a field that has been cleared and cultivated once (right part of the photograph) and a
field that has been cleared and cultivated a second time (left part). The altitude is
about 800 m.
187
Photograph 16: People of Ambodilaingo in their village. Many houses have been
destroyed by the Geralda cyclone in 1994 and not rebuilt since then.
Photograph 17: Children in Ambodilaingo. The picture is taken on the main square
of the village, which serves for zebu sacrifice, as shown by the ritual pole with zebu
skulls. Houses are built with bamboo (walls) and Imperata cylindrica thatch (roof).
188
• Where do the people from this village come from? Why did they come
here?
• What is the difference between this village and those located close to
the road?
• Why do some farmers grow rice in paddy fields and others not?
• What are the first objectives of a young man and his wife after they
marry?
• What did you cultivate on this plot? What will you cultivate next year?
Why?
After this two month period of intensive interviews, exchanges were more
brief and still less informal, but villagers continued to provide relevant information.
The five Malagasy Masters students who did their final training practice in Zanaky ny
Ala, between 2004 and 2006, provided complementary information utilized in this
I took notes only during the two months of intensive interviews. For this reason, most
quotes in this chapter are from the period between July and September 2001 or are
retrieved from the thesis of the Malagasy students. Quotes may not always be an exact
assistant before I could take any notes. Information that was not corroborated by direct
observation or by other interviews was discarded. The names of the interviewees were
189
I conducted more than 100 interviews in total in Ambodilaingo but interviewed
and Photograph 13 page 186). The exact number of interviews is not known because
many inquiries were informal and notes were not always taken. But a group of about
25 informants, usually elders or farmers with more education than the average,
provided the most detailed information and most of the long quotes reported in this
chapter. This may not have caused significant bias because the community of
ideas expressed by the informants. Basically, all the information they provided and
that has been written in my notebook is reproduced in this chapter. Only redundancies
The results will be presented in eight sections. Section 2 will present a brief
history of the fokontany, with a particular emphasis on early settlement (Section 2.1.),
and on the economic and social history (Sections 2.2. and 2.3.). I will then describe the
present social organization (Section 3) and land uses (Section 4). Section 5 will
present the farmer strategies for intensification, while Section 6 will describe their
relations with projects. Section 7 will show the high vulnerability of these
will show the consequences of this vulnerability, by telling the story of the influenza
epidemic that struck the village in 2002. Section 9 will synthesize the outcomes by
describing the agrarian system, in the light of Boserup’s (1965) theory of agricultural
development. It will allow envisioning future land uses, but more insights will be
190
2. Brief social history of the area
The analyses of this section are limited to the epoch and events still vivid in the
2.1. Settlement
the villagers settled in the area several centuries ago. The original location of
Ambodilaingo was on the other side of the Iaroka river, a little bit downstream. It was
chosen for the abundance of fertile soils along the river. It was moved to the present
change in administrative divisions. At that time, the main crops were rice cultivated in
with elders provide contradictory information, showing that the settlement was
that the Zafindrianambo was a noble Bezanozano lineage who migrated from the
Ankay Region 129 in the seventeenth century, after a war between tribes.
129
Ankay is an area located southwest from Moramanga, on the eastern side of the western branch of
the forest corridor (eastern side of the Angavo mountains). A mix of Merina, Betsimisaraka and
Bezanozano people live there. Aubert and Bertrand (2003), Razafiarison (2003) and Aubert (2003)
analyzed the agrarian systems of this region and found social dynamics similar to those that I will
describe in this chapter. They showed that the Merina people, mostly recent migrants, are dominant
191
Photograph 18: Ambodilaingo. The forest escarpment is visible in the background.
The large bottom land, on the left, is frequently flooded, which explains the reluctance
of farmers to create paddy fields. But it could be more intensively cultivated if the
land was plowed. Fallow land frequently burnt by wildfire and invaded by ferns
(Pteridium aquilinum) is visible on the foreground.
192
According to Mayeur (1785, in Razafiarison 2003), Bezanozano people are the
descendants of escaped Merina slaves. They became a powerful tribe in the eighteenth
century and served as intermediaries for trading between Europeans and people from
the highlands. They refused to submit to the Merina and King Radama I rejected them
eastward, to the forests of the Angavo escarpment. They now live mostly in the
Ranambo’s daughter. Despite the fact that it is located west from Ambodilaingo, on
more degraded land, Ampasintsiry was founded more recently. This eastward move
shows that forest was not the only attractive resource that determined settlement.
Bottom land suitable for more intensive systems may have been coveted as well,
although not for irrigated rice cultivation as this land use seems to have been
nonexistent at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sarotriva, on the other hand,
would have been created by families interested in wood extraction and in need of new
people from Ambodilaingo who found suitable land to establish paddy fields. But the
village itself was created in 1947, by a French collector of precious stones (Corindon).
Mining created job opportunities which attracted people from the entire region. These
migrants settled definitively after the end of mining activities. Ambohimiadana is the
only village that has no common history with Ambodilaingo. It is clearly a different
economically and appropriate the land most suitable for agricultural intensification. The Betsimisaraka,
on the other hand, are often the poorest and their livelihood is dependent on tavy. The Bezanozano
would be in an intermediate position. They enjoy a dominant position with respect to the Betsimisaraka
but fear the Merina people. I visited, in 2005, the Tsiazompaniry region, located on the western side of
the forest corridor (western side of the Angavo mountain), about two days walking from the Ankay. I
observed that migration of Merina people eastward still occurred and that this move had been
accelerated by the reforestation of the Tsiazompaniry watershed, with new villages created east from
the lake. My informant described the Bezanozano as “shy people” that flee to more remote areas for
fear of being in trouble when Merina people settle in their region. This provides a supplementary
example of how reforestation can accelerate social dynamics that favor deforestation.
193
fokonolona. Its population is not of Bezanozano origin and is feared for its sorcery
skills. It would have arrived in the region from the east or southeast. Marriage,
however, occurred between members of the two villages, contributing to the blending
This complex settlement shows that the region cannot be regarded as a simple
new land with fertile soils. The two agricultural frontiers described in Chapter 1 (the
forest frontier and the “grassland” or “fallow land” frontier) may indeed be
intertwined in Ambodilaingo. The forest frontier’s main assets are biomass and fertile
soils, while the fallow land frontier’s assets are the streams that can be used for
irrigation and the deep soils in bottom land. Bezanozano people are familiar with both
irrigated rice and slash-and-burn agriculture, due to their mixed origin. As the region
cyclones and flooding, they ended in adopting the Betsimisaraka land use (tavy),
culture, and way of life. This is why no Bezanozano people are recorded in Beforona’s
These outcomes challenge the received wisdom that culture is one of the most
significant factors that impedes agricultural innovation and land use changes. But they
are consistent with the works of Kottak (1971), Astuti (1995) and Bloch (1995), which
showed, in the case of the Tanala, Vezo and Zafimaniry people, that ethnic identity
can result more from adaptation to a physical environment than from traditions and
cultural heritage.
194
2.2. Brief economic history
Precise information about the early colonial period was difficult to collect.
Most people who were adults in the first half of the twentieth century are now dead.
However, the forced labor in the Andasibe camp, the difficulties in finding sufficient
money to pay taxes, the touring of colonial administrators and the interdiction to do
provoked.
We did not ignite fires in order to avoid being seen by the French, because
they flew over the sky with planes. 130 (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
My father has had the bad luck of walking outside during the day and shots
have been fired on him. 131 (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
There was a strong food shortage in 1948. This was because of the
upheaval of 1947, due to the colonial pressure. People had to flee to the
forest and abandon their crops, which were damaged by wild boars. People
had to harvest wild plants in order to eat. (an elder from Ambodilaingo
2001)
130
Translated from a citation by Rakotoarijaona (2005): “au risque d’être repérer par les vazaha pendant
la nuit on n’allumait pas le feu, parce qu’ils survolaient le ciel, en avion au dessus de nos têtes.” Vazaha
is the Malagasy term used to designated foreigners, or the “white man.”
131
Translated from a citation by Rakotoarijaona (2005): “mon père a eu le malheur de se promener en
plein jour, et on lui tiré dessus.”
195
Concerning more recent times, farmers frequently recall the vivid contrast
between the first and second republic. At the end of the colonial period, rice
production was relatively good and the economy quite prosperous. Cash crops, mostly
coffee, were sold at a satisfying price and first necessity products were cheap. Cattle
seemed to have a central role in the economy, as shown by the following testimony:
About half of the families had big cattle in 1959. Those who had animals
had many: 15 to 30, sometimes more. Those who did not have animals
loaned them for free to the others. They did not refuse because people had
good relations at that time. Those who had large herds hired people to
watch over animals and paid them by giving calves. Usually the herds were
all put together to avoid being lost…. There was much area available for
grazing….The animals were put in corrals during the night, but only during
the cultivation season, in order to avoid damage to the crops….Animals
had good care and were visited by veterinarians….They were used for
earning money and for sacrifices. There were more sacrificed animals than
sold animals. (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
Cattle manure was not used, but cattle nevertheless played an essential role in
agricultural intensification, because zebus were used to tread paddy fields before
sowing:
We did not use manure. There was no taboo about that, but the land was
fertile. (an elder in Ambodilaingo 2001)
The first paddy fields were created in 1914-1918. This crop did not conflict
with livestock husbandry. There was a time when paddy fields covered
more areas than now, because people had many more cattle. The animals
were used for treading of land before sowing. If we do not have cattle, we
can only cultivate small areas of paddy fields. (an elder from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
Cattle were used to tread paddy fields before sowing. My father had 50
head. He had a paddy field because treading was easy. Paddy rice was a big
activity in ancient times because people had many cattle. (an elder from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
The decline of cattle husbandry started in the seventies, maybe earlier, for a
longer possible or not efficient with a small number of animals. The multiplication of
conflicts between farmers more involved in livestock husbandry and those focusing on
196
cultivation, due to population increase, may have played an essential role in this
decline:
There has been a big decrease of cattle in 1970. The main reason is that the
people started to be bad and asked penalties when cattle damaged their
crops….These damages mainly concerned cassava, sweet potatoes and
coffee, in the bottom land and in the lower part of the slopes. As a
consequence, cattle started to lack access to pastures. People did not build
fences because agriculture officers told the herders to care for their herds.
In ancient times, there was not frequent damage because there were fewer
crops in bottom lands and people were not so bad. (an elder from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
Livestock was also the main form of saving to withstand times of economic
difficulties and was sacrificed during traditional ceremonies, which contributed to herd
early eighties. In Ambodilaingo, veterinary services and support for the development
of irrigation schemes stopped, which accelerated the spreading of diseases and the
was sold at a very low price due to the nationalization and was progressively
abandoned:
132
Around 1978 according to another informant.
197
Coffee cultivation developed around 1950, under the authorities of the
contremaitre 133 . Coffee generated higher income at that time. One
kilogram was sold for 150 F, while one kilogram of rice cost 30 F. Today,
one kilogram of coffee is sold for 2500 F, and one kilogram of rice costs
about 2000 F. (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The population felt abandoned by the state and went back to autarky, by
nineties, due to the opening to foreign investments and the financial support provided
by the international community. But for the villagers of Ambodilaingo, this recovery
never occurred. The period from the seventies to present is one of continuous
degradation of their livelihood. As they put it, “we are always becoming poorer.”134
The renovation of the road and the opening to foreign investments and international
aid led to some changes in Beforona but did not reach their village, except during a
few years when the ginger price was high. Poverty is now dramatic, as I will show
later.
133
Staff from the colonial agriculture services.
134
This statement was frequently made during enquiries and contrast with the situation in the villages
close to the road, where some villagers assert that their situation improved during the last decades, due
to increasing opportunities to market products, mostly ginger and bananas.
198
2.3. Social and cultural changes
changes.
Zebu sacrifice for burials (Photograph 19 and 20) was practiced from as far
back as people can remember. In earlier times, the nuclear family had to provide the
zebu. The reduction of herds and the economic crisis forced this rule to be changed. In
1974, the Vavanzaka and the Tangalamena of Ambodilaingo decided that the cost of
sacrifices would now be born by the whole fokonolona (Rivolalao 2006). With this
new system, sacrifices turned from being a burden to being an opportunity for a
collective buying of meat. Due to the economic crisis, this collective buying is now an
excessive burden as well. Several months can be necessary to gather the money. In
some cases, several deaths are celebrated through one single sacrifice. In
forgive them the abandonment of the cult. Others are afraid of a possible wrath. They
refuse the change and do not want to donate for the ceremony, which leads to social
135
An elder in Ampasintsiry, In Rivolalao (2006). Original citation in French (translated from Malagasy
language by Rivolalao): "les malheurs des vivants sont déjà assez, vue la situation économique de la
région, et c'est insupportable de fournir un ou plusieurs bœufs pour un mort.”
199
Photograph 19: Young villagers playing with a zebu before its sacrifice in
Ambodilaingo. Accidents in these games are frequent but usually result in minor
wounds.
Photograph 20: Meat distribution after a zebu sacrifice. Each household of the
community contributes to pay for the zebu and receives a share that also depends on
social rank.
200
With respect to the other celebrations (birth of the tenth child, circumcision,
new harvests and access to new land), zebu sacrifices have been abandoned except for
the later. In the past, the birth of the tenth child and circumcision were opportunities to
call people from the neighbor villages. They are now celebrated in a more modest and
intimate way in order to reduce the costs (Rivolalao 2006). A long time ago, it seems
2006). In more recent times, fewer and fewer places, usually those affected by a taboo
or located close to graves, are subject to this mode of regulation. Only the richest
households can contribute to the sacrifices, meaning that they became a way to reserve
the most fertile land for the richest members of the community:
We have to sacrifice a zebu every two years in order to do tavy on this
land. There is such a rule because there were much cattle and good harvests
in ancient times. But the rule is not so well respected now. We had to
sacrifice every year in ancient times. Another change is that we can grow
other crops than rice without doing a sacrifice while in ancient times, we
had to do a sacrifice for any crop…. This rule exists in all hamlet of
Beforona. All people from Ambodilaingo can do tavy on this land if they
contribute to the sacrifice. Usually, five to ten families associate together
for buying a zebu. It is also possible to pay the participation for another
family. We were 10 people associated last year, and we also sacrificed a
zebu three or four years ago. It is interesting to do so because the land is
less cultivated here and the fertility is higher…. There are about five zones
affected by this rule in Ambodilaingo and they are subject to regular
sacrifices. They are called "Vazimba" and are close to the ancestor's
graves. (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
These examples show that far from being static, cultural features change over
environment and the economy it can support determine culture, rather than the
contrary. There can, however, be a transition period during which culture impedes
farmers refuse to change the rules. As long as it can be preserved, cultural identity
201
may help to decrease anxiety in the face of changes. The practices of the ancestors
sustained livelihood until the present whereas new practices represent the unknown.
But when ecological or economic realities render ancient practices obsolete, farmers
pragmatically change their practices. In sum, culture can slow change but does not
The social disruptions that resulted from the economic crisis are not only
expressed in ritual changes. Several citations in the previous section evoked the idea
that people “were not bad” in ancient times and helped each other more. Rivolalao
(2006) showed how poverty favored individualism and the decomposition of social
fabric in Ambodilaingo.
facilitates agricultural work. In the past, this system operated at the scale of large
families and was used for most agricultural work. All participants brought some food
and shared their meal together. Now, farmers expect a salary for any work they do
thieves:
There are now people stealing cassava in the fields. This problem did not
exist in the past. This is because some people are lazy and do not work, but
202
still have to eat. You should force the people to plant cassava. 136 (an elder
from Ambodilaingo 2001)
In response to this problem, farmers build a secondary house close to their
field and stay there all the year round to watch over their crops. They sometimes
loss. In ancient times, farmers had their main residence in the village and often stayed
there to participate in ceremonies or visit relatives. Secondary houses were built with
cheap material and rebuilt every year in the location of new tavy. Now, secondary
commune threatens the villagers with a five to eight USD fee 137 if they do not stay in
the village at least a few months per year. When asked why they stay away, farmers
first give the conventional answer: they need to watch over their fields in order to
avoid pests and theft. But when conversation goes more in depth, they often respond,
in a more passionate way, that “life in the village is not for the poor,” and that they
would “be ashamed to show their poor condition” (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2004,
in Rivolalao 2006).
Here, [close to the forest], we live alone and nobody comes to disturb us
and criticize our condition. We choose to live like this because anyway,
nobody in the village would come to help us to solve our problems. Now, it
is every person for himself because everyone has his own problems and we
do not support each other anymore. 138 (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2004,
in Rivolalao 2006)
136
This answer certainly suffers from a “postcolonial” bias. But the informant expressed this idea as a
joke, and after a good glass of local rum.
137
50,000 FMg.
138
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: "le village n'est pas vraiment fait pour les
pauvres.” "Ici (près de la forêt), nous sommes seuls et personne ne vient nous déranger et critiquer la
situation économique de notre famille. Nous choisissons de vivre comme ça parce que même au village,
personne ne viendra vous aider pour résoudre nos problèmes. Maintenant c'est chacun pour soi car
chacun a ses propres problèmes et on ne peut plus s'entraider.”
203
To the contrary, those less in need prefer to remain isolate in order to not be
Farmers also evoke the loss of solidarity to explain why they do not control
wild fires, whereas the lack of control is also an explanation as we will see
(Photograph 21):
In ancient times, when there was a fire, we called our neighbors and
everybody came to stop the fire. Now, people just think of themselves and
do not come. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
Farmers also evoke individualism to explain the difficulties to gather sufficient
money for zebu sacrifices, to mobilize the community to repair the school and to
however, mostly the young that refuse these solidarities, which leads them to criticize
the elders and sometimes to enter into conflict with them. Rivolalao (2006) gives the
example of a group of young people who were asked by the elders to transport a
foreign visitor back to the road after she twisted her ankle. The transporters were not
supposed to be paid for this service and just received a minimal indemnity. They all
139
Community rule issued by the traditional authorities. Dina can also be given a legal power if they are
registered at the commune.
140
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “ seul le dina reste important pour les
raiamandreny [elders]. Ce n'est pas étonnant qu'ils soient si pauvres. Ils ne se rendent pas compte des
besoins importants en argent.”
204
Photograph 21: The impact of wildfires in Ambodilaingo. These fires can be
criminal or result from negligence and the absence of firebreaks. As they are not
associated with management rules, they are much more destructive than tavy. Most
households agree that they should be forbidden. They almost disappeared after the
repression campaign of 2002-2003.
205
3. The present social organization
(Chapter 3). The representative of the legal power (fokontany President) collaborates
traditional and legal power occur but do not seem to be significant. The fokontany
laws are adapted to local realities. The ban on tavy, for example, concerns only
primary forests whereas the national law authorizes tavy on nonligneous and nondense
141
Representative of the administration, appointed by the mayor.
206
3.2. Land tenure
fokonolona. Each of the five villages is a distinct fokonolona and has its own land.
Four of them still have primary forest on their land, Ampasintsiriry being the
exception. Forest land is cleared under the authority of the Tangalamena, who decides
which area to clear and allocates tracks of land to each lineage. It seems, however, that
the Tangalamena’s authority is decreasing and that these rules apply only for newly
cleared forest land. Concerning fallow lands, they theoretically belong to the lineage
that first cleared the forest but every household can take the liberty to choose an area
to crop, though this sometimes provokes conflicts. The following testimonies show
a situation where the owner was the first lineage who cleared the land, to a situation
where the owner is the household who actually cultivates the land. The sense of
207
(household) and from permanent (maintained during the fallow period) to temporary
because extensive systems are easier to implement and are privileged by farmers who
systems (paddy fields or home gardens) is already quite difficult to purchase, which
208
slope. There is no case of land renting. (a young farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
This land shortage, however, discourages the development of systems that
would maximize yields rather than labor productivity (see the hypothesis of
comparative agriculture in Chapter 4). Once suitable land is found, farmers attempt to
secure their ownership by extending their home garden or their paddy field over the
largest possible surface, which is not compatible with intensive management. This
few farmers tried but failed due to corruption of state services and to a lack of
resources:
In order to title the land, we have to meet the topographer, check that the
land is used, go to the domain services, and check that the land has no title
deed already. The titling itself is cheap but the traveling of the officers is
very expensive (two persons), about 400,000 FMg 142 for two days. We can
lose all this money because we do not know if it will work. People have to
organize together in order to title their land. The titling of several families
together is possible and these families will share their land. The titling of
all Ambodilaingo is also possible. But all demanders have to be on the title.
This is complicated. This is what the state wants to do, rather than letting
the land to the domain. But people are not motivated to do that. They do
not have the habit of doing so. They are afraid of offices. Most are not
intellectuals. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
I tried to get the title for five hectares of land (1 hectare bottom land and
adjacent slope). I paid 150,000 FMg 143 but I failed. I had a discount
because I was a military, and that was a long time ago. It is still more
expensive now. I failed because I had to find some money to make the land
142
About 60 USD at the time of the enquiry.
143
About 23 USD.
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officer come here, but I did not have this money, so I lost everything. There
is no way to know how much we would have to give. (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
In sum, land suitable for tavy is abundant, but land suitable for intensification
(paddy fields and home gardens) is insufficient and unequally distributed. The first is
The boundary between what is collective and what is private is not clear, resulting in
conflicts that are quite rare but may increase if intensification is to occur. Households
either have no land suitable for intensification, or have more land than what they can
improve. If land tenure securing programs were implemented in the area in the future,
they would have to consider this distinction and give priority to titles for the most
coveted and individually appropriated land. Such programs could also favor
4. Land uses
burn systems:
When we clear the primary forest, we first grow rice, and sweet potato on
part of the plot when the rice is 30 cm high. Clearing the forest is the basis
of our way of living. We cultivate the land a second time after 3-4 years,
with rice and sweet potato, in the same way, with cassava in addition. We
do not wait more because we lack area to cultivate, because of population
increase. After that, we wait six years before cultivating again, because the
210
soil is not so fertile. The fallow period after this third cultivation cycle will
have to be still longer….
The harvest is 20 vat 144 [400 kilograms of white rice] for one vat of
seedlings [20 kilograms] at the first cultivation cycle, if the harvest is good,
and five vat [100 kilograms] if it is bad. It is often bad because of rain
excess. For the second cultivation cycle, we harvest 10 vat [200 kilograms]
from five kopy 145 [10 kilograms] if the harvest is good, or five vat if it is
bad. We have to use more seedlings: five kopy instead of four for the same
area, because the soil is less fertile. The worst is if the rain falls in
November because the seeds do not germinate. For the third cultivation
cycle, we have to sow seven to eight kopy where we sowed four or five,
because there are no trunks on the soil and because the soil is less fertile.
We get eight to 15 vat…. 146
The distance between seed holes is about 25-30 cm for the first and second
cycles and much closer for the third cycle. The number of seeds per hole
does not change. We associate beans, maize and tsidimy 147 with the rice.
The rice is sowed first. Maize grows better in the first cycle. We do not
stop cultivating until the land is invaded by Tenina [Imperata cylindrica]
and Rangotra [Pteridium aquilinum 148 ]. This usually occurs at the fifth
cultivation cycle, but these plants can disappear if we wait about 20 years.
But the Tenina can also invade from the third cultivation cycle. For the
fourth cycle of cultivation, we usually wait 8-10 years because the soil is
not fertile. We sow one vat and harvest eight to 20 vat….
We often move, when the soil is not fertile anymore. We also have some
land in the bottom land. We have banana trees and coffee there but the
cyclones made much destruction. We also lack water for making paddy
fields. In regards to the aspect, it is better to grow rice on east and northeast
slopes. We can also cultivate on other exposures if the season is good….
Forest guards do not come anymore from many years. But clearing of
forest is not so fast because this depends on the families. It is a very hard
144
One vat is about 20 kilograms of hulled rice.
145
One kopy is about two kilograms of hulled rice.
146
According to a questionnaire passed to the whole population of the village (quantitative survey,
whose results have not been processed yet except for what follows), during the 2002-2003 season,
farmers in Ambodilaingo produced 525 kilograms of paddy or 350 kilograms of white rice on average
in their tavy. That year, however, was a bad year due to the antifire campaign. The price of the rice
varies from about 0.25 to 0.6 USD per kilogram. It is lower during the harvest period, which is when
most farmers sell it, so I will use the value of 0.3 USD per kilogram. Considering that 600 kilograms is
a good harvest, I hypothesize, considering also the secondary products in tavy (beans, maize and
vegetables planted in association with rice), that tavy produces no more than about 250 USD worth of
agricultural products per year. This number is just a gross estimate and more precise calculation
remains to be done.
147
Phaseolus lunatus.
148
See Table 9 page 147 for more information about these species.
211
work and people are also afraid of the law. Forest edges are also more
favorable for cultivating. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo, 2001)
This description is representative of the situation in the region and matches
with the results of other interviews, except concerning the quantity of seed that is
sown. According to other enquiries, the amount sowed ranges from about two to 15
kopy and the harvests from five to 50 vats (100 to 1000 kilograms). Harvests beyond
one ton per household are exceptional. These results match with the fact that the rice
shortage period lasts three to nine months for most households. The variation in the
cropping systems:
I clear the land for cassava in August but I only can do a small area. Then I
leave the vegetation drying, and I clear another land for rice, and go back
to the cassava land for burning and planting. Then I burn the tavy and plant
the rice. Weeding starts after one month. We do it twice and also weed the
cassava. Weeding is continuous. We do not stop until rice fructification.
The worst weeds are Bemimbo [Ageratum conizoides] and Fatakana
[Pennisetum sp?]. We have to throw the weeds far from the plot in order to
eliminate them. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo, 2001)
We sow tavy first, in October-November and we sow rice in paddy fields
later, in November-December-January. We can sow in paddy fields at
different seasons because there is no problem of water.” “Plowing the
paddy is in January, at the same time as weeding in tavy. We always lack
time. We also lack time for watching over paddy fields and tavy in the
same time. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo, 2001)
Clearing in primary forest (Photographs 14 and 15), it is not frequent due to
fear of the law, except in forest patches. This tendency was put in evidence by
212
Only one farmer in the whole community still tries to maintain a forest patch
on his land. He is a traditional healer and needs to conserve this patch for collecting
forest products:
I do not want anybody to touch anything in this forest patch. I use it for
collecting firewood and other products. The latex of this tree 149 is used for
trapping small birds. I planted this Pandanus for making the roof of small
houses [with the leaves]. I did not plant other trees…. This forest patch will
not last a long time. My sons will fight each other to know who will burn
it. This is why I asked my girls to plant eucalyptus. (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
Concerning the definitive abandonment of degraded land, it seems to result
from the frequent passage of uncontrolled fires (Photograph 21 page 205), rather than
from tavy itself. The invasion by Imperata cylindrica and Pteridium aquilinum is the
main cause of abandonment. But most farmers contend that if no fire occurs, any land
can become cultivable again. The initial subject of this dissertation consisted in an
done on 98 fallow plots. The data have never been processed, but I observed that
Pteridium aquilinum, or other species typical of advanced degradation, the land had
actually not been submitted to tavy itself in recent times but was subject to the
frequent passage of wild fires. Farmer’s testimonies are consistent with this fact:
We do not stop to cultivate until the invasion by the tenina [Imperata
cylindrica] and rangotra [Pteridium aquilinum]. This usually occurs at the
fifth cultivation cycle, but these plants can disappear if we wait about 20
years. But the tenina can also invade from the third cultivation cycle. It is
the case in this land that we cleared nine years ago and cultivated three
times. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
If we do not control fires, then the vegetation burns outside the cultivated
land. This helps much the development of the tenina (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001).
149
Maybe Voacanga thouarsii.
213
Some plants come into the fallow from outside, after 4-5 years. They can
eliminate the tenina if there is no fire. The best fallow plants are
dingadingana [Psiadia altissima 150 ] and harongana [Harungana
madagascariensis]. Thakok [Rubus mollucannus] and longoza
[Aframomum angustifolium] are quite good also. All these plants can come
from outside and invade the plot. Longoza comes by its rooting system. (a
farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The invasion of Imperata cylindrica causes them much concern:
The production of rice decreased because of soil degradation. Tenina
[Imperata cylindrica] started to develop around 1967. It is necessary to
wait 10 years to see it disappearing. Only six years were necessary some
decades ago. Thakok [Rubus mollucannus] existed for a long time, but
expanded in about the same period. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
But they have management rules aimed at controlling Imperata (tenina):
There is some land where the dingadingana is mixed with tenina. This is
not good for doing tavy. The dingadingana makes the tenina disappear, but
not completely because the roots are still there for 3-4 years. If we put the
fire, then we will have much tenina in the next fallow period. (a farmer
from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The tenina comes where the soil is hard. It is mixed up with
dingadingana.… The dingadingana eliminates the tenina if we wait six to
10 years. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The tenina develops after clearing and burning. It also develops better in
altitude, and in dry land. It can be completely suppressed by banana trees
and by sugarcane but these plants do not grow well in areas where there is
much tenina. There is no solution against this weed except in the bottom
lands, where we can plant bananas and sugarcane. (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
They also recognize that controlling wild fires is necessary to fight against this
invasion but refer to poverty, the lack of solidarity (see also Section 2.3.2.), and the
150
See Table 9 page 147 for more information about these species.
214
If we do not control fires, then the vegetation burns outside the cultivated
area. This helps much the development of tenina. People do not take care
and let the fire extend everywhere. This is frequent but some people take
care. We respect the land because we came back to the village four years
ago and we do not have our own land. We have to take care of the land that
we borrow. People were more careful in the past because there was the
police and the rules were strict. They were calling friends for controlling
fires together. Now, everybody just takes care of himself. There has never
been community rule on this point. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
Concerning the tools used for slash-and-burn cultivation, farmers use a
machete, plus sometimes an axe, to clear the vegetation. Seed holes are made with a
stick and weeding is done with the machete again or an old small angady. Rice is
harvested with a simple knife. In other words, almost no resources other than labor
and vegetation biomass are necessary to practice tavy. Anybody that has access to land
(granted by traditional authorities) and owns a machete and some seedlings can
practice it.
practiced in the forest. Most households consider that it is more profitable than
lowland rice cultivation, unless a good spot is available in bottom land and can be
irrigated. Weeding is not an issue on land cleared in the forest but can cause
abandonment of a field on degraded land. It seems that weeds, more than low fertility,
are the cause of low rice harvest on tavy. Fighting against pests, mostly Behatoka
(Heteronychus plebejus Klug), rats and red fody, a small bird of the Passeridae family
government. Tevy ala (primary forest clearing) is perceived as being forbidden by the
215
government but was still practiced in 2001, due to the absence of control (Section
2.2.). The legislation actually puts some restrictions on the practice of tavy in fallow
land (Chapter 2) but we saw that these restrictions are usually not enforced. In sum,
until 2001, farmers in Ambodilaingo did not worry about state control when they did
tavy on fallow land, but they expressed a certain fear of state control in case of forest
clearing:
It is forbidden to clear the forest. The state is very strict. It seems that there
is something in the forest that is useful for the state. We do not really know
what would be the punishment but most people are afraid. Maybe we could
go to jail. People cultivate bad soils despite the fact that they have bad
harvest. They move into fallow land and put their production in the hands
of god. When we have a bad harvest uphill, we cultivate the bottom lands.
(a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
This situation changed in 2002, when the government launched the antifire
campaign (Chapter 3). The Presidential speech was heard on the radio and information
about farmers that had been arrested for practicing tavy quickly reached the village.
Some farmers did not dare to burn the vegetation they had already cleared and did not
sow rice. Others moved deep into the forest to hide from state control or came back to
the village to do tavy on degraded lands (Ratsimijanona 2006). Others waited to see
what would happen and delayed sowing, resulting in a low harvest. Those who had no
or a bad harvest employed the same strategies they use in case of cyclonic damage.
They switched their diet earlier to cassava, harvested food in the forest, and searched
attendance was observed because children were asked to contribute more to support
their family (Ratsimijanona 2006). Parents send them to Beforona to sell bananas. The
2002-2003 season may indeed have been the less appropriate for developing more
intensive land uses. It is remembered as a period of deep crisis by most people. Forest
activities, mostly the transportation of wood from harvesting sites to the road, were the
main source of income that helped people to survive. Fortunately, the campaign was
216
not repeated the next year and the situation came back to normal, despite the fact that
provincial authorities issued a decree that forbid agricultural fires (Chapter 3).
Certainly this campaign had a positive impact on the environment (it clearly
resulted in less primary forest clearing and better fire control), but it was unethical due
to the deep poverty of most households in this region. Moreover, the same results
could have been obtained targeting only tevy ala (primary forest clearing) and
wildfires.
encroaches relatively slowly on the forest. The limit between agricultural land and
forest land follows a straight line. Not many tavy are encountered inside the primary
forest, almost no forest patch remains in the agricultural land and secondary forests are
nonexistent. Long fallows are never practiced except in case of arrested succession or
land invaded by Imperata cylindrica and Pteridium aquilinum. But state control does
not seem to be the only explanation. It seems that rice reaches it ecological limit on the
forest edge, at an altitude of about 800 meters. Big rains result in high risk and
cultivation on degraded land located at lower altitude is sometimes preferred for this
reason.
In other regions of the world, farmers move over a vast territory and allow a
complete forest recovery when they abandon their village for a better location. Such
the situation in Ambodilaingo. Here, villages never move once they are established.
When pressure on the land is too elevated and fertility degrades, some households can
leave the village and create a new dwelling closer to the forest. Those who move are
usually young households in the search for new land to establish themselves. In other
cases, villages split due to internal conflicts and a complete lineage leaves.
217
But at present, even this move toward forest land does not seem to occur.
Young households that leave the village rather search for locations suitable for
establishing a home garden, as we saw in the section about land tenure. Tavy is not the
only land use and may even be on the verge of not being the main land use.
We saw that irrigated rice cultivation has been in decline since the seventies
due to the quasi-disappearance of cattle. This land use is, however, still practiced,
usually by the few families that own zebu. In general, paddy fields are created where
water can be derived from a stream with a minimal effort, for the benefit of a single or
a few families. The fields are usually in the form of small terraces as the land is rarely
completely flat. Larger collective improvements are rare, unless support is provided by
the government or by projects for the construction of cement dams (Chapter 7). Areas
suitable for irrigated rice cultivation are limited and are unequally divided between
households.
Rice can be cultivated twice a year if there is efficient irrigation. The counter-
season cycle provides lower yield due to lower temperatures and a higher
susceptibility to pests. The techniques are usually traditional, but direct sowing is quite
rare. Rice is sown in nurseries and transplanted after four to six weeks. The plot is
prepared with an angady or a hoe, or by treading using zebu for the few families that
still raise cattle. The yield usually ranges from one to two tons per hectare. After a few
years, it can decrease significantly, depending on the location of the plot. When yield
reaches a bottom line, the plot is abandoned into fallow for a few years. Families that
have sufficiently large plots cultivate just half or less and switch from one part to the
other over the years. Manure is not used, even by households that own cattle.
218
an earlier stage or using fewer seedlings per seed hole are encountered in some
locations. But the use of the whole SRA 151 package is quite rare, and SRI 152 is totally
the availability of animals to facilitate labor, for treading and plowing the land. More
and more farmers attempt to work the land with an angady and to cultivate paddy
fields without cattle treading. But many are discouraged by the fact that bottom land is
mollucanus, Lantana camara and Aframomum angustifolium 154 , which are very
151
Improved Rice Cultivation System. In French: Système de Riziculture Améliorée. See Chapter 6.
152
Intensive Rice Cultivation System. In French: Système de Riziculture Intensive. See Chapter 6.
153
I will explain these systems in more detail in the paragraph dedicated to the work of rural
development projects.
154
See Table 9 page 147 for more information about these species.
219
Once the land is cleared, it is also necessary to dig irrigation canals, which
recent years. Those who cultivate rice in paddy fields still practice tavy and the two
as more constraining in terms of labor. Buying a plow, which costs about 40 USD, is
often mentioned as a way to increase labor productivity, giving more evidence that the
lack of labor force is a more severe constraint than the lack of land to develop irrigated
rice cultivation:
There has never been any plow here in the past, and now it is the same. I
have a project to buy one for my kids but life is difficult. (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
I know that you just do research, but I insist that people here need some
means. There is much good land in the bottom land and the water does not
come until here. But we need a plow in order to cultivate this land. People
here lack means and tools for working. (an elder from Ambodilaingo 2001)
We already thought about working with the plow but it is impossible for
one household to do the investment. We could try to organize to buy one
with four or five households together. If one person had this equipment,
maybe everybody would use it. Those cultivating rice in paddy fields, at
least, could use it. But people have to be sure that they can successfully use
it. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
220
In this last testimony, the interviewee lists what could be the three main
constraints to intensification: the lack of capacity to invest, the lack of solidarity, and
Besides tavy and irrigated rice fields, farmers in Ambodilaingo have home
gardens where they grow cash crops, mostly bananas and coffee. These crops were
marginal until the mid twentieth century. Coffee was an essential cash crop during the
1950s and 1960s, but has declined since the 1970s due to low price. Bananas mostly
developed after 1990 because the rehabilitation of the road in the late eighties
household. Farmers sometimes go far away in the search for suitable places for
creating their home garden, as we saw in the paragraph about land tenure. Other
constraints are the important work necessary to establishing home gardens and
weedings per year and can be done at any time, whereas some periods are more
appropriate.
There is no special time to weed banana trees. We do that when we can,
little by little. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
221
Bananas also have the advantage of being harvested all year round, providing a
limited but permanent income. Unfortunately the sale price is low: about 0.5 USD per
kilogram. Collectors know that farmers will not return to their village with a 30
kilogram load. They impose a very low price and it happens that farmers prefer to
dispose of bananas rather than accept this price. Bananas are also consumed, mainly
Coffee played a significant role in the economy a few decades ago, as we saw.
At present, coffee plantations are almost abandoned due to low and unstable prices
and coffee is harvested mostly for self-consumption. The other products found in
home gardens (e.g., avocado, jackfruits, grapefruits, oranges, limes, and sugar cane)
ago, using techniques similar to those employed in Beforona. It has now almost
disappeared because “farmers along the road produce big quantities and the price went
down” (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001). Due to transportation costs, ginger is not
constraint.
Beans and vegetables are grown on plowed land, on flat land, on river banks or
down the slopes on the most fertile soils. They are not frequent due to the difficulty in
purchasing seeds, the problem of transportation (in the case of vegetables) and
climatic risks. The profitability of cropping systems based on plowing and crop
155
In 2006, Ginger was sold as low as 750 FMg/kilogram in Beforona (0.07 USD), while transportation
cost 300 FMg/kilogram (0.03 USD). Ginger can however be sold a more elevated price if its harvest can
be delayed until the price gets higher. But poverty leads to selling it as soon as it is mature.
222
rotation, in comparison with tavy, is disputable. The labor cost of plowing discourages
most households due to the difficulties of eradicating the root systems of invasive
perennial herbs and shrubs. Plowing is, however, practiced on small plots and may
become more frequent in the future, as we saw in Chapter 3. Chapters 6 and 7 will
The LDI project 156 attempted to develop crop cultivation in collaboration with
village teachers:
I cultivate beans in the bottom land, on land previously cultivated two
years in rice. Last year, I sowed 10 kapoks and harvested 100 kilograms.
This year, I sowed the 10 kapoks again and harvested 120 kilograms. The
harvest increased because the roots decompose in the soil…. The land has
been slashed and burnt for rice before growing the beans. It was a Thakok-
Longoza-radriaka 157 fallow. There was no tenina…. The rice was sowed
like in tavy. But for the beans, I plowed the land to a 20 cm depth, using an
angady…. I am the only one doing that. People did not try because plowing
is difficult. The beans are for self-consumption…. This has been done with
the support of LDI. The seedlings come from the agriculture center of
Moramanga. The difference with the traditional system is that the land is
plowed, instead of just taking out the upper part of land with all superficial
roots. This asks four times more work but plowing gets easier every year. I
had a training in Andasibe for making compost and I will start soon to do
that. (the teacher of Ambodilaingo 2001)
The main constraint for this system seems to be the labor cost of plowing, as in
the case of paddy fields. But plowing gets less difficult when it is repeated successive
years, because the root systems of perennials are progressively eliminated. The
investment that will need years to occur, unless it is encouraged by outside supports.
The main constraint may be this initial investment in terms of labor, rather than the
profitability of the system. Chapter 7 will show how this constraint can be lifted.
156
Landscape Development Interventions, financed by USAID (Chapter 6).
157
Rubus mollucannus, Aframomum angustifolium, and Lantana camara. See Table 9 page 147 for
more information about these species.
223
Pineapple is cultivated by a few farmers in Ambodilaingo, on fallow land like
in Beforona and with minimal care. This system can be seen as an improved fallow
having high labor productivity (Chapter 3). Only one household grows pineapple at a
significant scale, however, due to the lack of opportunities to sell the fruits and the
elevated transportation cost. The fruits are used for self-consumption or to feed the
pigs.
Livestock husbandry is not much developed. Pigs are not consumed because of
taboos but are raised by a few households. Fowls are raised by almost all families in
an extensive manner. For most farmers, the lack of agricultural surplus is the main
earlier. Farmers who have cattle either managed to find sufficient cash to buy the first
animal, or inherited them from their ancestors. Here are two descriptions of livestock
husbandry by two of the few farmers who own cattle. Both are better-off farmers. The
first one receives income from a small trade while the second has one of the largest
224
disease: when you put the flesh of the dead animal in a pan, it gives some
water. We can eat the meat but it needs much preparation…. We bought
the animals in 1994 because they were cheap, due to the Geralda cyclone.
We get some money from our small trade…. We do not use manure but
there is no taboo for that. We never heard that we could use manure. The
corral is always in the same place…. We do not give forage to the cattle in
the corral…. Our male is dead last year from the disease we described. We
have to ask other herders in order to fertilize our female. We now have the
mother and two young. We do not sell animals except in case of absolute
necessity. (A farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
I have these four zebus because I bought them six years ago, from the
money of rice. I was trading zebu before. I bought them because the price
was very low after the Geralda cyclone. I had two births. One is dead of
disease and one fell into a hole in the forest…. I feed my animals in the
bottom land and also bring them inside the forest. There is no special
period for this but if there is no grass in the bottom land, I bring them
inside the forest…. We always have to look after the animals. I join with
my son for doing so…. The difficult period for feeding the animals is when
there is much rain or a cyclone, because it is difficult to look after them, or
when we have health problems…. We do not join forces with other
families because not many people have zebu…. The animals spend the
night in a corral. We have one in the forest and one in the bottom land….
There is no taboo concerning the use of manure, but we do not use it
because we are not used to it. We prefer to rotate the corral and cultivate on
it, but this is not always done…. Nobody complained about our animals
because we always look after them, me or my sons. This is difficult but we
have no choice. We tie them up when we leave for lunch…. My zebu were
vaccinated. The veterinary came and we just had to pay the vaccine. But
the veterinary did not come this year. (A farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
These descriptions show that cattle husbandry necessitates investment and is
risky due to the frequency of disease and the difficulties in finding veterinarians, and
to “accidents” of cattle that fall in the steep terrain of the forest. They also show that
potential damage to crops results in an important labor burden to look after the
suitable to local conditions than cattle husbandry in the short term. But the situation
could evolve if the problem of conflict with agriculture was solved, for instance, by
225
decreased, by increasing veterinary care. The lack of capacity to invest, however, will
The forests of Ambodilaingo have not yet been depleted of their wood
resources. Palisander has been harvested for about ten years. The resource may be on
the verge of depletion and second category woods are starting to be cut. Harvesting is
controlled by a few operators. Some received a legal permit, but cut beyond the
authorized period and area. They employ intermediaries to collect the wood on the
Wood is cut inside the forest and carried to the road in the form of boards. This
provides significant job opportunities to villagers. Some villagers also search and cut
trees themselves in order to receive a larger part of the benefit. It seems that between
Beforona. Trucks transported a few loads until the extraction stopped, certainly
because of the permit suspension that occurred in 2004 (Chapter 2). The road is now
impassible but exploitation recently started again. Staff from the forest service offices
sometimes comes to visit. They deliver documents that allow wood to circulate in
apparently legal conditions. For example, they authorize the circulation of ancient
stocks but the documents are used for transporting newly cut trees. According to
informants from Beforona, people with high political connections protect this
legal extraction by local communities. He prepared all the legal documents and made a
Ambodilaingo were going to sign the documents to form a COBA (Chapter 11) that
226
could be granted extraction permits. But the mayor, aware of the manipulation,
opposed it.
In Ambodilaingo, most men of working age transport boards from the forest to
Beforona. They earn the equivalent of about 5 USD a week transporting two or three
boards that weigh about 30 kilograms each. This represents three to six days of work
but most workers need to rest one day after each transport. In spite of this, the job is
very attractive because it provides immediate cash that serves to buy basic products
like rice, salt, kerosene for lamps and rum as a reward after the effort. Some young
people manage to do important saving they use as a dowry to marry. People over 55
years old have been seen engaged in transporting boards. Some men specialized in this
activity and almost abandoned agricultural work. They are criticized by other farmers
who remind them that forest product extraction can stop any day and that people
“should better plant cassava if they do not want to starve some day” (an elder from
different manner by the elders and the young. Elders are often against it:
Young people rush into this activity, but it has no future. People should
plant banana trees, coffee, and grow rice. (an elder from Ambodilaingo
2001)
It is very hard to do this job. People do that because of poverty. Young
people should better invest in agriculture. The money they earn is only
used for eating. There is nothing remaining, except for drinking rum. They
always think that they will earn money again the following day…. They get
so tired when coming back that they cannot work the land. They usually
have a family and a young child, and some are still older. Some families
are dependant on this income and forget to grow rice. (an elder from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
227
Young men are more enthusiastic because board transportation represents the
materials for house construction, wood to produce furniture or other items (such as
mortar and pestles), medicinal plants, orchids to be sold in Andasibe (only a few
households do this), and food such as meat from hunted animals and forest yams. The
later seems to play a significant role in the diet during the food shortage period.
argue that they lack land to do tavy and that this clear-cutting allows dense eucalyptus
228
5. The strategies for intensification
seventies. Livestock husbandry was more developed and paddy fields and coffee
cultivation complemented tavy to sustain livelihood. The situation degraded after the
seventies due to the decapitalization of livestock, the abandonment of paddy fields, the
degradation of terms of trade, the degradation of land, and the ban on forest clearing.
At present, slash-and-burn systems are in a situation of crisis because they face their
ecological and political limits. For these reasons, farmers in Ambodilaingo perceive
that tavy is not the crop for the future. In contrast to what their ancestors did, they
alternatives:
There is much land to cultivate but the problem is to find money. The area
is favorable to ginger and pineapple but the problem is to sell the products.
There are big price variations. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The cultivation and market for ginger started to develop in 1987. Ginger
was sold for 3000 FMg/kilograms five years ago [about 0.45 USD]. Now,
it is sold for 750 FMg [about 0.12 USD]. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo
2001)
229
We grow pineapples that are very easy to sell in Beforona because they
grow big here. But the transport cost is 300 FMg per kilograms 158 [0.45
USD]. We also have problems with rats but we can eat pineapple. It is
good for the children. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
The construction of a road is often evoked as a way to solve these problems:
The main problem is the transport to Beforona. We could grow coffee,
banana, rice, cassava, sugarcane but it is difficult to sell the products.
People would be very happy if there was a road, because they could sell
easily. Now we go to Beforona once a week to sell our products and buy
something. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo 2001)
I am here for one year, and I think that the number one problem is getting
products out. Most people would agree to the creation of a road. Only a
few would be against…. The priest had a project to create a road, but the
commune did not agree. I do not know the reason why they disagreed. I
also heard that a forest operator had a project to build a road for carrying
the wood. 159 (the catechist of Ambodilaingo, recent migrant 2001)
But the road is also perceived as a danger because it could favor the
158
In 2006, pineapple were sold for about 500FMg per piece in Beforona (0.075 USD), and the
transportation cost was about the same.
159
This road was eventually constructed in 2003-2004, but was impassible after a few months, due to
big rains and the stopping of forest exploitation.
230
When there is a lack of rain, the production is bad. But it is the same when
the rain is too big. We put our production in the hands of god. (a farmer
from Ambodilaingo 2001)
There is also a big risk of inundation in the bottom land when rice is
flowering. These inundations destroy the improvements in the bottom land,
so it is dangerous to invest by paying people to do these improvements.
The slopes are not affected by the cyclones. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo
2001)
Fields and houses have been destroyed [by the Geralda cyclone, in 1994].
Banana trees, cassava and almost all crops have been destroyed by
inundations on bottom land and wind on slopes. People left the village and
did not come back because they had to find food. (a farmer from
Ambodilaingo 2001)
In the end, even energy purchase is insufficient to work and improve the land,
as we already saw:
People now have fewer paddy fields, fewer zebu and less food. They thus
have less strength for working their land. (a farmer from Ambodilaingo
2001)
In sum, several pathways for intensification already exist (paddy fields, home
gardens, cash crop cultivation such as ginger and livestock husbandry) but are
access to markets.
Facing such difficulties, one could expect that farmers would ask for support
from projects. We saw that projects operate in Beforona from many years. People
from Ambodilaingo know about that. Market days, every Thursday in Beforona,
provide opportunities to exchange information with people from other villages. But in
the end, projects are perceived as being associated with anti-tavy policies and are not
231
of LDI because LDI impedes doing tavy and cutting the forest. People here
also observe that LDI does not really have a solution to replace tavy. They
have some solutions, but it is impossible to do what they propose. LDI also
tries to convince the foreign people that they have some solutions. (a
farmer from Ambodilaingo, among the most educated 2001)
Chapter 6 will show that this fear is rational. My own presence also created
In this section, I will describe the poverty situation in Ambodilaingo in the way
it has been felt during the six months I spent in the village. I believe this is necessary
because the most talkative farmers, those who provided me with the longest and more
informative citations in the previous section, are often the better off. The poorest often
remain shy. They hesitate to receive visitors because they are ashamed of having
nothing to offer. There is also much information that is collected by direct observation
and that does not require asking questions, such as the belongings people have and the
materials they use to build houses. This section will thus complement the previous
232
one. It concerns a significant part of the population of Ambodilaingo, certainly a large
distribution.
The first sign of poverty in Ambodilaingo is that almost all new houses are
built with the same local materials collected in forest and fallow lands. Roofs are made
of thatch and walls and floor are made of bamboo or other cheap materials. Only
ancient houses are made of boards and have a corrugated iron roof. The Geralda
cyclone destroyed most of these houses in 1994 and they have not been rebuilt since
that time (Photograph 22). Nobody now seems to have enough money to buy
corrugated iron.
Every day’s life is about the same for everybody. It is marked by a food
shortage period (indeed, a rice shortage period) which lasts three to nine months.
During this period, households attempt by all means possible, mostly by transporting
boards or bananas for sale, to find money to buy rice. If they do not manage to
purchase rice, they eat mostly cassava, which has a lower nutritious value, but also
bananas, yams and sweet potatoes. For the households that have no revenue (for
example, widowed women or elders who cannot transport palisander boards or banana
racemes), the temptation is great to eat the seeds kept for the next agricultural season.
Meat is eaten during a few weeks of the months following oxen sacrifice, which
occurs about twice a year. Households living close to the forest also hunt and eat game
meat.
During the rice shortage period people are quite depressed. They complain and
dispute more with their neighbors and almost beg support from foreigners (myself and
the Malagasy students I worked with). During the harvest period the atmosphere
changes. Foreigners are more frequently invited for lunch or dinners (it can happen
that we had five or more meals a day). Farmers are not ashamed of their condition
233
Photograph 22: The main street of Ambodilaingo. The village was almost
abandoned after the Geralda cyclone in 1994, but farmers started to move back and
rebuild their houses in 2004. This photograph also reveals that the economy was more
prosperous in the past: households are unable to buy corrugated iron at present.
234
because they still have food for the next day. Children are more alive, move more and
speak more. The bodies of children as well as of adults change: they recover their
The basic goods that almost all households have are a few cooking pans, some
blankets, a bag containing a few nice clothes used for ceremonies and other social
events, some plates and spoons, a set of woven items made by the wives, and
sometimes a small backpack and a tape player, used on party days only due to the high
cost of batteries. Even these basic objects are missing in many households. Blankets
are not sufficient in number for the whole family or are very old. The missing items,
especially new clothes, are bought before the national day (June 26). This period of
the year is a time of party and joy and people do everything possible to eat and dress
decently. As rice harvest occurs in April and May, some rice is sold to purchase
clothes and to donate for the collective buying of zebu for sacrifice. This rice is sold at
very low price (no more than 0.2 USD per kilogram), despite the fact that rice will
have to be bought at twice this price during the food shortage period.
Children are educated in the same public school despite the fact that their
parents know that the education quality is poor. Only a handful of households send
Andasibe, 27 kilometers from Ambodilaingo. People usually stay in their village and
do self-medication or use traditional medicine when they are ill, because going to
Beforona results in costs they cannot bear (Chapter 3). When they are seriously ill,
they cannot afford to move to the district town and pay the hospital. It would cost one
to a few hundreds USD to cure a disease such as a tuberculosis in its final stage, or to
do basic surgery. This sum would need the contribution of the whole community to be
gathered.
235
In this context of high poverty, the capital of farmers, except land, is reduced
to almost nothing. Agricultural tools are only the machete, a stick for sowing rice in
tavy and a small angady, usually very old and used for weeding. Only one person in
the whole fokontany would have a plow. For many households, increasing this capital
by buying a new and bigger angady that costs about two USD cannot be done without
some sacrifice.
Even labor force is insufficient in this weak economy. Very few documents
about the region raise this issue 160 but it was one of the facts I most deeply
experienced during my stay in the village. When asked to explain why they do not
improve a larger part of their bottom land, farmers often answer that they lack food to
work hard. Things are that simple. This issue is not reported in the previous section
except in one citation, because I had no idea to ask about it and people are ashamed to
say that they lack food. But in the end, I had more opportunities to discuss this issue
and it was clear that lack of food was a major constraint. Others farmers asserted that
health issues or the lack of cash are their main concern, but this still reflects the same
understand that this “energy” constraint is not a new myth. When the Betsileo farmers
of the highland, who are regarded as hard workers, spend their whole day plowing,
they need a huge plate of rice to recover their strength, which makes them famous for
the quantity of rice they are able to eat in one meal! If they do not have such a plate,
they will obviously not be able to do the same work the next day. If 2000 calories per
160
Styger (2004) collected testimonies that express a similar situation in Ambavaniasy, a fokontany
located farther north on the forest edge, on the National Road 2. Food shortage creates income needs
that result in the negligence of agricultural production: “When I plant rice, I can only harvest after six
months. If I am in need of food or money, I have to go cut wood, which does not allow me to do a good
weeding. The rice harvest is therefore low and I have to concentrate more and more on the wood” (a
farmer in Ambavaniasy, in Styger 2004, 39).
236
day is the minimal necessary intake to have ordinary activities, the need can reach
8000 calories per day in the case of intense efforts 161 . Plowing the whole day with an
angady, creating terraces on slopes, digging canals for irrigation with a hoe,
necessitate much energy and be problematic when meat is rare and calorie intake
insufficient. If farmers prefer to use their strength to carry palisander boards, it may
merely be because they immediately earn sufficient cash to buy rice and recover their
strength.
Concerning income, even the one USD per day economy is out of reach for
year. When it is present (after the transportation of wood, bananas, or rice, or more
rarely after the sale of honey or local alcohol) it never represents more than a few
USD and is generally spent to buy rice and basic products, sometimes a small
backpack, a radio, a watch or some clothes. When foreigners want to buy something
using a big note (50,000 FMg, equivalent to 5 USD in 2006), farmers never have the
change.
In sum, farmers are much poorer in Ambodilaingo than in the villages located
close to the road. Due to transportation cost and limited access to market, people
almost live in autarky and the economy still depends mostly on tavy. The repression
on this land use, the fact that it reaches its ecological limits and the reduction of the
transportation provides significant income but mostly serves to compensate for the low
rice production and to purchase basic products. As the villages located close to the
road provided most of the knowledge basis about the region (Chapter 3), there could
161
Cycling, for example, can require up to 8000 calories a day
(http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/calories.html).
237
be a significant bias in the representation of tavy farmer communities by aid
organizations.
It may be, however, that more remote villages located farther south are not in
the same situation of deep crisis, due to the absence of forest control. If this was true,
it would also mean that the negative economic impact of an enforced ban on forest
They are also at a quite low economic level in comparison with urban standards, but
they can be asked for change on a 5 USD note. Some send their children to the private
school of Andasibe; some have a more powerful tape player that they hire out during
village celebrations; others have some unusual items in their house, such as a gun, a
radio or a tape player that looks quite new, and batteries to make it work all day. In
most cases, the relative prosperity of these atypical households has a nonagricultural
(fokontany President); a person who traveled and worked outside the village, found
good job opportunities, saved money and came back; a traditional musician that gets
paid for playing at ceremonies; a man who specialized in wood extraction and logs
trees himself; a merchant who opened a small shop in the village. I would call these
atypical people the local elite. In the few cases where they owe their success to
agriculture, this results from a combination of advantages: they inherited cattle from
their ancestors, have a good spot for irrigated rice cultivation and a large track of
fertile land to grow banana trees. We will see in Chapter 6 that this local elite is first in
238
8. The influenza epidemic
recorded by the World Health Organization in the Tanala region, located several
hundred kilometers farther south. It moved northward to Beforona, where it has not
been recorded officially but was witnessed by myself, the students I worked with and
by medical staff working in the commune. The disease came to the village like a wave.
The first day, a few people were ill and had to rest. Their family provided them with
care. The second day, there were ill people in every family. The third day, almost
everybody was ill in the village and lay on a mat, rolled in a blanket. Diseased people
were visited by the few relatives still in good shape. Many households had no food in
their house, no cash available and insufficient strength to collect cassava from their
fields. So they just waited for the disease to go. The third day, people started to die,
mostly young children and old people. Food was purchased by the World Food
ADRA 162 , financed by USAID, and healthcare was provided by private donors. The
head of Beforona’s hospital was the first to come on the ground and to provide
healthcare. He made a report to the district health center in Moramanga. The Director
to state the situation. The private local doctor was hired (he actually worked almost for
free) and was given a stock of drugs. He provided healthcare to about 800 persons in
the three fokontany he visited. People actually did not die from the influenza directly.
The virus, in synergy with malnutrition, weakened their immune system, resulting in a
malaria crisis and in the development of other latent pathologies, mostly respiratory
diseases. Both the private doctor and Beforona’s health center chief of staff agreed on
162
Adventist Development and Relief Agency.
239
this mechanism. Their statements are consistent with the WHO 163 report about the
contacted in Antananarivo. They were unfortunately unable to act unless they were
The district health office sent a medical team which refused to recognize the
Ambodilaingo, the team traveled back to Moramanga. Some messages were broadcast
on the radio contending that the epidemic was a rumor. Eventually, facing the
evidence, the district health services provided some drugs, one week after the
of about 1500. The mayor recorded 27 deaths. The difference can be explained by the
fact that the mayor did not have time to visit all the scattered households and by the
fact that many people, mostly young children, are legally nonexistent because births
are often declared only after a few years, or are not even declared. I decided to
investigate the situation in villages farther south, to see if the epidemic was still
striking and to understand where it came from. I visited the commune of Ambalabe
(Map 4 page 112), located 55 kilometers southeast from Beforona, guided by the
person who would later become the mayor of Beforona. In all villages we crossed,
local authorities described the same epidemic and established a list of deceased
people. The death toll was always the same: about 2% of the people, mostly babies
and old persons, during a one month period. Ambalabe had been stricken two months
earlier and people explained that the epidemic had come from farther south, from
Ifasina II (Map 4 page 112). If one would walk until Ikongo, located 300 kilometers
163
World Health Organization.
240
farther south, he would cross just two roads, in Marolambo and Ifanadiana, the first
one being closed almost all year round. But he would cross a village about every two
hours. It may be that people died silently in the villages located along this itinerary.
The disease did not strike all villages in the same way. There were reported
cases in many villages of the commune but people died only in three fokontany:
other fokontany, people just had a “cold,” managed to cure themselves by a better diet
and had access to healthcare, at the communal hospital or at the private doctor’s
office. These differences reflect the lower or higher vulnerability of communities. The
three fokontany that suffered from the outbreak are the most remote ones. Cash
economy is almost absent, the agrarian system is in a situation of crisis and access to
healthcare is problematic. The healthy period only lasts a few months after the rice
harvest. After that, the diet is based on cassava and people lack the strength and
courage to resist diseases. In sum, the influenza outbreak confirmed the high
vulnerability of tavy farmers living in remote areas and having no access to market,
forest land or other resources. To put a ban on tavy, the main land use that sustains the
vulnerability and enforced the ban during a short period, in 2002, just enough time to
reduction of the fallow period. The reproduction of fertility over time is not allowed.
Fallow periods usually last from three to ten years in Ambodilaingo. The consequence
is yield decrease that forces the development of new land uses. If there had been no
241
repression of forest clearing, the same situation would have occurred sooner or later,
after the clearing of all forest land or when the remaining forest land became
unsuitable for the existing land uses. But the fact that the crisis might have happened
anyway does not imply that it could not be avoided. Agrarian system analysis can help
us to envision what pathways could be used to avoid this crisis and to anticipate land
use change, before the systems reaches its political or ecological limits.
The challenge is to develop a new system which would have a higher carrying
capacity, i.e. which could develop and sustain the life of more people on the same
land. We saw that the elements of this new system already exist. They are mostly
paddy fields, home gardens, ginger cultivation systems and livestock systems – mostly
comprehensively the changes to come and the challenges associated with them. This
leads me to introduce the work of Esther Boserup (1965) about the conditions for
agricultural growth. We will see that the dynamics analyzed in this chapter, to which
more insights will be given in Chapter 6, can be better understood in the light of
Boserup’s framework.
Boserup (1965) criticizes the Malthusian perspective, which limits its enquiry
demographic situation” (Boserup 1965, 11). Her own concern is to understand “the
effects of population change upon agriculture” (Boserup 1965, 11). According to the
242
the main line of causation is in the opposite direction: population growth
is… the independent variable which in its turn is a major factor
determining agricultural development. (Boserup 1965, 11)
Boserup’s main argument is that population growth increases the labor force
available and renders the development of new land uses necessary and possible. More
labor input facilitates the adoption of new technologies, which can lead to a total
landscape transformation.
because they regarded soil fertility “as a gift of nature, bestowed upon certain lands
once and for all” (Boserup 1965, 13). They believed that the only pathways to develop
agriculture were “the expansion of production at the… margin, by the creation of new
fields” (Boserup 1965, 12). Moreover, they did not explicitly consider fallow land and
pastures as agricultural land. For example, they saw North America as a virgin land to
be conquered, whereas the landscape was already anthropogenic when the first
cropping. She showed that early stages of agriculture are characterized by systems
with long fallow and that fallow periods are progressively reduced in later stages, until
the land becomes permanently cultivated. The reduction of the fallow period leads to
lower soil fertility, but this fertility can be rebuilt in the later stages. This is permitted
by population increase, which provides a labor force with the power to create new
agro-ecosystems and to rebuild the soils that have been lost during the period of
243
Using the concept of frequency of cropping, Boserup proposes a classification
cultivation.” Forest land is cleared and cultivated one or two years and then left in
fallow for a long time span that allows secondary forest to regrow. Shifting or swidden
cultivation.” The fallow period is shorter (six to eight years) and just allows the
development of a mix of shrubs and herbaceous plants. This stage is the one that
period (a few years) only allows herbaceous vegetation to grow. Some villages in the
commune of Beforona are already at this stage, especially the most densely populated
ones located close to the road (Photographs 7 through 10 page 156 to 159). Stage 4 is
“annual cropping.” Here, the fallow period lasts just a few months and crops are
rotated in order to avoid soil depletion. The agriculture of the Malagasy highlands is at
this stage, at least in the bottom land, and this system is progressively being exported
to the small plains and large bottom lands of coastal regions, including in Beforona.
Native farmers of Beforona also attempt to reach stage 4 on their own, by struggling to
create paddy fields and by inventing new crop rotations where ginger and plowing
play a prominent role (Chapter 3). Stage 5 is “multiple cropping.” Several crops are
grown on the same plot the same year, in association and/or in succession, allowing
several harvests per year. These systems are encountered in densely populated areas
such as the highlands of Burundi (Pollini 1993), as we will see in Chapter 10.
assumption that soil fertility is a function of land use as much as land use is a function
of soil fertility. Soil fertility is depleted from stage 1 to 3, which we can call extensive
stages, but is increased during stages 4 and 5, which we can call intensive stages. Fire
is usually the agricultural tool that is used in stages 1 to 3 because it allows the
244
concentration of fertility in space (on the top soil) and in time (on the cultivated year).
Farmers’ work replaces fire during stages 4 and 5. But as farmers are less efficient
tools than fires, this replacement can only be progressive. Farmers build new soils and
new agro-ecosystems over the years, but they need a transition period where fire
continues to play its role and where extensive and intensive systems are combined,
until the new systems achieve their full productive capacity. In this perspective, soil
This conception of soil fertility brings into question the vicious circle of land
degradation and poverty, a concept which shapes the strategies and practices of
population threshold above which the available labor force allows the rebuilding of
soils, and a soil fertility threshold below which farmers are motivated to change their
land use and rebuild its fertility. This second threshold explains why the shift does not
occur at low population density, by concentrating the available labor force on part of
the land.
In the light of the previous sections, we can guess that labor productivity is the
criterion to consider for determining when these thresholds are reached. Farmers allow
soil degradation to occur during the early phase of agriculture development because a
that of other systems. When the labor productivity of extensive systems reaches the
level of more intensive ones, then the switch can occur. However, things are not that
simple because implementing new systems is also a move to the unknown, which
implies technological innovation and the taking of risks. Intensification further needs
investments, at least in the form of work as we saw. These constraints explain why the
switch to new systems does not always occur at the most appropriate time, and
245
sometimes does not occur, especially if the fertility threshold is attained brutally, as
appears to be the case in Beforona (Styger et al. 2007). The validity of the Boserupian
model, hence, does not imply that Malthusian crises are always avoided. Such crises
actually occur, as shown by the history of European agriculture (Le Roy Ladurie 1969;
Mazoyer and Roudart 2001) and by the situation in Ambodilaingo. They just cannot
bestowed once and for all and a population having a certain density and technological
knowledge.
passing from stage 1 to stage 2, because their clearing extends the land available for
cultivation, allowing long fallows to be maintained, and thus delays reaching these
some places and are allowed to recolonize some land once the switch to more
intensive systems has taken place 164 . The challenge, thus, is to allow the switch to
occur before the complete clearing of primary ecosystems. A ban on forest clearing,
logically, is a condition for this to occur, unless forests are located on marginal land
One could wonder why such agricultural development dynamics, which do not
appear to be particularly complex and have occurred for many decades in Beforona,
have been overlooked, as we can already guess from the previous chapters and as we
will see with more scrutiny in Chapter 6. The reason may be that the models of the
classical economists that Boserup put into question are still excessively influential,
164
This situation is encountered in a few tropical countries which managed to modernize their
agriculture before all forests were cleared (for example: Costa-Rica and Puerto-Rico).
246
back to the logic of the agricultural conquests that formed the background of these
classical economists.
When European settlers arrived in the new world, they did not exactly
“develop” their land use from the beginning. Rather, they transferred it from Europe to
America. They had the advantage that earlier stages of resource depletion had not yet
occurred on the new continent, because native agricultural systems were only at the
first or second stage except in a few locations. They greatly benefited from the
knowledge and some finance that they brought with them, and a natural capital that
Intensive agriculture systems have already developed in the highlands and are now
being exported by migrants to less densely populated areas where extensive systems
are still practiced by local people with less knowledge and less economic capital. The
classic model of agricultural development led development actors to confuse these two
autochthonous groups. The consequence is that development actors could support the
logic of the first process to the detriment of the second, whereas only the second leads
to an increase in the carrying capacity and can reduce the pressure on natural
resources. We will see in the next chapter that this is what actually occurs in Beforona.
10. Conclusion
Boserup’s stages 3 and 4 and to make this switch happen before the remaining primary
forests are cleared. A ban on forest clearing is a condition to achieve this. Otherwise,
the forest will be used to avoid reaching the thresholds that determine land use change.
The forest, however, has to remain open to the harvesting of its products, so it can
247
contribute to sustaining livelihood, rendering the ban on clearing more economically
Closing the forest frontier, however, must be mitigated 165 by support for
agricultural intensification, for a quicker passage to stages 3 and 4. This can be done
rice cultivation, crop rotation and perennial crops. For all these systems, some
investment will be necessary, at least in the form of labor, and some risks will have to
be taken until the new systems are adjusted to local conditions. Villagers from
Ambodilaingo have an almost null investment capacity and their high vulnerability
renders them risk averse. Support from outside is thus necessary if this intensification
is to happen quickly. This support could take the form of subsidies to energy, in order
to favor investment in the form of labor, while the risk factors could be alleviated by
I will finish this chapter by giving two reasons for hope. Communities of
farmers in developing countries have two advantages for avoiding a Malthusian crisis.
First, the new technologies that are necessary to change the system have long been in
could be huge if the international community was committed to provide it. Resources
are indeed available, but what remains to be questioned is rather the form this support
165
I will eventually conclude, after the analysis of development discourses in Part V, that mitigations
will not suffice because they offer no guarantee that the ban on clearing will be actually compensated.
In the last chapter of this dissertation, I will argue that a more direct compensation, in the form of
subsidies, will be necessary. But for now, based on the analysis of the agrarian system in Beforona, I
can only argue about the necessity to support agricultural intensification.
248
CHAPTER 6
1. Introduction
driving on a good road) and is still covered by rain forest on its western limit (the
From 1969 to 1972, the CTFT 166 supported 12 households to intensify their
land use in a 150 hectare watershed in Marolafa (Map 5 page 114). It proposed various
alternatives to tavy and anti-erosive techniques, introduced draft force for plowing as
well as several forage crops and improved irrigation by the creation of small dams (De
Coignac et al. 1973). Some farmers remember CTFT as being “a good project” (a
farmer in Beforona, 2002) 167 because some dams were built and “agricultural tools
were provided for free” (a farmer in Beforona, 2002). It is not clear whether the
intensification.
In 1974, after the end of the first republic and the departure of most foreign
experts, the Marolafa watershed became a research station managed by FOFIFA, the
Malagasy National Research Center for Agriculture and Rural Development. Applied
166
French Technical Center for Tropical Forestry. In French: Centre Technique Forestier Tropical. This
institute is now the Forest Department of CIRAD.
167
Farmers frequently say that this project was the best project they remember. This information can be
biased by the fact that the project was run by a French organization while I am French myself.
Moreover, the fact that the project was well perceived does not imply that it had a positive impact.
249
office in Moramanga visited the site and supported rice and coffee intensification, but
this support did not last due to the bankruptcy of the state.
started with support of the Swiss government, which funded two projects: Terre-Tany
from 1989 to 1998 and BEMA 168 from 1994 to 2001, whose research outcomes have
been utilized in Chapter 3. The main objective of these projects was to provide a
comprehensive understanding of the agrarian system and its dynamics. Beyond this
organization SAF-FJKM, 169 from 1994 to 1998 (Nambena 2004). The main activities
(Nambena 2004).
The USAID funded project LDI 170 started in 1999 and resumed the
management of the Marolafa station. LDI lasted until 2002 and was followed by a
transition project called PTE, 171 until 2004, and by the ERI 172 project which is still
ongoing today. These projects have other working sites in the Toamasina and
Fianarantsoa Provinces. They work hand in hand with other USAID programs
implemented in the area and presently form the Toamasina eco-regional alliance, a
the LDI and PTE projects in Beforona. Section 2 will critically examine the
168
Ecological Assessment in Madagascar. In French: Bilan Ecologique à Madagascar.
169
An NGO tied to the Malagasy protestant church.
170
Landscape Development Interventions, operated by the consulting firm Chemonics International.
171
Ecoregional Transition Program. In French: Programme de Transition Ecorégionale. This program is
operated by Chemonics International and by the NGO PACT.
172
Eco-Regional Initiatives, operated by Development Alternative International.
250
knowledge base that has been produced by the BEMA/Terre-Tany and LDI/PTE
projects for developing alternatives to tavy. Three PhD dissertations have been the
hallmark in this endeavor: the works of Messerli (2003), Nambena (2004) and Styger
(2004). 173 Many other relevant works exist but will not be reviewed here because
these three authors already synthesized their outcomes. In Sections 3 and 4, I will
analyze the activities implemented by the LDI and PTE project in Beforona and will
study the case of the VMCRCC project (Vohidrazana Mantadia Corridor Restoration
Ambatovolo. The VMCRCC project is still in its very early implementation but
illustrates a new turn that could be taken soon by conservation and rural development
policies in Madagascar.
work done on this subject by the Terre/Tany and BEMA programs. This section is
mostly based on his work. I will start by presenting his review of alternatives based on
fire suppression and the maximization of biomass production, which are usually those
improved fallow, and alley cropping. In a second section, I will present alternatives
saw in Chapter 5) and the pathways envisioned by Messerli (2003) to improve them.
173
My own research work was partly financed by CIIFAD (Cornell International Institute for Food,
Agriculture and Development), an institute based in Cornell University and partner of the LDI project
for the implementation of its activities in the Toamasina Province.
251
2.1.1. Agrobiological alternatives
rice due to very low germination rates and insufficient nutrient availability, and
systems, as shown in Table 12. These negative effects can, however, be corrected by
applying the mulch six months in advance, in order to favor its decomposition, and by
implementing the system on flat land (Table 13). In this case, a positive effect of no
burning on rice yield is observed the first year, but this effect is not sufficient to
compensate for the increased labor requirement. It must be noted that the experiment,
whose results are presented in Table 13, has no control: T1 is not a traditional tavy as
biomass is only partially burned and is cut six months prior to cultivation as for T2. In
order to remedy this, Messerli (2003) compares the results obtained in his trials with
labor on less degraded land, according to Moor (1998b). But this comparison can be
misleading because Moor’s (1998b) data concern ordinary tavy usually implemented
with a control plot which would be a tavy practiced on the same flat land should be
done to check the advantage of fireless practices. Other options, such as plowing or
the application of manure on land cleared using fire, would also be worthwhile to test
increase on bottom land by planting Crotalaria, but identified no plant that can
produce more biomass than native vegetation on slopes. However, he did observe a
20% yield increase, with no additional labor cost, when he associated Tephrosia with
252
Table 12: Comparison of tavy with alternatives
Treatment
Tavy (control) Biomass mulching and Biomass mulching and cutting
Criteria composting
Germination rate 10 stems/m2 42% of control 47% of control
(after 5 weeks)
Yield 100% 41% of control 31% of control
(834 kg/ha)
Invested labor 100% 580% of control 320% of control
(4.5j/120 m2)
Table 13: Effect of limited burning and no burning on rice yield and labor
productivity
Treatment
First year Second year
T1 (limited burning T2 (no burning) T1 (limited burning T2 (no burning)
the first year) the first year)
Criteria
Required days of labor 190 292 185 200
Rice yield 2430 3350 1540 1520
(kg/ha)
Labor productivity (kg/day) 12.8 11.5 8.3 7.6
253
Concerning alley cropping, ginger plots protected by Tephrosia vogelii Hook.
comparison to traditional systems (Messerli 2003, 197). This allowed a 29% yield
increase (Messerli 2003, 192) if the hedgerow was appropriately managed. However,
delayed, which can easily happen due to constraints in the farmer’s work schedule. On
the other hand, no supplementary work is required in alley cropping because the better
control of weeds by mulching compensates the time spent establishing and managing
the hedgerow.
labor it requires, while other agroforestry technologies may allow a 30% productivity
increase 174 in the best cases. This gain is significant but appears to be insufficient to
be of interest for broadening the scope of potential future land uses but should not be
regarded as a panacea for intensifying agriculture in the short-term. Even if the 30%
productivity increase was confirmed, the fact that alley cropping and improved fallow
have not been adopted, despite important extension efforts, should be considered
seriously. The risk factor, the opportunity cost of labor, the trade-off between higher
yield obtained in the long-term and lower yield obtained in the short-term, in
comparison to tavy, have never been analyzed in depth, whereas these factors may be
the main concerns at the farmer level. The integration of fast growing agroforestry
174
In the context of Beforona, where land is not the limiting factor, labor productivity is a more
important criterion than yield to assess the profitability of cropping systems. Labor productivity can be
increased without converting more land to agriculture, by increasing the frequency of cropping (Chapter
5), i.e. by decreasing the fallow period.
254
expected that the positive impact on yield will increase with time, but the labor
requirement may increase as well. Shrubs planted in hedgerows may grow fast and
require increasingly frequent pruning so not to compete with crops. Those planted in
fallow could constrain the development of more intensive systems with crop rotation
and plowing, because their root systems would render plowing excessively
demonstrate that these techniques are more profitable and more suitable to farmers
irrigation. It will also be necessary to demonstrate that erosion is indeed a key problem
in Beforona and that these technologies are efficient for limiting soil and nutrient
losses. Based on existing knowledge, even this point is doubtful. According to Brand
livestock husbandry and the development of permanent cultivation on the most fertile
land, usually on bottom land. These techniques are already practiced by the
175
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “ la technique agricole traditionnelle est
écologiquement et largement mieux adaptée aux pluies diluviennes que la plupart des innovations
pratiquées ou proposées.… Une amélioration de la qualité physique des sols (par exemple par mulching
ou agroforesterie) sur pentes raides pourrait favoriser le déclenchement des éboulements et des
glissements de terrain. Les dispositifs anti-érosifs devraient s’adapter plutôt aux événements extrêmes
qu’aux pluies quotidiennes parce que c’est pendant ces moments rares que la plupart des terres sont
perdues.”
255
population, in a rudimentary form and at a limited scale, as we saw in Chapters 3 and
5.
First is ginger cultivation on plowed land. This crop has existed in Beforona
for several decades but boomed in the late 1980s, when the renovation of the road
opened access to a wider market (Chapter 3). Beforona is now the leading area for
7 to 10, page 156 to 159). The land is cleared, burned and plowed, which provokes
elevated soil losses 176 (Brand and Rakotovao 1997). These losses are the main
land and applying 25 tons of cattle manure per hectare. Yields increased by 288% and
(Messerli 2003, 198). Clearly, the system is much more profitable than tavy and
farmers do not own cattle. The quantity of manure applied to the plot was very high
and more modest amounts should be tested. These results, however, show that
Messerli (2003) showed that swine husbandry could be developed to favor this
husbandry. 177 Beyond the production of manure, pig farming offers multiple
advantages to farmers. Rice bran and by-products of cassava and bananas can be used
to feed pigs. The sale of animals can provide a significant amount of cash that helps to
176
These losses are much more elevated than in the case of tavy: 50 ton/hectare/year on average in
ginger cropping systems, if we consider the whole rotation, including the fallow period; five
ton/hectare/year in the case of tavy, also for the whole rotation (Brand 1997).
177
In 2002, a young pig cost 100,000 FMg (about 15 USD) while a young zebu cost about 800,000
FMg (about 120 USD).
256
satisfy social obligations or to resist natural calamities. Farmers are always very
Ambinanisahavolo. 178 The main constraints, on the other hand, are the insufficient
investment capacity to buy the first animals and the risks of disease.
Messerli (2003) confirmed that the home garden is the most profitable agricultural
system in the area in terms of labor productivity (Chapter 3) but also needs important
labor investment for its establishment (Chapter 5). He proposed to associate annual
crops such as ginger, beans and other plants traditionally grown in tavy, as a way to
provide short-term high returns and amortize these investments. He demonstrated that
these crops increase the profitability of the system and allow a shorter-term return, but
empirical economic calculations at the farming system scale, not at plot scale, so
growing ginger in or out home gardens will not make any difference for them unless
bananas and ginger have positive interactions. Messerli (2003) did not provide insight
on this point. In a context where land is not rare and considering that ginger
accommodates poor soils, the advantage of the association remains doubtful, which
Lastly, Messerli investigated the potential of irrigated rice cultivation on bottom land.
His outcomes are similar to those of Chapter 5. The lack of investment capacity and
the damage caused by cyclones would be the main constraints to the creation of new
paddy fields. Land tenure and socio-organizational aspects would also be of prime
importance. In this context, the introduction of new techniques and varieties would not
be the priority (Messerli 2003). Ultimately, Messerli (2003) recognizes that paddy
fields cannot substitute totally for tavy, but considers that the potential for its
178
A village in the commune of Beforona.
257
development is, however, significant. He also showed that permanent rice cultivation
can stimulate the establishment of other permanent systems, such as home gardens and
production. Labor productivity ranged from 0.8 to 3.5 USD per day of labor 179 (the
maximum was obtained with animal husbandry). Home gardens, irrigated rice
cultivation, livestock husbandry and the use of manure were the main elements of this
success (Figure 12). Agrobiological technologies were also used but did not appear to
be essential. Only one household, which was living close to the forest, continued to do
Messerli (2003) concluded that the key factors for this successful
intensification were (1) the integration of agriculture with livestock husbandry; (2) the
and efficient social organization to manage the water); (3) the possibility of selling
products from home gardens, which allowed the purchase of cash crop seedlings and
(4) the abandonment of tavy, or at least of large tavy practiced in remote places. This
abandonment was essential to allocate more labor force to more profitable activities.
did not compete with rice cultivation (in tavy or in paddy fields), still regarded as
essential to assure food security. Most revenue was provided by the home garden
179
About 6000 to 27,000 FMg. Gross estimation due to the variations of the exchange rate and to the
uncertainty about when the data were collected.
258
Ecological cycles Economic cycles
Figure 12: Alternative farming system in Beforona (to be compared with figure 10
page 166)
Source: Messerli (2003, 279). Translation by Pollini.
259
bottom land fertilized with manure. One household also speculated on the price of
products (rice price at least doubles between harvest and food shortage periods), which
such as agroforests, improved fallow and alley-cropping. She tested a large number of
agroforestry species chosen for their potential to produce green manure, improve
concluded that fast growing agroforestry species cannot easily compete with the
invasive species that already grow in fallows. She proposed to move straight to
systems that are more intensive than improved fallow. She observed that the
2004, 218). As ginger cultivation necessitates plowing, she proposed to use this crop
to eliminate perennials fallow plants and amortize the important labor required for this
elimination. She observed that some farmers already do this and plant beans or
cassava on plowed land after ginger’s harvest. Eventually, she proposed manure,
systems. In short, Nambena (2004) proposes the transition to Boserupian stage 4 that I
described at the end of Chapter 5 and observes that this transition is already on the
verge of happening. It is interesting to notice that her working hypothesis was to favor
the plantation of perennials (agroforestry species), including in fallow land, while her
180
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French ”le nettoyage a fond par déracinement de ces arbustes
rudéraux [est une]… condition indispensable pour le renoncement au brûlis et pour une mise en culture
prolongée”
260
outcomes lead her to propose the uprooting of perennial species in fallow. To use the
jargon of the working hypothesis of this dissertation, the reality has been stronger than
the representations that framed her research (the belief that agroforestry technologies
were the solution). Chapter 10 will show that the demystification of agroforestry
Nambena, however, still advocates for the use of agroforestry species planted
in contour lines to produce mulch and green manure and protect the soils from erosion,
as shown by the exemplary hillside design she proposes (Figure 13). She is aware that
some factors could constrain the adoption of these techniques (labor requirement, risk
factor) but she did not fully assess these constraints. In sum, Nambena (2004) may
have found the clue for the future development of the region and provided some
in this agroforestry myth and may have not apprehended all the consequences of her
outcomes.
Road 2: Ambinanisahavolo, where Nambena (2004) did part of her research, and
technologies such as manure, green manure, mulching, improved fallow and the
application of guano-phosphate.
Styger (2004) analyzed land degradation in detail. She showed that thresholds
that render slash-and-burn unprofitable can be quickly reached at the scale of a whole
landscape and are not anticipated by farmers, who are then projected into a situation of
crisis they cannot escape, due to a lack of suitable alternatives (Styger et al. 2007).
261
Forest trees and cover crops
Hedgerow
Agroforestry trees
and cover crops
Hedgerows
Forest trees
and ginger
Hedgerow
Cassava
Hedgerow
Ginger in young
home-garden
Hedgerow
Home-garden with
cash crops
Hedgerow
Paddy field
Hedgerow
262
She quickly reviewed existing alternatives practiced by farmers or paid attention by
former projects. She noticed that improved fallow technologies developed by BEMA
had quickly been abandoned by farmers after the end of trials, because “the techniques
were developed only in preliminary form and were not fine-tuned to the current
system” (Styger 2004, 36). Farmers were “unable to solve emerging problems… [and]
it was easier to return to their traditional practices” (Styger 2004, 36). She stated that
irrigated rice cultivation could not produce enough rice to substitute for tavy, due to
insufficient availability of bottom land, and derived from this statement a less
optimistic conclusion than Messerli’s about the potential of this land use. Concerning
home gardens, she pointed out the insufficient quality of their products (except for
bananas) and low market price as the main constraints for their development. But she
missed the main advantage of this system (the high labor productivity) and the main
constraint for its development (the need of investment for its establishment, at least in
the form of labor). Concerning off-season crops, mostly beans and vegetables, she
considered them to be the most successful alternative. Finally, Styger (2004) deemed
After this review, Styger (2004) concludes that “people will continue tavy as
long as possible, because it is the only technique they know. The result is that all
uplands degrade and there is no reversal of this trend in sight” (Styger 2004, 50). This
conclusion contrasts with the conclusions of Messerli (2003) and Nambena (2004), as
well as with my outcomes in Chapter 5, which showed that irrigated rice cultivation,
home gardens, and ginger cultivation on plowed land are alternative systems that most
farmers already know, but that a lack of investment capacity constrains the
conclusions of these authors may, however, be explained by the fact that Styger (2004)
263
conducted part of her research in Ambatovolo, where the topography is particularly
hilly and where bottom land suitable for intensification cover limited areas.
would minimize nutrient losses and improve nutrient cycling. She proposed the
nutrients P and Ca) in combination with mulching and fallow improvement with
• Year 2: ginger
Table 14 summarizes her results. These results are consistent with Messerli’s
(2003) outcomes. They show that slash-and-mulch (T2) leads to lower yields than
slash-and-burn (T1) on the early rotation (rice and beans) and moderate yield increases
later on (for ginger). When guano-phosphate is applied in addition (T3 and T4),
significant yield increases are obtained but only for beans and ginger. The more
degraded land (Rubus and Imperata fallow) are those where the yield gains are the
most significant.
Styger (2004) also compared the treatments in terms of monetary return (Table
15). She showed that more production and added value is obtained using guano-
phosphate but not with slash-and-mulch alone. But the use of monetary return as the
main criteria for economic assessment is disputable, because it does not consider labor
264
Table 14: Relative yields of fireless alternatives according to type of land.
(% of yield obtained in slash-and-burn system = % of T1)
Dominant species in fallow
Trema Psiadia Rubus Imperata Average for
all fallow
Crop Treatment types
Rice T1 (SaB) 100 100 100 100 100
T2 (SaM) 53 21 53 34 31
T3 (Gp600) 87 47 63 81 56
T4 (Gp1200) 74 33 62
265
266
costs. We saw that labor availability is limiting for most households and that labor
productivity is a criterion that matters more than yield for farmers in Beforona,
because much land is still available. Chapter 5 provided arguments for this hypothesis
and the Section 3 will confirm it again. Styger (2004) did not calculate the labor cost
of the techniques she proposed and the description of mulching operations she
provided leads one to expect that these costs are elevated. 181
The systems proposed by Styger (2004) should also be compared with other
options. From an agronomic perspective, its makes sense to use tavy as the control
treatment. But from an economic perspective, this is not the comparison that matters.
USD for the complete rotation). If a farmer would be proposed to make such
investments, he would compare this option with other possible investments, such as
buying bottom land, paying labor force to create paddy fields, planting more banana
trees or buying animals to raise. This last option would appear more appealing to him
because it would allow the production of manure which could play the same role as
guano-phosphate. The investment would not need to be renewed in the future unless
the animals died from disease. Animals could even multiply and provide income and
draft force, in addition to manure. One hundred eighty-five to 369 USD (the cost of
guano-phosphate in T3 and T4) is the price of two to four young zebus or nine to 18
young pigs. There is little doubt that this option would be preferred by farmers and
farmers is certainly right in the sense that existing alternatives are not easily adopted
181
“For the mulch treatments in the trema, Psiadia and Rubus fallows, the woody stems and thick
branches were removed from the mulch plots just before planting. The leafy biomass, small twigs, and
branches remained on the plot as part of the mulch. The mulch was cut with the machete into pieces of
50cm to 1 m in length, and was evenly distributed on the plot.” (Styger 2004, 179)
267
and fail to substitute for tavy at a significant scale, whereas this land use is clearly in a
situation of crisis. But the alternatives she proposes face the same constraints as the
existing ones (paddy fields in bottom land and terrace; development of livestock
husbandry and use of manure; extension of home gardens) for their adoption. They are
probably even more constrained due to the elevated investment they require, in the
form of cash to buy guano-phosphate and in the form of labor to prepare the mulch.
least in the short and mid-term. Agroforestry technologies did not appear to be the
most promising alternatives due to their longer term return, the limited productivity
increase they allow, and uncertainties about management constraints that could arise
in the future. These limitations have been underestimated because the strong desires of
production narrowed the range of envisioned options, and because alternatives were
often compared with tavy, instead of being compared to one another. Messerli’s work
(2003) was a benchmark in the production of knowledge about land uses in Beforona
and technological fashions have been stronger than Messerli’s outcomes and
use of cover crops and the absence of tillage. A few projects started to develop them in
Beforona in collaboration with ANAE. Not many conclusive results are available yet
but it seems, according to the few discussions I had with project staff, that the main
268
difficulty faced by these techniques is the need to eliminate the perennials plants that
dominate fallow land. These plants grow faster than the cover crops and ANAE
proposed to eliminate them using chemical herbicides. 182 A second problem often
evoked is that the advantage of cover crops, in comparison with burning, occurs only
the third or fourth year. In sum, these new alternatives may be submitted to the same
economic constraints for their adoption. 183 In spite of this, zero tillage technologies
and cover crops are already planned to be the new technological package to be
we will see in the next section. As they offer new agronomical challenges, they may
play the same role as agroforestry did before in maintaining the belief that finding
solutions to land degradation implies to tackle biophysical issues, whereas the main
In parallel to these research efforts, farmers will continue to develop their own
land uses. Based on the outcomes of Chapter 3 and 5 and on the work of Messerli
(2003) and Nambena (2004), we can guess that future farming-systems in Beforona
plots fertilized with manure, cassava plots on degraded land, livestock systems, and
tavy, which would persist but decrease in extent during a transition period. Support to
maximization and the minimization of risks are certainly key criteria for the successful
irrigation schemes and terraces, to acquire animals in order to produce manure, to pay
labor force for the extension of home gardens and to buy cash crop seedlings.
182
According to discussion I had with ANAE experts who visited Beforona.
183
I am discussing here the suitability of these techniques in places like Beforona. Zero tillage
technologies, on the other hand, proved to be profitable and are widely adopted in the Vakinankaratra
and Alaotra Regions (Groupement Semis Direct Madagascar 2006), where agriculture is more advanced
and prosperous.
269
These new farming systems may develop in clusters around new dwellings
located close to bottom land (Messerli 2003). This new organization of space is
already visible in the villages with more degraded land and easy access to markets,
such as Ambinanisahavolo, (Nambena 2004). As farmers put it, “when the soil is
unfertile, we move to the bottom land.” 184 From this perspective, erosion is not as
much an issue as it was expected to be. It can occur but does not necessarily lead to a
dead end because part of the nutrients and soil lost on slopes accumulates in bottom
lands. Once these bottom lands have been totally cultivated, farmers will be interested
technologies, which can explain the success of zero tillage technologies and cover
crops in the more densely populated highlands (Groupement Semis Direct Madagascar
2006).
In sum, the works of Messerli (2003) and Nambena (2003) provided more
evidence of the Boserupian dynamics envisioned in Chapter 5. They showed that the
seeds of future land uses are already present in the landscape and revealed that project-
Farmers utilize the capital of fertility present in deep soils, whereas projects develop
the top soil. Farmers attempt to maximize the return of their efforts, while projects are
mostly concerned by yield maximization or monetary return. But the main mismatch
between project’s representations and realities may concern tavy itself. Clearly, tavy is
less profitable than most existing alternatives in terms of yield, as well as in terms of
labor productivity when it is practiced on degraded land. For this reason, it has often
been considered as uneconomical (Styger 2004). But tavy also has three key economic
184
From field enquiries in Beforona in 2002.
270
advantages: it is more secure, necessitates less investment 185 and provides the main
staple food. In a context of frequent cyclones, high poverty and limited access to
uneconomical but is regarded so because economic analyses are too often limited to a
few criteria (yield, monetary return, labor productivity) which are not sufficient to
account for the complexity of farmers’ economic strategies. The consequence is that
The next section and Chapter 7 will confirm these discrepancies between
representation and realities and Chapter 10, in Part IV, will show that this excessive
I stayed in Beforona (in Ambodilaingo) during six months in the year 2001
(Chapter 5) and made short but frequent visits in the commune until 2007. This
project staff and to make my own direct observations about the strategy and the impact
of the project, who actually benefited from it, and how it was perceived. I will present
here a brief summary of the knowledge I accumulated during these six years and from
the reading of LDI’s and PTE’s reports. I also hired two students to pass a
results of these enquiries have not been processed yet and will not be presented here,
185
Moor (1998) showed that the average household revenue in Tanambao (a village in the commune of
Beforona) is about 140 USD per year. Only 13% of this income is invested (about 15 USD per year),
the rest being spent to buy food and first necessity products and to satisfy social obligations.
271
but these students also conducted informal interviews and took some notes which
According to their annual reports, the primary objective of LDI (2003, 60) and
extension station of Marolafa, now called CDIA-LADIA. 186 CDIA owns 10 hectares
of land where trials and demonstration plots are implemented (Photographs 23 and
24). It is equipped with two training rooms, dormitories that can welcome 30 persons,
186
CDIA is the name that was used under the LDI and PTE project. It means “ Centre de Diffusion pour
l’Intensification Agricole ” (Extension Center for Agriculture Intensification). LADIA is the new name
that has been coined in June 2006. The ladia is a plant that serves to make strong ties, and the acronym
means “Lapa Ara-Drafitra Ivoaran’ny Ambanivolo” (community house for rural development in
Malagasy language). In addition to the LDI, PTE and ERI projects, the CDIA-LADIA had
collaborations with the Roger Haus Foundation, Cornell University, the Heidelberg University, the
Faculty of Sciences of the University of Antananarivo, the HEPHO (Haute Ecole Provinciale du
Hainaut Occidental in Belgium), the LEGTA St-Paul (Lycée d’Enseignement General des Techniques
Agricoles de Saint-Paul, La Reunion), the EPSA Bevalala (Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure Agricole
de Bevalala), the Peace Corps, and the Madagascar Green Healthy Communities Project (MGHCP).
187
According to the mayor, Beforona should receive electricity in 2007.
272
Photograph 23: Visitors at the CDIA-LADIA in Beforona. A group of farmers and
officials visit the center. We can distinguish fish ponds (foreground, left), contour
lines (middle ground, left), and buildings for raising pigs and chickens (behind the
visitors).
273
production. 188 In the last year [2002-2003], the CDIA has provided more
than 60 technical training sessions that have reached over 800 farmers.”
(LDI 2003, 63). In 2006, “83 farmers’ associations, 3209 farmers, 1094
technician, 51 researchers and 160 private operators benefited form the
activities of the center. 189
In sum, the CDIA is a training, research, and extension center similar to what is
Harena, 190 who are now organized into a federation. These associations are expected
representatives by most farmers. The citation above also reveals that despite the fact
that alternatives have to be defined by farmers, they have to be fireless. Farmers have
indeed to abandon tavy to be accepted as Kolo Harena members, a rule that was,
indeed central in LDI’s strategy. Kolo Harena were supported to create cooperatives
that facilitate access to inputs and commercialization, and benefited from a large
number of trainings. But LDI’s support also took other forms. Farmer extension agents
188
According to a flyer given to visitors (in 2006), these trainings mostly concern intensive rice
cultivation, upland rice with no burning, ecological ginger cultivation (no burning), agroforestry, fish
farming and chicken farming.
189
According to a flyer given to visitors.
190
In 2003, 26 Kolo-Harena federations grouped 20000 members, at national level (LDI 2003, 6).
274
(“paysans vulgarisateurs”) and farmer organizers (“paysans animateurs”) have been
LDI and PTE projects had trained, at national level, more than 600 paysans
vulgarisateurs and animateurs. Among them, around 400 received a certificate from
the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forest, and from the Ministry of Agriculture,
2003 antifire campaign (Chapters 3 and 5) has been implemented with technical and
financial support from USAID funded projects MIRAY, LDI and PTE. These projects
presidential message broadcast on radio did not employ the term tavy. They spoke of
the necessity to control fires, not to eradicate them, and planned to offer a premium to
“green” communes that would not be invaded by fires. The PTE and MIRAY
projects, as revealed by their annual reports, switched the focus from bush fire control
to tavy eradication. Several passages of the LDI and PTE reports reveal this strategy.
275
For example, the arrest of farmers that practiced tavy, in Beforona
Ambatovolo, was perceived as giving opportunities to achieve more results and was
encouraged:
Since August 2002, the new administration has taken unprecedented steps
to strictly enforce laws and regulations against bushfires, which
considerably facilitate our task, broaden the impact of our actions and
encourage rural communities to actively seek alternatives to tavy. In that
context, we teamed up with the Ministry of Water and Forest, local
communities, and ten communes in our zones of intervention, to promote a
campaign against tavy and launch a small-scale reforestation program.
Those communes will soon be certified as “green communes.” This
initiative deserves special attention and should be replicated at a larger
scale, because it demonstrates how a drastic change in governmental policy
can induce a much more conducive framework and lead to productive
partnerships that can effectively reduce bushfires and tavy. (LDI 2003, 6)
Another passage reveals that repression is viewed as a way to alleviate the
uses repression as a mean to facilitate adoption and may conduct the poorest farmers
276
to join and to set up new Kolo Harena associations, where farmers are
enthusiastic about learning methods to reclaim abandoned upland areas.
(LDI 2003, 73)
But this optimism fails to hide the risk of favoring a minority of competitive
farmers that can afford to adopt alternatives while the majority would just suffer from
the ban. The minority could in the end be empowered by controlling the local
evoked in Chapter 1 and the situation in remote villages (Chapter 5), one can wonder
if this dynamic could contribute to alleviate poverty and reduce pressures on primary
forests.
August 8, 2003. Representatives of all communes were invited to talk. The Ministry of
Environment, the Senate and the National Assembly vice presidents, the Toamasina
Province President, the deputies and the senator of Moramanga attended the
workshop. There were more than one hundred participants and it was asked that one
farmer of each commune speak. The large majority of them (about nine out of ten)
asked for an authorization to practice tavy in fallow land. Their interventions were
always followed by strong applauses. They argued that they did not have sufficient
bottom land and that the cropping systems with no burning were not profitable. They
also expressed distrust about the technicians working for projects. They asked for the
building of infrastructures: dams and canals for irrigation and the creation of new
roads to market their products. A representative of the Kolo Harena association also
spoke. He encouraged farmers to stop doing tavy and to apply the techniques proposed
by technicians. His intervention was disturbed by hecklers and he was forced stop his
talk before finishing, demonstrating that the Kolo Harena were not legitimate
277
Eventually, the decisions taken during the workshop were the following:
the Ministry would send staff for approbation. But in all cases, clearing
• The ministry would support land titling and would send agriculture
technicians.
• In the long-term, the forest corridor should be restored from the fallow
vegetation.
Being present at the workshop, I had the sense that the requests by the farmers
had been heard and that an opening to the practice of tavy on fallow land was about to
occur. Many participants had the same optimism. This did not happen, however. A
provincial order outlawing fires in the Toamasina Province was issued after the
The participatory ideal justifies the organization of workshops and meetings with local
and regional stakeholders but these workshops mostly serve to legitimize decisions
that depend on centrally designed policies. The issuance of the Provincial order can
projects than by the workshop’s outcomes. The fact that the PTE project “Assisted the
191
Direction du Département chargé de la sécurité civile et de la conservation de l'environnement
(2003). According to article 2 of this order, the use of fire is strictly forbidden on the whole Toamasina
Autonomous Province, on the littoral plains zone, the hill zone, the escarpment zone, and along streams
and rivers. The burning of detritus (herbs and branches) without protection and watch over, and without
taking account of the wind direction, is also forbidden. Translation by Pollini. Original text in French:
“Sur l’étendue de la Province autonome de Toamasina, l’usage du feu, sur la zone des plaines littorales,
les zones de colline, zone des hauts massifs, ainsi que la zone située aux abords des rivières et fleuves,
est strictement interdit. L’incinération de déchets (herbes, branchages) ou écobuage sans protection,
sans surveillance et sans tenir compte du vent est également interdit.” Some contradictions appear in the
text but the main message is a strict ban on all types of tavy, whereas the national legislation authorizes
the practice of tavy on herbaceous vegetation (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1960).
278
provincial government in drafting and eventually finalizing a provincial decree
outlawing forest fires” (PTE 2004, 27) provides arguments in this sense. The order
was, however, never enforced in Beforona, showing that realities were eventually
stronger than decisions taken from misrepresentations. One decision, however, was
eventually translated into action: the restoration of the forest corridor (Section 4). This
decision is also the only one that is at odds with the outcomes of the discussions that
In sum, the LDI, PTE, and MIRAY projects used two strategies expected to act
in synergy. On one side, repression was viewed as a way to discourage farmers from
practicing tavy. On the other, training and communication campaigns were designed to
convince farmers of the interests of the new systems. A behavioral change was
expected from the combination of these two elements. This approach is not consistent
with the outcomes of Chapter 5 and the conclusions of Messerli (2003). There is much
doubt about the profitability of fireless alternatives and investments are necessary to
adopt and develop more intensive systems. We further saw in Chapter 5 that the
antifire campaign was suffered like a calamity by vulnerable people. The supporters of
tavy repression forgot that projects operate mostly along roads, whereas the
presidential message and information about the arrest of farmers have been heard in all
villages, regardless of their distance from roads and markets. Due to this asymmetry, it
synergy. The repression campaign may have had a high price indeed, both politically
and economically. I did not meet one single person of the Malagasy administration
that considered it realistic and wise. Only the lobby of conservation organizations, if
not of the whole aid system, can explain such a radical action. One could wonder why
such importance is given to fire suppression in the area. It may be that biodiversity
conservation and erosion control are not the only explanations. A new “actor” may be
279
on the verge of powerfully shaping development discourses and practices around the
forest corridor: carbon. The last section of this Chapter, about the VMCRCC carbon
required for intensification have, however, also been tackled by the LDI and PTE
accessing credit and other sources of funding, support in accessing markets, and
mostly been affected by the two first options. LDI helped the Kolo Harena
cooperatives to establish commercial contracts, mostly for the sale of ginger. It also
helped farmers to obtain funding through the OTIV 192 system and the PSDR 193
project, mostly for developing ecological ginger cultivation, livestock husbandry and
I did not collect specific information about these grants in the case of
Beforona. But for the overall LDI project (activities mostly implemented in the
Toamasina and Fianarantsoa provinces), 143 farmers have been helped during the year
1998-1999, mobilizing 16,500 USD at OTIV. This allowed the cultivation of irrigated
rice using intensified and sustainable techniques on 242 hectares of land. A second
request of about 2,700 USD “helped 68 farmers produce upland beans on 48.3
hectares using anti-erosive and soil fertility improvement technologies that will
stabilize the need for continued slash burn agriculture on the hillsides” (LDI 2000, 4).
192
In Malagasy: Ombona Tahiry Ifampisamborana Vola. A Malagasy NGO that provides rural credit.
193
Rural Development Support Project. In French: Projet de Soutien au Développement Rural. Project
financed by The World Bank for supporting the Malagasy Rural Development Action Plan (PADR).
280
About 90,000 USD have further been mobilized, from OTIV and from the Bank of
Africa, to fund 45 community granaries. During the year 2002-2003, OTIV loans
“totaling 158,313,350 FMg 194 were disbursed to 218 Kolo Harena farmers
beneficiaries [110 USD per beneficiary] with 60% of these loans funded by the
revolving fund, and the remainder as new loans.” (LDI 2003, 73)
Concerning the PSDR, this project accepted 18 grant requests during the year
benefited from most of the aid, and that the amount of PSDR grants represented a
large sum in comparison with the economic level of slash-and-burn farmers. Moor
(1998b) calculated that households invest about nine to 13% of their revenue, which
represents 22 USD for an annual revenue of about 175 USD. 195 The farmers supported
by Messerli (2003) had an annual benefit 196 ranging from 700,000 to 900,000 FMg
(100 to 140 USD) and invested 13 to 41% of this benefit into agriculture, which
first glance but actually allowed farmers to significantly improve their livelihood. This
even sometimes resulted in jealousy from the rest of the community (Messerli 2003).
194
About 24,000 USD.
195
1138,000 FMg.
196
I do not consider speculation on rice price, which allowed one farmer to obtain a much higher
benefit.
281
In comparison, the amount of OTIV grants may be adequate only in the case of
richer or less poor farmers. For others, they may represent amounts they could not
destroy their harvest. This would be particularly true in the case of remote villages
having no access to market, such as Ambodilaingo. The PSDR grant represented a still
more elevated amount. Several thousand USD were usually granted to Kolo Harena
associations 197 which grouped less than ten households (in the case of Beforona).
However, loans were nonreimbursable, meaning that PSDR grants represented no risk
and could even be used for nonprofitable activities. PSDR loans may have indeed been
the main incentive for the creation of Kolo Harena associations. But farmers with
more education and economically better off, often migrants that never practiced tavy
or were never dependant on this land use, were the first to benefit from the loans. Even
grants from PSDR. Certainly these people deserve support because not being poor
does not mean being rich in Beforona. But if the objective of the projects was to
reduce tavy and poverty, their economic empowerment may be counter productive, as
appropriate if properly managed. But they remained inefficient because they were
197
To give a few examples viewed in the LDI and PTE reports (not specifically from Beforona): the
Hery Miaradia association in Mahanoro received 43 million FMg from PSDR (about 6,600 USD) for
developing duck farming; the Vonona Tsarahonenana in Fenerive Est received 25 million FMg (about
3,800 USD) from IPPTE (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative of the World Bank, a fund
managed by the Malagasy government) for reforestation); The TLA association in Amboditonononana
received 25 million FMg (about 3,800 USD) from CEQUIP to buy a huller; five cooperatives and a
COBA received 135 million FMg (about 20,000 USD) from IPPTE for reforestation (PTE 2004a, 20);
two associations (Vorontsaradia-Ambonivato and Miavotena–Mahanoro) received nonreimbursable
funding totaling nearly 65 million FMG (about 10,000 USD) for the acquisition of an improved still and
a huller (from various LDI and PTE reports). In Beforona, according to local informants, the first
association that benefited from a PSDR grant received 55 million FMg (about 8,400 USD) to grow
“ecological ginger” (ginger using fireless alternatives).
282
conditioned to the adoption of fireless techniques, mostly for ginger cultivation, which
did not prove to be profitable as we saw in the previous section and as we will see
again later. Many farmers had difficulty repaying the loans and complained about the
In this section, I will review the techniques proposed to farmers by the LDI
project. I will use as a starting point the CDIA center, which contributes to the
The small watershed where CDIA is located shows a zoning from its upper to
Up the hill are trees that have been planted by the CTFT project in the early
1970s. They mostly belong to the genera Pinus, Araucaria and Agathis.
Under this woody crown, banana trees have been planted in association with
coffee and a few fruit trees. These home gardens show some differences as compared
with those of local farmers: they are not invaded by weeds or invasive species such as
Rubus mollucanus, whatever is the period of the year. As a consequence, their yield is
certainly higher than in traditional systems. But we saw that high yield is not the
priority in the area. The goal of farmers is to maximize their production at a farming
systems scale and labor productivity is the main criterion to achieve this. We saw in
the case of Ambodilaingo that home garden maintenance can be done at any time of
the year. Due to this flexibility, the opportunity cost of labor in home gardens is very
low. If cleaning and weeding would be done several times a year, this advantage
Looking down the home garden, hedgerows planted on contour lines delineate
283
represent a significant investment in terms of labor for their maintenance. A
permanent cultivation of ginger, beans, rice, and other crops in the alleys between the
hedgerows may be necessary to amortize these investments. Ginger is the main cash
crop promoted by LDI to achieve this and is sometimes seen growing at CDIA. The
yield does not necessarily result in more production because the new techniques also
demand more labor and they can “only apply the technique on a small plot.” As a
contradicted by the fact that this crop is grown only sporadically and on limited
198
A farmer in Beforona, 2007. Other testimonies from farmers have been received during enquiries in
Beforona (2001 and 2002): “those that are not members and continue to do tavy actually live better than
us”; “the technique of LDI can produce much, but they need more work and we can implement them on
a small piece of land only.” “We do not have the means to implement these techniques. We have been
trained but we do not get any support for implementing the techniques after the training.”
284
surface in the CDIA itself. This absence could, however, be explained by a reason
management issues would be the cause of this situation. Management decisions are
taken along a chain of actors that goes from the center to the project’s regional office,
and from there to the head national offices, which itself has to answer to expectations
from the donor and from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. This chain of actors
reduces the array of agricultural technologies that the center can implement and slows
the decision process, resulting in difficulty getting cash at the right time and following
In other plots of the hill sides, cinnamon trees are planted but are not yet in
production.
Small paddy fields are encountered in the bottom land, which is quite narrow.
A small cement dam and a canal divert water from a small stream for irrigation. Two
types of rice cultivation systems are implemented: SRI 199 and SRA. 200
SRI is an innovative rice cultivation system that can achieve high yields
without requiring chemical inputs (Stoop et al. 2002). It is based on a simple principle:
alternately inundating and drying the field, with a weekly frequency or more. This
provokes an oxygenation of the soil that strongly benefits the root system, allowing
rice to express its total biological potential if other factors are not limiting. Many
thallus can be obtained from a single stem and more spikelets are born by each stem.
The rice can be sowed at larger spacing and with just one seed per seed hole, which
allows saving many seedlings. Yields of 10 tons per hectare and more can be
achieved. Soil oxygenation is higher, which stimulates biological activity and makes
199
Intensive Rice Cultivation System. In French : Système de Riziculture Intensive.
200
Improved Rice Cultivation System. In French : Système de Riziculture Améliorée.
285
nutrients more available and better preserved in the long-term. SRI works with all
varieties of rice and does not require “modern” inputs such as fertilizers or machines.
criticize it for the high labor input it requires. The reason is simple: the oxygenation of
the soil also benefits the weeds. The main function of the water table in rice
cultivation systems is actually not to feed rice in water, but to eliminate weeds. It is
true that water stress is detrimental to rice and that the natural environment of wild
rice is wetland, but a permanent inundation is not necessary to cultivate rice, including
in the case of bottom land varieties. But in the absence of inundation, SRI plots have
to be weeded three or four times (some technicians recommend weekly weeding). The
ecological ginger. I did not find data to verify this because most evaluations focus on
yields, but farmers directly experience this constraint. As they put it, “we do SRI on a
small plot and traditional rice on the rest of the land.” 201 They try it rather than adopt
it, and abandon it as soon as projects leave, as shown by Moser and Barrett (2003a;
2003b).
SRI may also be riskier because transplanting from the nursery is done at an
earlier stage (8 to 15 days after sowing), which renders the plot more vulnerable to
flooding and cyclones. A perfect control of the water table is necessary to achieve
success. This risk factor may indeed be as important a constraint for adoption as low
labor productivity. If everything goes right, SRI may also be profitable in terms of
labor productivity because high yield could cover the supplementary work. But
cyclones, flooding, pests, and diseases can annihilate the efforts a farmer invests in
201
All farmers practicing SRI that I have visited until now (about 6, in Beforona and Ikongo) made
exactly this same assertion. Discussion with project staff shows that they experience the same
statements.
286
SRI. As I showed in Chapter 5, the objective of vulnerable farmers is to produce more
SRI’s rational is to express the complete yield potential of rice. This implies
that there are no other limiting factors, which may hardly be the case in Beforona. For
example, it is doubtful whether the soils in Beforona are sufficiently fertile to allow
high yields and amortize the high labor input invested in SRI. Eventually, SRI’s high
necessary to compensate for the exportation of nutrients when very elevated yields are
obtained.
The LDI and PTE projects were aware of these limitations and proposed
another pathway for irrigated rice intensification: the SRA. SRA is based on more
yield potential and doing an earlier transplantation. Its diffusion started during the first
republic (and maybe earlier), through support by the CTFT project. Some ingredients
of the SRA package are sometimes adopted by farmers. The main advantage they
notice is that new techniques (both SRA and SRI) allow saving seedlings due to a
larger spacing and a lower number of seedling holes. SRA extension thus certainly
contributed to the progress of rice cultivation in the area. However, the labor costs of
the new techniques are also criticized, although to a lesser extent than in the case of
SRI. The main work constraint results from transplanting in rows (this also applied to
SRI). Rows allow mechanical weeding, which saves some time, but on the other hand,
more time is needed for transplanting. Furthermore, weeding machines are not always
available, are expensive with regard to the investment capacity of most households,
and the labor gain for weeding does not necessarily compensate for the labor cost of
transplanting in a row. In order to compare these two tasks, labor has to be compared
considering its opportunity cost. This has not been done yet.
287
The CDIA further developed livestock husbandry activities. It raised improved
breeds of pigs and chickens but these activities were not profitable due to the high cost
of food supplements. They were abandoned in 2002 but restarted later. The CDIA also
created fish ponds but their production was low or uncertain for reasons that are not
yet clear, and they necessitated labor investments that farmers cannot easily afford.
Here again, a calculation remains to be done to know if the profit compensates for the
investments, and to compare the profitability of fish ponds with other activities.
Farmers have done their empirical “calculation” already and are reluctant to create fish
ponds on their land. Fish ponds are even the subject of jokes and those who adopted
programs about agroforestry (contour strips, alley cropping, and improved fallow),
vegetables), SRA and SRI, compost production, and swine and chicken husbandry.
When beneficiary farmers are asked about their interest for the training they receive,
they almost unanimously answer that the topics are interesting but that they usually
cannot apply the proposed techniques because they do not have sufficient time or
financial resources.
extension centers. The limits of this type of approach have been already analyzed and
criticized in depth. The CDIA, similar to other centers of the same kind, is isolated
from the farming systems it is supposed to support. In spite of this, the CDIA is the
subject of many newspapers articles that speak in praise of its achievements. 202 It may
202
Articles in Midi Madagascar, July 28, 2003; Madagascar Tribune No 4414, July 28, 2003; L’express
de Madagascar, July 29, 2003; Le Quotidien de Madagascar, July 20, 2004; L’express de Madagascar,
September 24, 2004; Midi Madagascar, May 30, 2006 ; Les Nouvelles, May 31, 2006 ; La Gazette, May
288
be possible that its implicit function is the demonstration of the project’s achievements
the donors, and even of citizens from donor countries (American congressmen) come
to visit the center and leave with an enthusiasm that contrasts strongly with farmer’s
When asked to say what they think of the LDI and PTE projects, people in
Beforona speak of excessively frequent training that makes them lose time while
providing them with techniques they cannot apply, and complain about the fact that
the project requires the abandonment of tavy. As they, the “beneficiaries” of LDI,
often put it, “those who still do tavy are less poor than us, because the alternatives we
“just talking about alternatives without even trying to implement them” (a farmer in
Antandrokomby in 2002). Fireless alternatives are criticized for the excessive work
they require and the increased risk of pest damage they lead to.
Beside these issues, “beneficiary” farmers recalled a few other problems: they
had been promised certain prices for ginger sales but the price had eventually been
lower; seedlings arrived late with regard to the agriculture calendar; the management
rules of community granaries had unexpectedly changed and the profit farmers hoped
complained that they were obliged to buy coffee seedlings. These problems have
31, 2006 ; Madagascar Tribune, June 1, 2006 ; Le Quotidien, June 1, 2006 ; La Gazette, June 3, 2006 ;
Les Nouvelles, June 3, 2006 ; Midi Madagascar, June 3, 2006 ; Madagascar Tribune, June 3, 2006.
203
Many testimonies, coming from the enquirers I hired, from my own informal enquiries, from
discussion with project staff, include this statement. I faced exactly the same statements during visits of
the LDI project in the Fianarantsoa Province (Ikongo and Ranomafana) and of the PDFIV project in
Tsinjoarivo (Ambatolampy district).
289
sometimes been the cause of anger, but can be regarded as minor issues because they
do not put into question the strategy of the project itself. They just illustrate the
project. But in a context where the local elite receives the main benefits, these small
The concentration of the aid in the hands of a local elite may indeed be the
main pitfall of the project. As we saw, the Kolo Harena associations that received
PSDR grants are often headed by traders and product collectors who are not dependant
on tavy for subsistence or who never even practiced tavy. Key positions such as the
presidency of the local federation are held by the most prosperous traders. This
category is indeed the only fraction of the beneficiaries that expressed satisfaction
better social and political status in the commune. The rest of the population usually
consistent with the objective of supporting tavy farmers and alleviating poverty. The
project argues that if rich farmers adopt new techniques, the poorer will follow, but
this logic did not prove to be true. The empowerment of the most competitive farmers
lead them to fill market niches and to lower the prices of cash crops to the detriment of
farmers living in remote areas, as we saw in Chapter 5 in the case of ginger. As rich
farmers appropriate the land most suitable for intensification, their empowerment may
contribute to the marginalization of the poorest ones, with both environmental and
The problem of inadequate target has been recognized by the project itself. The
ERI program is now committed to avoiding excessive focus on what he calls “false
290
farmers” (Staff from the ERI project, 2007). It seems that only the neighboring
strategy to develop the commune and complained about the absence of support at this
level. Even project staff complained that LDI neglected this activity (only one dam has
been built with LDI’s support, irrigating about 10 hectares). The reasons behind this
neglect are the lack of budget for this activity, the fact that the construction of
irrigation schemes is funded by the World Bank Project FID, 204 the elevated cost of
cement dams and the limited potential of the commune for irrigated rice cultivation.
Concerning the elevated cost, Chapter 7 will show that dams are actually quite cheap.
Concerning the area suitable for irrigation, the Mayor established, in 2002, a
preliminary list of 60 sites that could be equipped or repaired, for a total of about 260
feasible, but Chapter 7 will show that this number is not unrealistic if the case of
In conclusion to this section, the LDI and PTE projects focused excessively on
implement the new techniques. The proposed alternatives imply more risks and
necessitate investments that most farmers cannot provide, while the more realistic
lacked flexibility, consisted of excessively large loans that farmers had difficulty
204
Social Fund Project. In French : Fonds d’Investissements pour le Développement.
291
repaying and concentrated nonreimbursable grants in the hands of a better off
minority. Excessive importance was given to repressive policies whose overall effect
on livelihood was destructive, especially in remote areas. As a result, LDI and PTE
may have ended up empowering a rural elite which has never been dependent on tavy
to subsist, and which may be in an unequal competition with tavy farmers to seize
market opportunities and to access to the most fertile lands, those suitable for
These dynamics, together with the negative impact of the anti-tavy campaign,
may have increased the vulnerability of poor farmers. I did not prove these facts but a
large bundle of evidence renders this interpretation of the reality much more
defensible than the optimistic picture produced in the LDI’s and PTE’s reports, such
as the belief that fireless alternatives and PSDR grants will allow the development of
the area.
The consequence is that most farmers in Beforona complain that the LDI
project “just helps the rich” (several farmers in Beforona 2002) and “does not propose
that agriculture has developed in the commune over the last decade, but this may result
more from the increasing pressure on land, which forces farmers to develop more
intensive systems (usually other than those proposed by LDI). The development of
cash crops, such as ginger and bananas, also played a role by providing opportunities
to increase incomes.
(AMZCR)
292
communes of Ambatovolo and Andasibe, west from Beforona. This project is aimed at
reestablishing connectivity between corridor fragments located north and south from
National Road 2. It will be partly funded by the sale of carbon newly stored by
in Madagascar and reveals the rural development and conservation strategies that
4.1. Context
With the signature of the Kyoto Protocol and the implementation of the Clean
Development Mechanism, carbon has become a commodity that can be bought and
sold on the world global market. Land use change and forestry, if they lead to an
increase of carbon stocks, create opportunities for transactions on this market (Brown,
in press; World Bank 2006). It seems that the idea of using the carbon market to
between fragments of the eastern rain forest corridor. A workshop about the Clean
2001). Surveys were launched to assess the potential of Malagasy forests to store
carbon. Rarivoarivelomanana (2001, 15) showed that the lowland rain forests store
120 to 450 tons of carbon 205 per hectare, whereas the middle altitude forests store 80
to 310 tons/ hectares. The Wildlife Conservation Society launched the Makira Forest
Project (Meyers 2001; Meyers and Berner 2001), partially funded by the sale of
emission offsets on the voluntary carbon market. But the AMZCR project is the first
attempt to use the Clean Development Mechanism. It was prepared with support from
205
One ton of carbon is equivalent to 3.664 tons of CO2.
293
Life. 206 It would last 30 years and would be worth eight million USD, including 3.2
million USD from the BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank. 207 The main other donors
are IDA, 208 GEF, 209 USAID, CI through its Global Conservation Fund, the Climate
Conservation International has been working in the area for over a decade. It
collaborated with ANGAP 211 in the early 1990s to implement the ICDP212 approach in
the Zahamena National Park, during the first phase of the NEAP. It further
implemented the ESFUM 213 component of the second phase of NEAP, with the
USAID funded MIRAY project (MIRAY 2004), from 1998 to 2004, and collaborated
with the projects LDI, PTE, ERI, and FSP-ADRA, which, together with their partners,
projects are expected to provide the main knowledge base and capital of experience
for the implementation of the AMZCR project, meaning that a continuity can be
expected between the activities proposed by LDI and PTE and those that will be
206
This NGO “promotes the restoration of the world's degraded ecosystems as the most important task
facing humanity in the coming decades” (http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/about/aboutus.html).
207
The Biocarbon Fund, managed by the World Bank, serves as an intermediary between carbon buyers
and sellers. See World Bank (no date) for more details about this fund.
208
International Development Agency, a division of the World Bank dedicated to the poorest countries.
209
Global Environmental Facility.
210
“The Climate Trust is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to providing solutions to stabilize
our rapidly changing climate.” (http://www.climatetrust.org/)
211
National Agency for the Management of Protected Areas. In French : Agence Nationale pour la
Gestion des Aires Protégées.
212
Integrated Conservation and Development Project.
213
Multiple Use Forest Ecosystems. In French: Ecosystèmes Forestiers a Usages Multiple.
294
4.2. Presentation of the AMZCR project
fragments of the corridor, to create carbon sinks and to develop sustainable cultivation
between and around the Mantadia and the Zahamena National Parks.
eligible at present, 214 but may be supported by the voluntary carbon market and be
activity designed to avoid leakage: as farmers live in the reforestation area, they may
move and clear forest in other places to compensate for the loss of agricultural land in
favor of reforestation. Sustainable gardens, fruit gardens, and firewood plantations are
aimed at providing food and income to these farmers, in order to allow them to stay in
214
There are currently discussions to render avoided deforestation eligible to the Clean Development
Mechanism in a series of pilot countries, and Madagascar could be chosen as one of these pilot
countries.
295
Andasibe
Mantadia
National
Park
Communes
Villages
Footpaths
National road
Fruit gardens
Firewood plantation
Reforestation
Sustainable gardens
Analamazoatra Beforona
reserve
Km
Vohidrazana Ambodilaingo
forest
296
The Biocarbon Fund of the World Bank accepted the project identification
document (Project Idea Note) in November 2004, and agreed to implement the project
with the government of Madagascar as a host party (Intention Letter signed in March
2005). A Project Design Document has been prepared but addresses components 1 and
close to the Mantadia National Park 215 and the Perinet-Analamazoatra reserve,216
between the communes of Beforona and Andasibe. Its main objective is the
reconnection of the south and north parts of the forest corridor along National Road 2
(Photograph 25). This subproject has been named the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor
Restoration and Conservation Carbon Project (VMCRCC) and the analysis that
follows will be limited to it. The VMCRCC’s Project Design Document has not been
validated yet, but carbon sales have already been negotiated by the Biocarbon Fund
and are ready to be signed. The Malagasy government has put in place a coordination
unit (in April 2005), which includes staff from its central and decentralized services. It
also promised to engage 1.5 million USD from its GEF-IDA funding (third phase of
NEAP). But until now, only Conservation International’s financial contribution has
been disbursed, enabling the start of field activities such as the establishment of
nurseries, the identification of plots for reforestation and the training of field partners
organizations 217 plus the Mantadia National Park), but a project manager remains to
215
The most visited national park in Madagascar, managed by ANGAP. 10 000 hectares.
216
A small reserve (810 hectares) that shelters a population of Indri indri, the largest lemur in
Madagascar and a threatened species.
217
Mitsinjo (an NGO based in Andasibe), Ecophi (an association of experts and consultants of the
Ambohitsaina Faculty of Sciences), MATE (Man and the Environment, an NGO that runs a project in
Ambavaniasy, between Andasibe and Beforona), SAF-FJKM (the development and relief agency of the
Church of Jesus-Christ in Madagascar), NAT (a German NGO), AGA (Association of the Andasibe
Guides).
297
Photograph 25: Vegetation in Ambavaniasy. This area is targeted by the
reforestation component of the VMCRCC project. The dominant land use is tavy,
which results in a landscape dominated by young fallows. Cassava is visible in the
foreground and forest patches subsist in the background. The landscape is expected to
be transformed into a mosaic of agroforestry gardens, sustainable gardens and restored
ecosystems.
298
be recruited to insure the link between the coordination unit and these seven partners.
Contracts with farmers have not been signed yet but negotiations to prepare
these contracts are ongoing. It has been proposed that farmers lend part of their land
for reforestation, on a voluntary basis, for the thirty year period of the project. In some
cases, they own this land legally, in other cases, their “ownership” is a use-right
granted by traditional authorities but recognized as legitimate by the state and the
project. In the first case, it may be possible that farmers would be financially
compensated for lending their land, but the matter is not clear and still in discussion.
In the second case, they would not be directly compensated but would benefit from
three advantages:
implementation of component 3.
Concerning the benefit from carbon sales, it will be captured by the Malagasy
government and will serve to finance reforestation operations (including the salaries of
The key question that arises from this model is whether the advantages
proposed by the project will compensate for the disadvantage of losing agricultural
land through reforestation. As the main new resource (the profit generated by carbon
sale) is captured by the Malagasy government, the fate of farmers will depend on the
218
Land certificates are not exactly land title, but according to the new land law passed in 2006
(Gouvernement de Madagascar 2006), they provide the same rights.
299
capacity of new land use to compensate the loss of usufruct on reforested land. If the
alternatives compensate for this loss, there will be a win-win situation and both rural
design agricultural support may be the one accumulated by the LDI and PTE projects,
which does not encourage optimism. In the next section, I will analyze the available
documents about this project and will synthesize the results of discussions I had in
February 2007 with people working in several organizations involved in it. 219 Section
4.3. will analyze the transmission of technical knowledge, while Section 4.4 will
These analyses are quite speculative as the VMCRCC project did not start
many activities, but so are the hypotheses that served for its conception. In the case of
projects adopting new strategies, there is no other choice than adopting uncertain
hypotheses. Uncertainty can be significantly lowered only once these activities are
completed.
219
I met with representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests, Conservation
International, Man and the Environment (a partner NGO working in Ambavaniasy, about 10 kilometers
from Beforona), and Mitsinjo (a partner NGO working in Andasibe).
300
First, the preliminary PDD 220 explicitly refers to technologies developed in
Beforona as sound alternatives that farmers could implement. 221 Interviews with staff
from the MINENVEF and from CI confirmed that this perspective prevails. Much
hope is put on agroforestry technologies and on cover crops and zero tillage, despite
the fact that these techniques have yet to be proven to be adapted to the region. Field
partners, however, did not share this optimism. Staff from the NGO Mitsinjo
contended that zero tillage would result in lower yields the first year, equal yields the
second year and hopefully higher yields the third or fourth year, in comparison with
tavy. Moreover, more inputs would be necessary, such as cover crop seeds and
chemical herbicides to eliminate the weeds that compete with the cover crops.
Fruit gardens, fallow gardens and sustainable gardens are other systems
concerning these techniques except in a few training documents of the CTHT, 222
which insist on the necessity of using compost and applying mulch, and on the web
site of the “Restore the Earth Project” (no date) of the nongovernmental organization
“Trees for Life.” The information provided on this site may be out of date but is the
only one available. The site presents the project “Catalysing Rainforest Restoration in
achieved mainly by the creation of “savoka gardens” (fallow gardens), which would
consist of
220
Project design document form for afforestattion and reforestation project activities (CDM-AR-PDD)
version 02 (no date). This document is a working draft and its content may change significantly in the
future. However, I exploit it in this article because despite the fact that it is a draft version, the project’s
implementation has already started on the ground, and because this draft PDD is the only institutional
document available for analyzing the strategies that are driving this implementation.
221
See Section F1, social risks, of the PDD. This document is a draft with no pagination.
222
Centre Technique Horticole de Toamasina. In French: Horticulture Technical Center of Toamasina.
This center is a public organization which has been supported by aid from the French in the past and is
dedicated to the development of fruit and vegetable cultivation.
301
a mixture of local native forest plants and exotic fruit and vegetable plants.
The aim… [would be] to transform land that would otherwise be colonized
(due to abandonment after rice harvest) by alien invasive plants of no use
to people or the rest of native biodiversity, into productive, soil-restoring
land for a five year fallow period. (Restore the Earth Project no date, no
pagination)
The NGO also proposes to establish “permanent community gardens,” which
would associate “plants which yield produce over the longer-term (e.g., fuel wood,
timber, fruit)” (Restore the Earth Project, no date). Both types of gardens would
contain a high proportion of native forest trees and shrubs, acting as a
buffer between the corridors and areas of mono-cultures, as well as
providing resources which would otherwise be obtained from intact
forest.”(Restore the Earth Project no date, no pagination)
We can suppose that “fallow gardens” and “permanent community gardens”
will constitute the 928 hectares of “sustainable garden” that are visualized on Map 13
(page 296), whereas the fruit gardens would constitute the 334 hectares area. The
part of the land that will not be directly targeted by the project, and the financing for
these alternatives remains unclear. If this pattern was confirmed, the target area would
consist of a mosaic of reforested land, fruit tree gardens, fallow gardens and
matches with the importance given to agroforestry by most actors involved in the
VMCRCC project and is consistent with the fact that, initially, the carbon stored in
sustainable gardens and fallow gardens was expected to be sold on the global market
as well. The project eventually abandoned this idea in order to give more flexibility to
landscape linking the northern and southern fragments of the corridor remains one of
Farmers will, however, not be obliged to lend their land to the project. But as
they say, “we have no choice, because tavy is forbidden now, so we must at least try to
302
get these advantages” (a farmer in Ambavaniasy, 2007). These words may reveal a
Moramanga during the fire repression campaign of 2002/2003 and the issuing of the
There is no doubt that the technologies proposed by the project will achieve
nor about the marketability of their products. Bananas and ginger are the main cash
crops in the area but little is said about the importance that will be given to them in the
gardens. The technologies proposed by the VMCRCC can only be assessed on the
basis of previous experience in Beforona, which does not allow optimism as we saw in
Section 2. In sum, the VMCRCC inherited the belief that fires and erosion are the
main enemies, which led to the implicit assumption that maximizing biomass
This blind faith is confirmed by the draft version of the Project Design
Document, which indicates that “no socio-economic negative impacts are expected
from this project” (Draft Project Design Document no date, no pagination). The
PDD’s section about cost analysis further asserts that “as the project activity is
reforestation without any generation of financial or economic benefits other than CDM
related income, simple cost analysis… should be applied” (Draft Project Design
Document no date, no pagination). Considering that the project plans to convert about
303
5000 hectares of agricultural land into forest or agroforestry systems whose
The draft PDD reveals other received wisdoms that can explain the
unknown” is explained by the potential wrong choices made by farmers, while the
possibility that the project would make the wrong choice itself is not even mentioned.
Another section, about social risks, makes explicit that the project considers that
feasible. But farmers are already aware of this and what should be cause of concern
now is the feasibility of the proposed alternatives. Other sections of the document
about economic impact and the influence of received wisdoms. The authors contend,
304
cycles, therefore, less productivity of the land and the consequently need to
move further into the forest looking for clearing new productive lands.
(Draft Project Design Document no date, no pagination).
Several aspects are overlooked here. First, production will not necessarily
decrease forever because local farmers will not necessarily practice slash-and-burn
reforestation will be perceived at national levels (by the Malagasy state that will
receive payments from carbon sale) and at the global level (by a reduction of global
warming) whereas the costs will be born by local farmers (by restrictions to access to
land). In these conditions, it is doubtful whether the “income generated” will actually
be higher. It is right that farmers will indirectly receive part of the profits generated by
carbon sequestration in the form of salary for planting trees. But this will just last a
few years and will be a legitimate payment for their work. It is right also that farmers
will be authorized to harvest products in the reforested area. But the main usufruct of
the trees (the revenues of carbon sale) will not be directed to them. Leakages (forest
distribution of profit, not of the balance between the overall costs and benefits of the
project.
conservation and rural development projects that operated in the area. This may lead
and-burn cultivation while the alternatives implemented by farmers are not supported
(Photograph 26). As a result, the project will probably fail to alleviate poverty and to
reduce pressure on ecosystems. But in this case, and to the contrary of what happened
in Beforona, farmers will lose part of their agricultural land, due to the reforestation
305
Photograph 26: Land improvement in Ambavaniasy. Despite the absence of
bottom land, paddy fields are a possible alternative to tavy. But significant labor
investment is necessary if this option is to play a significant role.
306
4.5. The consequences
farmers and carbon leakage. Fires would be ignited as a means of resistance (farmers
remote forests not under conservation status would be the last alternative for the most
region (60,000 hectares, mostly pine trees) allows these effects to be anticipated. 223
When the plantation was established, the local farmers lost part of their land, mostly
pasture land where they raised cattle. Some households benefited from job
opportunities from the Fanalamanga and may have improved their livelihood. But
when the Fanalamanga entered into bankruptcy, they unsuccessfully claimed their land
and ignited fires in pine plantations to support their claim. Other households did not
get job opportunities and had to decrease their herds, with negative consequences on
their economy. Some moved to the forest frontier where more land was “available”
because it was still covered with primary forest. We can meet some of these people
farther east, in the commune of Fierenana for example, where they use forest to
would have moved south, to Beparasy. These migrations may have contributed to the
advancement of the agricultural frontier to the detriment of the primary forest, whereas
the VMCRCC reforestation covers a smaller area (3020 hectares) and concerns “only”
a few hundred or thousand households. 224 But the project is regarded as a pilot for
larger scale operations in the future.
223
The following information was gathered during a consulting work done in 2002 for the Food
Security Program of the ADRA NGO.
224
No precise account is available, but it seems that the seven local partners work with a few hundred
households each, some of them having all their land in the project area, and some of them having only
part of their land in it.
307
A political consequence can also be anticipated: the reinforcement of wrong
beliefs that lead to inappropriate strategies, such as the rejection of fires and the taste
for high yields. We will see in Chapter 7 that farmers are empiric and not reluctant to
change, as soon as they can see that new techniques are profitable and suitable to
them. But the beliefs of conservation and rural development organizations are more
solid. Projects are under less pressure than farmers to achieve results because it is not
their own survival that matters. Moreover, projects depend on donors whose staff
cannot invest significant time to assess realities on the ground. The projects’ annual
reports are supposed to be the medium that allow donors to be in contact with realities
but are often biased by their second function, which is to justify more funding.
Moreover, lack of impacts rarely puts projects at risk of being stopped. So, if projects
are usually not blamed for their failure, farmers often are. The consequence is that
false beliefs are reinforced. Efforts will be increased to convince farmers that they
need to adopt new technologies with higher yields, that they have to stop using fires,
and that they must adopt zero tillage and mulching technologies, produce compost,
plant fruit trees and develop other cash crops for their own good. Coercive
engender the closure to new forms of knowledge. Farmers will pay the price not only
of conservation efforts, but also of our reluctance to face our own ignorance of
realities. But all this may have already happened indeed, and the tavy repression
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4.6. Some solutions?
Critical analyses alone are useless and I must now propose strategies to reduce
the risks of negative socio-economic impacts and leakage of the VMCRCC project, in
can be anticipated by comparing the region with other areas of the world where similar
systems are encountered. As we saw already, the work of Ester Boserup (1965)
shows that annual cropping, followed by multiple cropping, perennial crops, crop
rotation, the integration of livestock husbandry with agriculture and the use of manure
are the natural evolution of extensive systems when the frequency of cultivation
increases. Green manure, mulching and the association of trees with annual crops
occur only at later stages of intensification, when the pressure on land reduces the area
available for grazing animals and for planting trees. The Outcomes of Messerli (2003)
investment to purchase labor force, tools, inputs, and to avert risks. If farmers do not
receive economic support, which can be in the form of credit or subsidies, only the
most competitive will intensify, yet very slowly, and the others will move to the forest
alternatives. Other technologies can also be proposed but it would be highly risky to
invest all efforts in the “unknown.” Endogenous alternatives (irrigated rice, home
gardens, rotation on plowed land burned at least the first year) have the advantage to
be there already and do not necessitate high investment. Acquiring a pig to raise and
better agricultural tools (a hoe, not even a plow), which only represent about 15 USD,
309
can already make a significant difference. Small cement dams can also have a very
significant and short-term impact, and energy can be subsidized in the form of food for
work operations.
These strategies will be presented in Chapter 7. Some have been tested already
in the Ambodilaingo fokontany. But in the specific case of the VMCRCC project, the
level, in order to compare the profitability of the new systems with the ancient ones.
This analysis is essential because as soon as trees are planted on their land, farmers
will have no other choice than to successfully intensify, whereas in ordinary projects
such as LDI or PTE, they can reject unprofitable alternatives and continue their usual
land use.
In order to achieve this analysis, the number of targeted households, the area of
land they own, the part of the land that will be reforested, the part that will be
dedicated to community garden, fallow gardens and other alternatives, and the labor
productivity of each of these systems must be calculated. The level of investments that
are required and the availability of such investments, either at farmer level or from
external sources must be accounted for too. However, these analyses may not be
systems may have no limit when quantification is undertaken. For example, labor
productivity cannot be evaluated just in terms of added value produced per day of
work because some farmers cannot pay labor force and only use family labor. In this
case, days of work are not all equal, which obliges assessment of the opportunity cost
of labor. The effects of the risk factor, of the investment capacity, of credit
differentiation, of competition and of culture and habits, which are by far less
310
significant than commonly believed but nevertheless do exist, are also difficult to
quantify.
In the face of this complexity, another option would be to limit the analysis to
qualitative aspects and to adopt an adaptive management approach (Lee 1993; Lee
1999; Johnson 1999) where agroforestry, mulching, and fire suppression would not be
already indeed as it is the first attempt to implement this approach in Madagascar. But
analyses have been made already: in this dissertation and in many other works about
the area, such as Messerli’s (2003) and Nambena’s (2004) dissertations. They could
Fifth, part of the carbon profit will have to be directed straight to beneficiary
farmers to compensate for the loss of agricultural land. Only by doing so can the
project be legitimate in the long-term because farmers will see the reforested land as
their own, which it will actually be as they will be delivered land title. If the trees do
not provide them with significant income, they will see this land as an area for future
extension of their farmland, for their children if not for themselves. Rather than
encouraging farmers “to do nothing,” 225 the subsidies would be consistent with the
farmers.
The implementation of this approach would confront the belief that poor
farmers are not able to manage cash. It is true that households have obligations of
social redistribution that can divert their income from productive investment. But
Messerli (2003) showed that farmers do invest part of their earnings in productive
activities. Chapter 7 will confirm this outcome. Moreover, social redistribution can be
225
This is one of the arguments of the detractors of payment for environmental services.
311
viewed as a sort of social security system. In a context of vulnerability, social
sharing risks. When a farmer receives financial support from his family, this can help
him to avoid a decapitalization of assets (for example the sale of land), to maintain
productive capacity (by buying rice to have more strength to work on the land).
Modern states catch and redistribute up to 45% of Gross National Product. When the
state is weak and taxes absent, it may be rational that individuals take the initiative of
Observations in other areas further show that farmers invest their money in
agricultural intensification when they have a significant source of cash. The Tanala
farmers from the Ikongo region invested the earnings from coffee sales in the creation
of terraces for irrigated rice cultivation, when the price of coffee was high in the early
nineties. 226 In the same manner, the Zafimaniry people from the Ambositra district
travel to western Madagascar to work as loggers during the off-season and invest their
earnings to pay labor to improve their land (Rabetsimamanga 2005). Concerning the
farmers of the Mananara region, they invest part of the profits generated by clover
In order to assess how much profit farmers could obtain from carbon “grown”
on their land, I propose a hypothesis of five hectares of reforested land per household.
According to the draft PDD, the reforestation of one hectare would remove 390 tons of
CO2 from the atmosphere after 30 years.227 If CO2 is sold five USD per ton228 and the
money (390 x 5 x 5 = 9,750 USD) deposited in a bank account with a 6% interest rate,
226
Results from enquiries I made in the Ikongo region in 2002.
227
Draft PDD, Section D4. No pagination. A total of one 179 998 tons of CO2 would be removed from
the atmosphere after 30 years, by the reforestation of 3020 hectares.
228
According to IETA (2006), the price of certified emission reductions issued under the clean
development mechanism ranged from about 2.5 to 24 USD / Ton CO2equivalent. Five USD per ton
appears to be a reasonable hypothesis for the future if Clean Development Mechanism projects become
less risky, which could be achieved by a more appropriate benefit sharing.
312
reforestation would generate 585 USD per year per household. If farmers received half
of this money 229 (292 USD), it would compensate for the abandonment of slash-and-
burn agriculture on these five hectares. 230 A quick estimation, based on the hypothesis
of an average rice yield of about 800 kilograms/hectare on tavy with fallow period,
shows that the value of crops grown on these five hectares (one hectare being
cultivated every year, with a five year fallow period) would be about 300 USD per
year. 231 But as farmers would continue to practice agriculture on the rest of their land
and dedicate the soils with less potential to reforestation, the real opportunity cost of
not cultivating the five reforested hectares would actually be lower. It would be equal
to the difference of yield that would result from the reduction of agriculture land, and
this difference could be null or even negative if the 292 USD perceived annually was
invested for intensification on the remaining land (for digging irrigation canals, buying
cattle for the production of manure, or buying agricultural tools). Minten (2003)
estimated that a majority of farmers would abandon tavy if they received 85USD per
year per household as a compensation (in the form of rice). This survey was conducted
in the Maroantsetra region, which is less poor than Beforona due to the presence of
more profitable cash crops, such as vanilla. The abandonment concerned all types of
This unexpected result (that growing carbon can generate more value than
229
The rest could be directed to the government, could serve to finance monitoring, or could stay on the
bank account to increase the capital over time. Farmers would plant the trees for free because in this
case the usufruct would be for them.
230
We saw in Chapter 2 that the opportunity cost of protected areas ranges from about 10 to 60.
USD/year for households living around protected areas (Ferraro 2002; Shyamsundar 1997). But in this
case, agricultural land is reforested which results in higher opportunity cost.
231
800 kilograms x 0.3 USD = 240 USD. To this must be added the value of maize, beans and other
minor crops associated with rice on tavy. 300 USD may be a gross estimation of the total value of these
crops and more precise calculation must be done.
313
economic evaluation tools, but it reminds us of the huge economic and productivity
gap that exists between the agricultures of developed and developing countries. 232
would not compensate for the nondevelopment of future agricultural land use, unless
carbon prices increased in the future. For the part of their land affected by
they could receive from other forest products. Bio-prospecting contracts and the
Moreover, the carbon contract will be terminated after the 30 year period of the project
and the carbon could then be sold again, allowing for increase in the capital and the
In sum, payment for planting trees and maintaining them in place could serve
as a basis for a new form of development based on the sustainable extraction of forest
products, rather than on agriculture, and carbon would just be one product among
others. Local communities would “develop” in the sense that they would receive
increasing revenue from reforested land. If, in spite of these opportunities, the revenue
generated by forest products was still inferior to what would be obtained by converting
land to agriculture, it would mean that agriculture would still have an externality (the
loss of the last primary forests) that would have to be suppressed by asking the
international community to continue to pay for the difference. Or, from the local
adjusted to the opportunity cost of not clearing the reforested land. This aspect of the
232
Mazoyer and Roudart (2001) showed that this productivity gap is now about one for one thousand,
meaning that a well equipped farmer in the developed world produces a thousand fold what a tavy
farmer produces in Madagascar (he can yield ten tons per hectare on a 100 hectare farm, whereas the
Malagasy tavy farmer can manually cultivate about one hectare only, and yields about one ton per
hectare).
314
conservation of ecosystems. But this fear may reveal that through compensation
4.7. Conclusion
and illustrates a pattern that may prevail in most land use-change and reforestation
carbon sequestration projects. Planting trees has always been a way to appropriate land
and it is well known that reforestation projects often result in land tenure conflicts.
The supplementary value of trees provided by carbon may still increase this tension,
unless part of the profit generated by carbon is directed to the traditional users of the
land. It is not only the ethic of conservation that is in play here, it is also its potential
success or failure. In the global competition for the appropriation of resources, states
have the power to rule and international organizations have the power to shape
knowledge. But the main power is in the hands of farmers: they will decide the fate of
the forest, by clearing it or not, by burning it or not, in the remote areas to which they
actually have become a key “actor.” Carbon may have been the main cause of the
importance given to fireless alternatives and fire repression policies adopted by the
LDI and PTE projects. Even erosion is not as important as assumed in the region to
justify fireless techniques, as shown by Brand et al. (1997). But the logic of
conservation policies and development projects may now be on the verge of passing to
a second stage, initiated by the VMCRCC project, where avoiding carbon release to
315
sequestered. Being given this new momentum, carbon policies may become still more
favors the appropriation of land usufruct by actors that are not the historical
beneficiaries of this usufruct. The lesson from this paradox is that markets provide
potential solutions, through new opportunities for revenue, but also contribute to
marginalization of those who are less prepared to seize its opportunities. On the verge
of markets, primary ecosystems are the last pieces of land not integrated into the
global economy, and slash-and-burn farmers living on this forest frontier are among
the less prepared people to seize market opportunities. Forest clearing and the poverty
are to solve the problem of deforestation. A way to do so is to channel the profits from
carbon sales straight to those having traditional use rights on the forests. If not, we
may lose both the last primary forests and their people.
I explained in the introduction of this section. But there is unfortunately only one way
This is actually what the Malagasy government, Conservation International and its
partners are doing. The experiment is the VMCRCC project itself. The problem is that
new practices and debate. The alternative is that the project continues to its end as if
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based on established certainties. Both the Malagasy forests and its people would lose
5. Conclusion
verify the hypothesis of this dissertation: there may be a mismatch between realities
and the representation of these realities by the projects that address them. This
mismatch results from a series of wrong beliefs, which we could also call received
wisdoms, myths or dogmas. The LDI, PTE and VMCRCC projects did not necessarily
create these received wisdoms. They rather strengthened them, meaning that it is not
the organizations that run projects that need to be put into question. It is rather a larger
framework within which these organizations operate. This larger framework will be
studied in Part IV, but as a transition to this fourth part and in order to synthesize the
outcomes of Part III, I will review here these received wisdoms. They will be put in-
between quotation marks in order to show that they have an “author,” although this
deep agrarian crisis.” This can happen but is far from being the rule. Slash-and-burn is
not the only land use in the area and most households are committed to giving
increasing importance to other systems, which are irrigated rice, rotation on plowed
land and home gardens, as shown by Chapter 5 and by the works of Messerli (2003)
and Nambena (2004). Lack of investment capacity, risks, and difficult access to
market are the main constraints to the development of these new land uses. Culture
and tradition can slow change but farmers are eager to adopt new techniques as soon
317
as they experience that these techniques are more profitable and economically
suitable. Chapter 7 will confirm this point. Boserup (1965) showed how pressure on
land can be an incentive to develop new land uses (Chapter 5). According to her
model, population increase does not lead to a dead end but is rather a precondition for
a new step of agricultural development. More population means more labor force
available to farm the land, reshape the landscape, plant trees, and improve soils. What
matters is to implement wise policies that will help farmers to engage in this dynamic
it is the main criteria used by the LDI and PTE projects to assess their results. But
the rarest resource. When much land is available and agriculture in a phase of
conquest (in a transition from extensive to intensive systems), labor, and not land, is
the limiting resource and labor productivity, and not yield, is the main criterion to
strategy. The case of Ambodilaingo (Chapters 5), the perception of LDI’s alternatives
by farmers (Chapter 6) and Messerli’s (2003) outcomes verified this hypothesis and
showed that farmers in Beforona are committed to increasing labor productivity, not
yield, because this will determine how much they will produce and eat in the end.
much effort to the development of new technologies, such as high yielding rice,
agroforestry, fireless technologies, improved fallow, zero tillage and cover crops.
They allocate much of their resources to the technical training of farmers. LDI and
PTE were no exception. But one of the most frequent complaints by farmers, as we
saw in Chapter 6, is that they cannot apply the technologies they have been trained for,
because they lack the necessary resources (investment issue) or do not have time
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(labor productivity issue). Support should thus be centered more on economic aspects
“Integration to market will help the poor.” Again, this is often not the case due
to a strong competition for access to market niches that can be quickly filled, and due
to low prices that allow only the most competitive (those with better land, easier
access to market, more investment capacity, more capacity to support risks and greater
opportunities to get external support) to make a profit. The degradation of the terms of
trade is also a concern. Coffee used to be an important cash crop in the area but is
almost abandoned now due to its low price (Chapter 3). Profit from ginger cultivation
is also decreasing. Farmers from remote villages abandoned this crop because “big
producers along the road lowered the price” (a farmer in Ambodilaingo 2002)
(Chapter 5). Markets are also uncertain, especially with regard to minor crops such as
fruits and vegetables which are also the most profitable. In Andasibe for example,
avocados, “can provide 20 USD of revenue per tree and per year… if we find someone
to buy the fruits!” (a staff member of the NGO Mitsinjo 2007). These risks result in a
Ambodilaingo, support to food crops, especially rice cultivation, may be the priority.
“Fires are demonic.” This is certainly the most radical dogma adopted by
projects that operate in the area (Chapter 6). The implicit assumption that fires are
demonic led to considering all fires equal, which they are not despite the fact they
obviously all have a destructive effect on vegetation and soils. The main difference
between fires is that some are associated with management practices (pasture fires and
slash-and-burn agriculture fires) while others are not (accidental fires, political fires,
fires associated with land tenure conflicts). The first are less destructive because the
reason to occur (Photograph 21 page 205). It is not worth it, for a farmer, to burn a
319
piece of land if it will not yield sufficient rice to compensate the work invested. Thus
slash-and-burn fires never degrade the land more than what is compatible with rice
cultivation. Farmers do not burn land if doing so would favor invasion by Imperata
cylindrica and they do not cultivate land invaded by this species, unless they have no
choice. For this reason, Imperata invasion would be reversible if fires were ignited
only for tavy. In the same way, pasture fires (which are not frequent in the region)
have to be compatible with the maintenance of forages. What should have been
targeted by antifire policies are the uncontrolled fires that continue land degradation
after the bottom-line determined by tavy fires is attained, and fires in primary forest,
which threaten the last significant biodiversity reservoir. If this strategy was adopted,
most households would be ready to collaborate with state authorities, at least in the
case of wild fires which they also perceive as a plague. On the other hand, the
repression of all types of fires, aside from its unethical character, leads to hostility and
resistance.
“Erosion is demonic.” The logic behind this assertion is similar to the one
concerning fires. It is true that erosion degrade soils in Beforona and has led to
addressing the diversity and complexity of the situations in which erosion occurs. In
the case of Beforona, landslides can occur here and there and measures can be taken to
prevent them (Brand et al. 1997), but lavaka 233 is not a significant feature of the
landscape. In spite of this, projects in Beforona continue to invest significant research
whose effect against landslide is more than doubtful (Brand et al. 1997). Besides,
farmers develop their own anti-erosion systems, which are based on the assumption
that water has to be evacuated through drainage ditches (Photographs 7 to 10, page
233
A particularly destructive form of erosion very frequent in Madagascar (Chapter 1).
320
156 to 159), rather than stopped and infiltrated by hedgerows planted along contour
lines. Their practices are certainly imperfect but match better with the outcomes of
“Farmers are backward and reluctant to change.” This statement is also widespread in
the literature about rural development. But certain forms of reluctance exist in all
societies. It is true that for many Malagasy farmers, it would have been more rational
to develop alternative land uses earlier, before they got trapped into poverty and had
their investment capacity reduced to zero. But in the same manner, it would have been
more rational for Western countries to develop alternative energies and reduce green
house gases emissions earlier. Human induced global warming was first discovered in
1957 (Revelle 1957) and widely recognized by the scientific community in the late
eighties. In spite of this, significant decisions are still far from being taken. For
Malagasy farmers, as for Western societies, there are factors of inertia which have to
be addressed properly and levered rather than just used as an argument for blame.
“Culture and traditions explain land uses.” Again, empirical observations show
that this is not true. The main Malagasy ethnic groups classically regarded as slash-
and-burn cultivators (the Tanala and Betsimisaraka) have developed a specific culture
associated with this land use (for example, the ceremonies associated with the clearing
of new forest land). But Rakotoarijaona (2005) showed that the ancestors of “tavy”
5). The Bezanozano group is close to the Merina of the highland, for whom irrigated
rice cultivation is the main land use. But Bezanozano farmers in Ambodilaingo
adopted slash-and-burn because this land use is more suitable to the area. Kottak
(1971), Astuti (1995) and Bloch (1995) described similar dynamics of cultural change
321
and adaptation in the case of Tanala, Vezo and Zafimaniry people. In short, culture
may be a consequence of land use rather than the contrary. In most regions of the
world where demographic density is low, rain is important, soils low in fertility,
agriculture. When one of these criteria changes (for example population density) land
use also changes and with it culture and traditions. Rather than changing culture, the
challenge may be to accelerate this existing change, and economic support may be the
key to this.
As I said earlier, received wisdoms are not the consequence of choices made by people
or institutions. They operate from a higher level. They are present in the very
substance of the systems of ideas and practices within which people and projects
operate. This substance, which I will call discourse, will be studied in Part IV.
received wisdoms or that impedes the reality to “jump” into the face of actors and
PTE’s staff. I called it the chain of actors (Figure 14). It is significant that almost all
LDI, PTE and VMCRCC staff I interviewed shared with me the opinion that the
LDI and PTE’s staff explained that when they had opportunities to work closely with
farmers (some were living in villages and spent most of their time there), they came to
understand clearly farmers’ expectations and needs and that these expectations
conflicted with those of the project. Through discussions with staff at a higher level
(regional office), I realized that exactly the same frustration existed at their level. And
while working later in Antananarivo, I suspected (not specifically in the case of LDI
and PTE) that this frustration existed there also, due to the dependence of
Antananarivo’s offices vis-à-vis decisions taken in Washington, D.C. The closer the
322
+ Donors in their home _
country
Local coordinator
Local staff
_ +
Farmers
323
actors are located to beneficiaries, the less authority they have to take decisions, as
illustrated in Figure 14. In other words, two types of knowledge confront with each
other: one that is experienced on the ground and one that uses very few inputs from
the ground. The next chapters will provide more insights for understanding these
different forms of knowledge. But I raise this issue here because it means that received
wisdoms, although they are hegemonic and shape the discourses and practices of rural
arrangement. The solution may be to break the chain of actors, to bring the centers of
decisions back on the ground, inside the reality. The social experiment conducted by
Zanaky ny Ala, which I will present now, was aimed at testing this possibility.
324
CHAPTER 7
1. Introduction
This chapter presents an experiment that has been conducted in Beforona in the
form of a pilot rural development project, on the basis of previous chapters’ outcomes.
Some activities have been designed but not implemented due to the lack of time and
funding. They will however be presented as well. From a more practical perspective,
Section 3 will describe the activities that were carried out by this NGO, while Section
4 will present activities that were planned but eventually not implemented. Section 5
will describe what the NGO did not intend to do, which may better reveal its
philosophy than the list of its activities. Section 6 will review the mistakes made by
Zanaky ny Ala 234 was created in 2003, by my initiative and with strong
involvement of my assistant and translator, who became the coordinator of the project
that will be presented here. Zanaky ny Ala further recruited nine field agents in 2004.
Five were master’s program students from the University of Antananarivo and four
History and Economy. Their role was to manage the logistics of the project and to
234
In English: Children of the Forest.
325
support community organization. They also dedicated time to collecting data for their
master’s thesis. The staff recruited in Beforona assisted them. I was not myself a
member of Zanaky ny Ala but was involved as a benevolent technical adviser, helping
to design strategies and activities, to prepare technical documents and to raise funding.
The first funding came from private donations.235 They were complemented in
2003 by a grant from the Food and Agriculture Organization236 and, in 2004 and 2005,
“watershed management” pilot project. 237 Most activities were implemented in the
Beforona) also received support. A partnership with the Food Security Program of the
Zanaky ny Ala was an NGO in its infancy, which had advantages and
experience but was highly motivated and the functioning costs were limited. Two
thirds of the budget was directly invested into the activities of communities, in the
form of food distribution (food for work), equipment (construction of dams), and
235
In total, the NGO received about 10,000 USD from private donators for the implementation of this
project.
236
An 8,560 USD grant from the Telefood Fund (contract TFD-1/MAG/003) was received on October
8, 2003. In theory, Telefood funds can be granted only to farmers’ organizations. In practice, NGOs
often serve as an intermediary to manage the funds (as did Zanaky ny Ala), due to the illiteracy and low
formal education level of most beneficiaries.
237
The name of the TELEFOOD FAO project (8,500 USD) is “ Projet Pilote d’aménagement de bassins
versant en alternative à la pratique de l’agriculture sur brûlis ” (Watershed management pilot project for
the development of alternatives to slash-and-burn cultivation). To the contrary of what this name could
lead one to expect, the project did not employ an integrated watershed management approach, for
reasons I will explain later. Concerning World Food Program support, Zanaky ny Ala received a first
grant of about 60 tons in 2004, and a second grant of about 40 tons in 2005, to implement food for work
activities. A third grant has been received in 2006 (amount unknown) to implement a new project in a
neighboring commune (Ampasimbe). I was not anymore involved with Zanaky ny Ala at that time.
238
Adventist Development and Relief Agency.
239
The differences in the approaches of Zanaky ny Ala and ADRA resulted in difficulties for the
establishment of a partnership protocol.
326
inputs (agricultural tools and seedlings). Zanaky ny Ala had no office in Antananarivo
and no vehicle. The staff used public transportation and had its office in Beforona. 240
It spent most of its time in Ambodilaingo and in other fokontany, where it shared roof
and meals with the villagers. Expertise was provided by me and some operations
failed while others succeeded. The work was sometimes done with amateurism and the
PhD research, at the scale of the Ambodilaingo village. Zanaky ny Ala adopted an
Action-Research philosophy, stressing the reciprocal benefits that research and social
action can get from each other (Greenwood, 1998). Two main activities were
technical innovation by the organization or agricultural contests. The first activity was
second addressed the issue of risks, by taking in charge farmers’ technical innovation.
Natural resources management objectives were not addressed directly, but indirectly,
production in order to reduce the dependence on tavy and the pressure on primary
ecosystems. Consistent with this, we never made any judgment about the fact that
farmers practiced tavy and cleared forests. We believed that by answering to their
respond to longer term issues. Short-term impact on agricultural production was also
challenging activities.
240
For a cost of five USD per month.
327
Reforestation and support for perennial crops were included in the project
activities have not been implemented in the end, due to the difficulty of involving
farmers in activities whose benefits occur in the medium or long-term, and due to the
short duration of the project (one year, eventually extended to 18 months). Moreover,
the challenge was to reduce the pressure on primary ecosystems and reforestation
Others activities were deemed essential by Zanaky ny Ala but had not been
included in the proposal for several reasons. First, the Telefood fund that has been
Second, a 12 or 18 month period and the 8,500 USD Telefood grant were not
sufficient to implement these activities. These other activities included building a road
for opening the southern part of the commune to markets the entitlement of bottom
3. Implemented activities
Seven cement dams were constructed between 2003 and 2005: four in the
and one in the fokontany of Beforona (Ankorakabe). The Marofody, Amby and
financed by USAID. ADRA provided rice and beans for food for work activities and
engineering expertise to design the dams. Aside from the construction of the dam and
canals, no other support has been provided to the beneficiaries. Support for social
328
organization and extension of new techniques were not implemented because they
were deemed too costly in relation to their potential impact, because we preferred to
let farmers find their own modes of organization and because several projects already
provided technical support in the area (LDI, PTE and SAF-FJKM 241 ).
A mason team was hired for constructing the dams under the supervision of
workers were hired to prepare the rubble stones and gravel, directly on the site where
the dam was built or on the closest place where appropriate rocks were available. The
rest of the work (transportation of cement from the road, excavation of sand in the
rivers, digging of irrigation canals) was done by beneficiary farmers using a food for
work approach (Photograph 27). This subsidy in the form of food was justified by the
strong food insecurity of most households (Chapter 5). About 70 tons of food was
provided in total by the World Food Program, through the ADRA-FSP project in the
beginning and by direct contracts with Zanaky ny Ala later on. The Zanaky ny Ala
staff ensured the general coordination and organization of the work. The traditional
leaders (Photograph 28) were strongly involved in the design of irrigation canals and
The food for work approach raised several problems. The amount of food
distributed per day of work was too high: the value of the food distributed was equal
to a salary, and sometimes even higher, which is not consistent with the economic
logic of a subsidy system. The risk was that households could do work having no
interest for them beyond the salary they received. Many nonbeneficiary farmers
indeed came to work with Zanaky ny Ala just to have a well paid job. On the other
hand, several canals ended in not being functional. If farmers had not been “paid” to
241
A large Malagasy NGO linked to the protestant church.
329
330
Photograph 27: Villagers from Ambodilaingo digging an irrigation canal. This
activity received support from Zanaky ny Ala (food for work and engineering).
330
dig them, they would have born the mistakes of the NGO unless they anticipated the
Eventually, the seven dams were built and irrigations canals were dug. Three
sites are currently functional (Marofody, Hiaranana and Ankorakabe), two sites are
partly functional (Ambia and Sahanonoka) and two are a failure (Savia and
Andriamanavana). The three functional sites were assessed in 2007 and the results are
presented here.
The Marofody dam, built in partnership with the NGO ADRA, 242 can irrigate
about seven hectares of paddy fields. Paddy fields had been created on this site in the
past but later abandoned because of cyclone damage. The land was totally in fallow
One household created his paddy field the first year after the construction of
the dam (Photograph 29). There were six paddy fields the second year and 14 the third
year, among a total of 15 beneficiaries. The Photographs 30, 31 and 32 show the
evolution of the bottom land from 2005 to 2007. Rice production averages 500
kilograms 243 per household in the main season plus 150 kilograms in the off-season.
All households continued to cultivate rice on tavy (producing about 800 kilograms in
average). They plan to increase the paddy field area over the years. By joining their
tavy and paddy field harvests, they hope to produce sufficient rice for the whole year.
In sum, the impact of the dam is not sufficient for the abandonment of tavy but
242
Food Security Program of the Adventist Development Relief Agency (FSP-ADRA), financed by
USAID.
243
White rice (after hulling).
331
Photograph 29: A “tavy” farmer in Ambodilaingo, with her paddy field in the
background. This young woman and her husband were the first household, among
15, to create paddy fields in the Marofody bottom land, where Zanaky ny Ala and
ADRA built a dam. The second year, they were followed by 6 more households. The
third year, all households but one had started to create paddy fields. This household
used to rely on tavy and on income from wood transformation before the creation of
this paddy field.
332
Photographs 30, 31 and 32: The Marofody bottom land in Ambodilaingo, in July
2005 (upper), April 2006 and February 2007 (lower). A dam has been built by
Zanaky ny Ala, but no support was provided after completion of the work. This
confirmed that farmers invest in improvements as soon as irrigation schemes are
functional. In 2007, 14 households out of 15 beneficiaries had created a paddy field in
the site. The canal is properly maintained and has been repaired after big rains, but no
cyclone has stricken the site yet. The next cyclone will be the next test to the validity
of the approach. The beneficiaries continue to practice tavy because they need both
systems to produce sufficient rice. Some households expect to be self-sufficient in rice
once improvements are completed. It seems however that tavy surface is diminishing
and that the farmers’ concern is now to concentrate efforts on the site, which verifies
Messerli’s thesis (chapter 6). The dam cost about 2500 USD including the payment of
labor force using a food for work approach. This cost could be significantly lowered
by scaling up the project.
333
334
of labor in paddy fields may in the end decrease tavy areas. The perspective to
abandon cassava slash-and-burn systems is a first sign of this evolution. Farmers could
also be more and more interested in the development of intensive systems around the
bottom land, following the logic analyzed by Messerli (2003) and reviewed in Chapter
6. Several households established their principal dwelling and built a new granary
close to their paddy fields, which is a first sign announcing this process.
The main problems encountered are the damage caused by rats which
discouraged most households from growing off-season rice, and the lack of food, tools
and money. Only one household hired labor force (he spent five USD in total).
Organization for managing the water and maintaining the canal is not perfect but
seems to improve over time. The older farmer has been appointed “President” and
canal damages have been repaired. Each household is in charge of the part of the canal
adjacent to his field. Some land tenure conflicts occurred but were solved. All families
belong to the same lineage and the distribution of land is relatively egalitarian. As one
explained, “we try to provide a little piece of land for each family” (a farmer in
Ambodilaingo, 2006). More households than what was initially estimated eventually
On this second site (Photograph 33), rice was cultivated in the perimeter before
the construction of the dam. Precise information about the situation at that time is not
available but all farmers interviewed explained that the main impact is the possibility
to grow off-season rice, which was not possible before. The dam further decreases the
four do not cultivate irrigated rice regularly and 12 obtain an average of 450 kilograms
of rice in the main season and 375 kilograms off-season. Five households still practice
335
Photograph 33: Paddy fields irrigated by the Hiaranana dam, built with support
from Zanaky ny Ala. The cost of this dam was about 3500 USD, more than half to pay
the farmer’s labor (food for work). About 15 households can utilize the irrigation
scheme.
336
tavy (7 before the construction of the dam), obtaining about 500 kilograms on average.
One householder clearly said that he abandoned tavy because he produces off-season
rice now. The dam would, however, not be the only reason for this abandonment.
Other causes act in synergy. Ambatoharanana is located five kilometers from the road
revenues are an advantage for land improvements. They are partly invested to pay
labor force: nine of the 16 households spent 17 USD in average to hire laborers. This
confirms that when farmers have the capacity to invest, they do so. From this
statement, one could expect that farmers could also afford to buy cement (about 10
USD / 50 kilograms bag) and to pay a mason in case of damage by cyclone or big rain.
Crumbling occurred after the 2007 big rains but the canal has been repaired
collectively. The main constraints to increased production are the lack of equipment,
the damage caused by rats and the lack of water. The area that can be irrigated would
be too large with respect to the size of the dam and canal. Water management could
less than one kilometer from the road, the situation is similar to Hiaranana. All 17
beneficiaries cultivate irrigated rice, with production averaging 450 kilograms in the
main season and 250 kilograms in the off-season. Only six households still practice
tavy. Unfortunately, no data is available for the period before the construction of the
dam. The problems are also similar to the case of Hiaranana: lack of water, lack of
tools and damage caused by rats. The lack of collaboration between beneficiaries for
337
Photograph 35: The Ankorakabe dam, in Beforona, built with support from
Zanaky ny Ala. This is the biggest dam built by the NGO. The capacity of the
beneficiaries (17 households) to maintain it in the long term is still questionable.
Photograph 36: The Ankorakabe canal, with irrigated paddy fields in the
background. Beneficiary farmers proved to be capable of maintaining this canal
during big rains. The scheme has not been stricken by cyclones yet.
338
the maintenance is also mentioned but the main damages, after the big rain of 2007,
Concerning the four other dams, three of them (Ambia, Andriamanavana and
Sahanonoka) led to the creation of new irrigated rice fields in spite of low water flow
potential of these dams. Some canal sections crumble frequently (Photograph 38) and
can create landslide in case of cyclone. The last site (Savia) is not functional at all and
needs about 100 meters of masonry canal (Photograph 28, page 330). These dams are
regarded as partial or total failures and no enquiry to the beneficiaries has been done
yet. The problems result from a bad choice concerning the site for the dams and the
pathway for the canal. However, the dams may be saved if there is more investment in
masonry on certain sections of the canals. These failures do not put into question the
approach itself but point out the insufficient experience of the NGO to implement the
earlier. Consistent with Messerli’s (2003) outcomes, we considered that the main
obstacle to the development of irrigated rice cultivation was water availability and
management. Water is still not sufficient for many farmers of the Hiaranana and
extension efforts have already taken place in the region for decades. Extension efforts
339
Photograph 37: Farmers’ improvements in the Andriamanavana site. The light
green vegetation is rice. These fields are not irrigated and terraced yet. Farmers first
do tavy during one or two seasons in order to eliminate most stumps and perennial
root systems. Then they create terraces and plow the land. This site is not in a bottom
land and shows that the potential for irrigated rice cultivation is higher than expected
if considering bottom-lands only. The fact that farmers concentrated their tavy on the
site reveals that they planned to make improvements, despite the fact that the
Andriamanavana dam was not functional (and is still not).
Photograph 38: Failed irrigation canal in Ambodilaingo. The lower canal was
poorly designed and abandoned due to landslides. The second is now functional,
except in its upper section where rocks bar it. It catches the water from a small
secondary stream (see picture 41).
340
are still ongoing, mostly through the ERI and SAF-FJKM projects. If more profitable
varieties and techniques were available, farmers would end in adopting them. We
actually observed that farmers tried new varieties in their fields, on their own
initiative.
3.1.6. Socio-organization
construction of the dam and the digging of the canal as mentioned earlier.
the work of Zanaky ny Ala consisted in creating the infrastructure. Farmers were
abandoned after this, due to the termination of the project. The main initiatives they
took were to forbid the passage of zebu on the canal, to ban tavy on the watershed
above the canal (this has been done only on one site) and to mobilize collectively to
repair important damage (after big rains). The termination of the project may indeed
have been an advantage because the farmers understood they should expect no more
3.1.7. Cost-efficiency
Concerning the profitability of the investments, each dam cost from 1000 to
2000 USD for the material, plus the food provided by the World Food Program, which
represents about 2500 USD per dam. As a gross estimate, we can consider that each
dam cost about 4000 USD for 15 beneficiary households, which represents an
investment of 266 USD per household. This represents about five years of the
subsidies that could be raised by storing carbon on one hectare (Chapter 6). Moreover,
341
the price could indeed have been much lower if canals were dug in appropriate
locations 244 and if beneficiaries had provided part of the work for free.
This cost can be amortized in about three years 245 by the additional rice
production. This is just a gross estimation as there can be many sources of error in data
before and after the dam and assessment of direct and indirect negative and positive
impacts, at a farming system scale, should be done to assess the real profitability of the
operation. However, the fact that the amortization would take two or six years does
not make much difference. The dams have been designed to last several decades or
more if appropriate maintenance is done. My brief calculations just serve to show that
the profitability of the operation is obvious if farmers actually do the maintenance, but
is not if no maintenance is done. It was clear from the beginning that the challenge,
conducted on these seven sites, is not finished yet and the key test will be the passage
example, a communal tax on irrigated land could be raised to pay a communal mason
that would maintain the sites. Zanaky ny Ala showed that dams are cheap and that
farmers quickly make optimal use of them, but a larger infrastructure policy that
addresses long term maintenance issues must also be put in place to validate the
approach.
244
In a certain site, a first canal was dug, then abandoned and replaced by a second canal, doubling the
cost.
245
The additional rice production is about 500 kilograms in the case of Marofody, and about 300
kilograms in the case of Hiaranana and Ankorakabe, these 300 kilograms are of similar value to the 500
kilograms of Marofody farmers, due to higher rice price in the off-season. 500 kilograms of rice x 0.3
USD /kilograms x 10 households in average = 1500 USD/year worth of additional rice production
(4500 USD after three years, assuming a constant production).
342
For a complete assessment of the operation, indirect impact should be also
measured. It seems that households that are not beneficiaries from the dam, observing
the creation of new paddy fields by their neighbors, decided to create irrigation
schemes on their own (Photograph 39). But the repression of forest clearing is also an
Due to the relatively high cost of the dams and the failure of certain sites,
Zanaky ny Ala started a new strategy after the construction of these seven dams.
Smaller dams were constructed in locations where the more ambitious initial project
had failed (Photograph 40), and food for work activities were implemented to support
were establish with groups of farmers. A certain amount of food was given for digging
canals, building a traditional dam (with wood, rock and mud) and creating terraces.
Data are not yet available concerning these achievements but informal interviews in
Beforona indicate that their impact was significant with regard to the cost. In some
cases, however, food was used to pay the labor force of big landowners, revealing a
3.1.8. Conclusion
maintenance of irrigated schemes. In the case of Marofody, tavy is still practiced and
paddy fields provide additional production (about 500 kilograms) that helps to achieve
food security. In the case of Hiaranana and Ankorakabe, the off-season cultivation
than first season harvest but has the advantage of occurring during the food shortage
period, when rice can be twice as expensive. In sum, irrigated rice cultivation has a
343
Photograph 39: New paddy fields in construction in Ambodilaingo. The owner of
this land received no support from Zanaky ny Ala. According to villagers, the success
of the Marofody dam encouraged non-beneficiary farmers to create paddy fields on
their own. Plowing and terracing new fields requires significant labor investment. In
the background, we can see a paddy field newly created by a beneficiary of the
Andriamanavana dam.
344
Photograph 40: Canal built by villagers to irrigate paddy fields, in
Ambatoharana. This picture was taken in 2006. In 2007, nothing remained from this
canal due to big rains. Hundreds similar sites may exist in the municipality of
Beforona which could be improved by masonry for a very low cost.
345
significant impact on food security, but access to irrigated rice alone is not sufficient
in the future (Photograph 40 and 41 page 345). It would also be risky to focus
excessively on this one activity, which leads us to the second activity implemented by
This second activity has been designed to potentially involve a larger number
systems to slash-and-burn cultivation. But in this case, neither big investment nor
constraint and everybody can implement the new practices, down the slopes if not in
bottom lands.
The techniques proposed were land plowing (tillage), crop rotation, and
organic fertilization. The choice results from the statement that in most regions of the
world where slash-and-burn practices are abandoned, they are replaced by polyculture
and crop rotation on plowed land and integration of agriculture with livestock
husbandry (Boserup 1965, see Chapter 5). Beforona actually is not an exception and
these techniques already exist in their infancy, mostly in the more densely populated
villages located close to the road. We saw, for example, that crop rotation and plowing
are starting to be applied for ginger cultivation (Chapter 3 and 6). Even rice is starting
to be planted in rotation with ginger on plowed land. The agricultural contest was
aimed at putting more households in contact with these new techniques and at
allowing vulnerable farmers to implement them without taking risks. Participants were
encouraged to plow and to use manure but were free to use the technique of their
346
choice, including burning the land. 246 In this way, there would be as many tested
techniques as participants. The role of the contest was just to accelerate an innovation
exchange between farmers and by taking risks in charge. The long-term objective was
to develop a crop rotation system, but this was rendered impossible by the lack of
enough to cultivate were authorized to participate. Sometimes, two persons from the
same household registered. The crops proposed to farmers were beans and vegetables
(zuchini and chinese cabbage). The support consisted in providing tools and seeds. In
a context of high vulnerability and poverty, farmers do not take the risk to invest time
and money in uncertain new practices (Chapter 5). So we gave a free hoe, a free
angady and about 100 grams of bean seeds and vegetable seeds to each participant.
This represented a 6 USD nonreimbursable grant per participant. Each farmer was
asked to cultivate these crops on two 12 square meter plots so that the investment in
their crops together on the same field, at the scale of one village (Photograph 42). At
first they were concerned about land tenure issues (the owner of the land was afraid
that the participants would appropriate it), but eventually found a flat piece of land on
246
To avoid fire the first year appeared to be difficult or impossible, due to the abundant, spiny,
ligneous and fast growing vegetation (mostly Rubus Mollucanus, Lantana camara and Aframomum
angustifolium) that covered the fallow land. But after a first plowing had occurred, it seemed that fire
could be avoided because the vegetation was dominated by annual herbs, due to the elimination of most
rhizomes and strong root systems by the tillage. Unfortunately, the contest did not last enough time to
verify this point.
347
Photograph 42: Vegetable cultivation for the agricultural contest. The fields are
grouped together on fertile bottom land, on a small river bank. The land belongs to one
or a few households who lend it to the participants. Photograph by Herimamonjy
Lovasoa Ratsimijanona.
Photograph 43: Participants in the agricultural contest. Beans grew well, but
production was highly variable from one participant to another. Farmers with low
harvest did not complain, but enjoyed receiving an angady and having an opportunity
to learn. Photograph by Herimamonjy Lovasoa Ratsimijanona.
348
The crops were to be sowed in July-August, which is the off-season. At that
time, rain falls in the form of drizzle and there is no significant risk of erosion on
plowed land. Harvest occurred in November, which is already the food shortage
period for many households. Beans could significantly help to provide income because
they can be sold at a good price (about 0.8 USD per kilogram) and amortize
transportation costs, in contrast to bananas, the main cash crop at present. 247
The main risk was the irregularity of rain fall during this period. Beans need a
relatively dry period for maturing and also for flowering. Vegetables suffer as well
from excessive rain, which favors diseases. Farmers were aware of these risks but
already had some experience with bean cultivation. They considered it worthwhile to
All the farmers who received the tools and seeds actually participated in the
contest. They all plowed the land and some of them applied manure. There was a wide
diversity of sowing density, with densely sowed beans that grew well but did not
produce any pods. Nobody complained about that, due to the small size of the plots.
Failures were rather the subject of jokes and everybody could see the results of the
most successful participants, learning about what to do the next time (Photograph 43
page 348). It was really unfortunate that crop rotation was not implemented because
this was actually the main challenge. Plowing fallow land represents a significant
labor investment that cannot be justified for just one year’s cultivation. When crops
are put in rotation, plowing becomes easier every year. If two harvests are done on the
plot the same year (for example, off-season beans or vegetable followed by rice or
maize associated with beans during the main season), plowing could be avoided or be
247
A standard charge (30 kilograms) is worth 30 USD. Transportation costs about 0.03 USD/kilograms
(about one USD in total). In comparison, 30 kilograms of banana is worth about 1.5 USD and its
transportation costs one USD. This shows that the value per kilogram is a much more important
criterion than the cropping system’s profitability per se for choosing cash crops in remote areas.
349
superficial during the main season. This would result in lower labor cost and lower
erosion. Beans, or other crops such as sweet potato or groundnut, could indeed end in
playing the same role as cover crops used in zero tillage technologies, with the
difference that they provide edible products. They may be less efficient than cover
crops such as Mucuna but this difference may not be problematic due to the still
relatively fertile soils encountered in Beforona, at least in the bottom land and on the
lower part of slopes which are, as we saw in Chapter 5 and 6, those paid attention by
Rotation over several years could further favor vegetation with more forage
value than the perennial herbaceous plants typical of most fallows. Actually, this
effect was felt even after one cultivation cycle. A villager that owns cattle brought his
zebu to graze on the contest plot after the harvest. Land submitted to crop rotation
with short herbaceous fallow could thus be permanently used, either for cultivation or
for grazing. This would motivate farmers to enclose it, either to protect it from cattle
or to maintain cattle inside, during the fallow period. This would facilitate the
The participants of each village defined criteria to designate the winner and
created a committee of villagers for this designation. This allowed local knowledge to
be integrated in the appreciation of the best techniques. A large series of criteria, not
only the yield, could be taken into account, empirically if not arithmetically. The only
message sent to the farmers was that they had to designate the cropping system they
deemed more useful for their community. An inter-village committee also designated
the “best” village. I did not purchase the data about who won but the village that won
funding. Most participants did not complain because they enjoyed the experience
350
anyway. Some kept part of their seed and renewed the experience the following year,
plowed land after the contest, but the relationship is not clear as this practice already
In sum, this experience allowed the testing of a new approach for agricultural
innovation. It showed that farmers are curious and want to try new techniques.
Unfortunately, the contest did not result in significant technical innovation because the
duration was too short to achieve the main objective: to test crop rotations that include
Furthermore, taking in charge the risk may not be sufficient for future
this crop is the lack of money to buy seeds. Even rice cultivation on tavy is
constrained by this problem. Poverty leads some families to eat all their stock and to
borrow seeds to sow the following year. A micro-credit system may be necessary to
remedy this problem. The next section will present the system we designed (but did
In this section, I will describe activities that were designed by Zanaky ny Ala
4.1. Micro-credit
seeds after the agricultural contest, allowing farmers to cultivate beans at a larger
scale. The existing micro-credit systems are not adapted to the situation of
351
by the PSDR range from about 50 to 1000 USD per household. Most farmers in
Ambodilaingo are not used to managing such large amounts of money, even 50 USD,
and would have difficulty repaying. As food shortage lasts about six months, they
would be tempted to use part of the credit to buy rice. Some OTIV beneficiaries in
Beforona did this. In other words, the existing micro-credit systems are in fact macro-
remote villages. Table 16 below gives a few examples of expenditures and investment
sort of business plan with the support of project field technicians. In this way, projects
orientate the use of credits to certain techniques, mostly fireless technologies whose
could receive a loan for any purpose, just by showing his ID. Maximum loans would
amount to a few tens USD, which is insignificant with regard to our standard but
such as the purchase of seed but would be flexible. Rather than by the activity, the
amount of the loans would be determined according to two criteria: the number of
persons that offer their guarantee and the number of former times the same person
borrowed and paid back. The persons giving guarantee would also have to present
their ID and could get credit as well. One person alone borrowing for the first time
would receive very little (no more than one to two USD) but ten persons mutually
guaranteeing each other and having borrowed and reimbursed several times could
receive a significant amount (a few tens USD each). The system would educate people
to manage credit, not by training but by incentive. This system would match better
with the empirical approach of farmers with a low formal education level. If one
352
Table 16: Example of expenditures and investment in Ambodilaingo, in USD
(based on the 2007 exchange rate: 1 USD = 10,000 FMg)
Objective Amount in Comment
USD
Investment to buy a 100, less after Investment done on very rare occasion,
young zebu cyclones when income has been earned by doing a
well paid job, or when zebu are particularly
cheap (after cyclones)
Investment to buy a 20 Investment possible for households that sell
pig product at market (ginger). Limited by a
traditional taboo but expanding, especially
in villages located close to the road. Only a
few households involved in Ambodilaingo
Investment in 5 Rarely done, probably because of the risks
vegetable or bean associated with bean cultivation and the lack
seed of cash.
Salary for wood 1.5 Some farmers specialized in this activity
transportation (for 2 and transport 2 or 3 boards per week. Seems
days of work) to be more profitable than agriculture on
degraded land if job is permanent.
Renewing basic 5-20 Rice is sold to purchase these products. The
items (clothes, etc…) price is very low and rice is re-bought at
before the national twice this price during the rice shortage
day period.
Buying a plow 25 Rarely done. The profitability of this tool is
unclear, except for the few people with large
paddy fields, or unless the plow would be
shared among several households.
Potential profit from 60 / ha / year See Chapter 6
carbon sale
353
person would not pay back, access to credit would be cut to the whole group. In this
way, the risk would be shared and solidarity would be encouraged. Reimbursement
could be done in kind (part of the harvest) or in money. In the case of credits granted
for productive activities with a short-term return, a high interest rate could be
practiced (15% per year). A farmer borrowing 10 USD to cultivate beans, for example,
would have to pay back 10.5 USD at harvest time (four months later).
The credit office could be opened in Beforona, one day per week in order to
minimize its cost (for example, on market day). It would be administrated by staff
from the NGO. A register (on paper and on an Excel spread sheet) could suffice for its
management. The risk of no reimbursement would be elevated, but the small size of
the first loans would minimize the cost of this risk. In the end, those who would
reimburse would have access to increasingly larger loans, which would encourage the
For this system to work, monitoring would have to be minimal. Otherwise, the
management costs would be far above the amounts of the loans. The only mode of
regulation would be the sanction (no more loans) of the groups that do not reimburse.
Maybe all this just would not work, but the only way to get an answer is to try the
system.
economic impact. Farmers who live less than ten kilometers away from it can market
their products (mostly ginger and bananas) and are clearly better off than those living
in remote areas. Building secondary roads for a better access to market is thus
essential. However, the demand in the market may be limited and increasing offers of
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Secondary roads also present some danger. They favor immigration of people
who could appropriate the most profitable lands. This phenomenon already exists in
Beforona, but not yet in Ambodilaingo. Farmers are aware of it and sometimes are
opposed to the idea of a road that would come to their village (Chapter 5). The forest
frontier would certainly be the destination they would privilege if their land would be
taken (Chapters 1 and 5). The answer to this pitfall resides in land entitlement, as I
facilitate access to them. National Road 2 resulted in cutting the corridor into two
pieces. On the other hand, roads facilitate control by state authorities. In a context of
efficient control, they may be beneficial. Otherwise, they may be detrimental. The
impact of most roads is however quite limited in space. Most migrants settle close to
the road, usually less than five kilometers away. But this attraction can be an
advantage. If the road is constructed at a reasonable distance from the forest, it can
motivate people to leave the forest edge. In Ambodilaingo, some farmers attempt to
move to villages closer to the road, or at least to get land there from a branch of their
family. Their concern is to be able to grow and sell cash crops. As we saw in Chapter
5, ginger and bananas are not profitable anymore beyond a distance of 15 kilometers
(Figure 8).
Based on these outcomes, I conclude that roads should be built parallel to the
forest corridor, about 20-25 kilometers east from it. This would provide access to
market for a significant territory, while discouraging farmers from moving farther
west and encouraging an opposite movement from the forest to the east. I showed in
Chapter 5 that water and biomass are the two main resources that farmers look for to
sustain their livelihood. Roads and the market opportunities they provide may be a
third option. But the condition to achieve this is to avoid the appropriation of the most
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fertile land and the filling of market opportunities by migrants to the detriment of local
A road not too distant from the forest would also facilitate forest control. Tavy
on the forest edge (on the escarpment) can be easily observed with binoculars at a
which has the advantage of being less destructive and of distributing a larger part of
intensification: the bottom land that can be irrigated, the home gardens and the plowed
land. Still more reasonably, a titling of paddy fields alone could be a wise policy to
encourage improvements.
the operation, farmers would identify land that they deem privately owned (for
example paddy fields), at the scale of households, not lineages. They would physically
mark the boundaries of the fields in these perimeters. They would establish a list of
plots with the owner’s name. The whole list would be validated (agreed and signed) by
both traditional and legal authorities of the fokontany. Potential conflicts would be
solved at this stage, by the community itself, with the incentive of being granted a title
for free if the process gets completed. After completion, the domain services staff
would be invited for the reconnaissance and for establishing a map or sketch of the
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area, based on the delineation made by the community. Zanaky ny Ala would finance
this visit. The cost of the operation would be relatively low because much would have
been done by the community and because permanently cultivated fields are easily
accessible and have clear boundaries. The next step would be the granting of titles. At
this level, the intervention of the NGO would be minimal. A financial incentive would
be given through a contract with the domain services, in the form of a negotiated sum
of money per title effectively granted. An advance could be given to facilitate the
procedures for the first set of titles and the rest would be paid after delivery of the
titles.
Land not permanently cultivated could also be titled despite the fact that this
does not appear to be a priority. In this case, titles would be established in the name of
lineage elders. Such an entitlement would be cheaper and would be sufficient to avoid
the appropriation of land by outsiders. Under the authority of lineage elders, access of
each household to land would still be managed following traditional rules, allowing
more flexibility. As Boserup (1965) showed, the privatization of land is less marked in
move from collective to individual ownership. This logic is verified in the case of
Ambodilaingo (Chapter 5). When intensive and extensive systems coexist, private
aimed at taking account of this diversity and at allowing a match between legal and
2006), land certificates can be delivered by communes. These certificates are not
exactly land titles but open to the same rights. Donor agencies support the creation of
communal land tenure offices in charge of delivering these certificates. The objective
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is to reduce the cost of titling and to reform procedures, in accordance with the
scale of pilot projects. Its impact will have to be carefully assessed before considering
it to be the appropriate answer to the inefficiency of the current system. Like the
pitfalls could be the power it would provide to mayors to satisfy their clientele, the
lack of capacities of remote communes to manage the system (skillful people are
mostly urban and are often reluctant to work in remote areas), the difficulty of
controlling abuses due to the large number of communes, and the temptation to
condition the granting of title to the implementation of land use planning policies that
shortage period while taking advantage of the elevated price difference between
harvest and food shortage periods. Granaries would be built at the level of each
lineage or village. Farmers would provide the work and the NGO would provide
management system would be proposed but the community could modify, accept, or
refuse it.
The management system we elaborated was as follows: the villagers would sell
rice to the granary for 25% above the market price at harvest time and could buy it for
25% off during the food shortage period. The buying and selling periods would be
bounded. As the rice price usually doubles between the harvest and the food shortage
period, the difference between buying and selling prices would still allow a significant
benefit for the granary, while representing a virtual benefit for the farmers. In
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comparison with the present situation, they would save money two times: by selling
rice at a higher price and by buying it six months later below market price. Overall,
farmers would still lose, but they would lose less than they currently do, which
represents significant progress. They would also save the cost of going to Beforona to
sell and to buy rice. A certain cynicism is necessary to accept the approach but farmers
should be allowed to pragmatically judge the system. Moreover, the profit gained by
the granary would remain inside the community. The key issue is how this money will
person could buy should be equal to what he sold the same year. Rice bags should be
tagged so farmers would actually re-buy the same rice they sold. But after a limited
storage duration that still has to be defined (for example, until the next agricultural
that could be started in the short-term. Farmers themselves took the initiative, by
creating a community rule that forbids tavy on the Ambia dam watershed.
But we had in mind a larger scale and longer term program: the creation of a
forest reserve that would be co-managed by an NGO and the community. We believed
that in the context of Ambodilaingo, where the education level is very low and where
a few opportunist persons could take advantage of this, 248 a passage though co-
management is necessary before legal transfer of resource management
248
Chapter 11 will address this issue in details.
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natural resource management in Madagascar, will provide the justification for this
choice.
1997). An application decree of this article still needs to be issued to clarify the
modalities of delegation, but contracts have already been issued by the ministry of
environment on behalf of this article. Most of these contracts are between the state and
private operators aimed at developing ecotourism, but a few concern NGOs that have
been granted rights to manage forest resources with multiple purpose. Recently, the
concessions that may provide a legal frame for co-managed reserves (Chapter 2).
diameter for extraction and annual quotas, would be defined by the co-managers.
Under these minimal rules, the community would organize as it wants, resolve
conflicts by itself and distribute the benefits in the way it would consider the wisest.
Conflicts would certainly occur but the community itself would have to solve them. It
could establish dinas, written by hand on paper or even orally transmitted. It would
just have to be made very clear that in case forests would be cleared and basic
management rules not respected, the sub-contracts would be broken. Both rights and
duties would be defined, for the state, the NGO and the community, allowing an
escape from coercive state ruling and radical conservation approaches, as well as from
reservoir land for the extension of agricultural land and a ban of forest clearing is
necessary if we are to achieve a transition to more intensive land uses before the whole
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forest gets cut. Only a top-down ruling, designed in the name of global interests, can
lead to such a ban. This ban would have an important and social cost and would have a
low legitimacy. For this reason, the ban would need to be compensated and support to
agriculture intensification may not be sufficient for this compensation. I will come
back to this issue in Chapter 11 and 15. If the ban and this compensation were put into
place, the community would have to take its responsibility but would also be free to
find its own way to put this responsibility into practice. In other words, beyond the
delegation of legal forms of authority upon the resources, the community would be
With the support of the NGO, the biomass and the biodiversity could
contracts, in addition to the conventional uses (logging and nontimber forest products
extraction). In other words, the co-managed reserve would be a way to avoid the
biodiversity, and carbon). The value of these products may significantly increase in
the future and may serve as a basis for a new form of development where biomass and
biodiversity would play a significant and increasing role, beside agriculture. The main
pitfall, however, is that the NGO that has been granted the contract could work for its
own good instead of genuinely helping the community to capture these benefits. A law
communities.
Needs at this level are obviously huge but Zanaky ny Ala did not elaborate
health and education programs. Actions were limited to emergency support during the
influenza outbreak in 2002, just before the legal creation of the NGO. In case of
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supplementary funding, it was also planned to equip a few schools with didactic items
(posters, books) and to grant scholarships to children from remote villages that would
complete primary education but could not afford to go to Beforona’s junior high
school.
4.7. Others?
The list of activities could never stop, but the risk would be to dissolve key
actions in a mass of activities with low impact. In a context of huge needs and limited
intervention means, the essential has to be implemented, not the necessary. Activities
success, which implies that they have to be cheap. Our approach included an
tillage, crop rotation and organic fertilization through agricultural contests), a subsidy
policy (food for work activities), and a natural resources policy (co-management of
Ala are not new. In the vast area of development practices, it may be that everything
has been tried already. The novelty of Zanaky ny Ala was rather in the approach and
in what it did not do. First, the NGO employed inexperienced but highly motivated
projects. Second, Zanaky ny Ala did not pay much attention to training, socio-
organization, monitoring and paperwork, and allocated about 70% of its budget to
direct support to farmers, in the form of food for work and materials purchase (cement
and other construction material, seeds and tools). Third, it selected just a few activities
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judged as being the clue for successful development, instead of designing the perfect
project that would address all aspects of the reality. To complete the portrayal, I must
then say a few words about activities that were discarded and explain the reasons for
this.
Bee keeping was discarded because the market cannot absorb much honey and
because it does not fit well with the day to day economy that prevails in
returns are uncertain and not immediate. The most interested farmers are often those
belonging to the rural elite and they could quickly fill the limited market opportunities
if they received support from projects. Fisheries and arboriculture were discarded for
Fowl and swine husbandry were discarded for three reasons. First, agricultural
surpluses (rice for fowl, cassava for pigs) are necessary to feed animals, whereas
farmers in Ambodilaingo do not produce such surpluses. Second, the risk factor is also
significant (diseases). Third, soils in bottom land are still quite fertile in
to achieve better food security. It already deserves support in the fokontany located
close to the road, which are economically better off. As we saw in Chapters 5 and 6,
the production of manure is essential for the future and is a much less costly way to
can be provided by credit) but labor inputs are much lower and benefits are multiple.
Pig farming was actually intended to be supported later on, through the creation of the
micro-credit system.
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Agroforestry and agrobiological technologies were discarded because farmers
never adopted them despite the fact they have been subject of extension efforts for
decades, because other projects are already committed to their diffusion and because
SRI and SRA, as well as the diffusion of other intensive techniques that consist
in increasing yield, were discarded for similar reasons, because work productivity and
low risk are more important criteria than yield for most poor farmers, because a paddy
field that produces 1.5 tons per hectare is already a success and is already more
profitable than tavy on degraded land, and because innovation has to be created by
farmers themselves, which they will do if we provide them incentives and information
about the external world. The agricultural contest could be applied to rice
intensification and new rice varieties and techniques could then be proposed, but the
Training was discarded because many farmers in the commune complain about
the too many trainings they received, which reveals the difficulty of conducting
training with the right content and led us to prefer social learning through shared
would be more efficient if it was designed by the beneficiaries themselves, and that
changing the material basis of the production (by building dams) would create new
needs that would encourage social organization (for managing water and canal
maintenance).
6. Critical comments
Some mistakes have been made by Zanaky ny Ala that served as lessons,
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• The design of irrigation schemes necessitates hiring confirmed
• The smaller the dams, the easier their maintenance. Very small dams
that bar a small stream and irrigate a few hectares are worth building,
even if they benefit only one or a few households. They are very cheap
(less than 100 USD), can be constructed without engineering input and
a very large number of sites are suitable in the commune for such dams.
the long-term.
represents a little bit more than one kilogram of rice per day. The rest
three years and extended to the whole commune. The approach could
land. Hoes and angady do not allow high labor productivity. Plows
necessitate much draft force, are expensive and are not adapted to small
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attempted to develop a harrow, in collaboration with an engineering
firm from Antananarivo, but the results were not conclusive. During the
trials, however, the farmer who provided the zebus noticed that his
animals did not get tired like they do with a plow, and that it was easier
to maneuver and to work on small plots with this new tool than with a
continue.
7. Conclusion
The social experiment conducted by Zanaky ny Ala showed that farmers, even
Ambodilaingo, 249 can engage quickly in new activities if they are provided with
selecting alternatives to tavy allowed to work more efficiently. Zanaky ny Ala chose
to support endogenous dynamics (descending to the bottom land) rather than to force
soon as they had water arriving to their land. They had a 300 to 500 kilogram net
increase in rice production and constructed new granaries to welcome it. This relative
success, however, needs to be confirmed in the longer term as the impact of cyclones
and the capacity of beneficiaries to maintain irrigation schemes are still questionable.
Beyond Zanaky ny Ala’s operations, which were limited in space and time, a
249
When I arrived in Beforona in 2001, several persons tried to discourage me from working in
Ambodilaingo, asserting that “people there are backward.”
366
communal strategy, if not a regional or national policy, may need to be designed to
The agricultural contest was also a relative success. It confirmed that farmers
are not reluctant to try new techniques. But as it just lasted one season and was not
longer term and larger scale project where economic support, rather than training,
would be central, and were field experience, rather than technical expertise, would be
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CONCLUSION
This third part showed that two worlds actually coexist in Beforona.
First, there is the world of ordinary farmers. It can be divided between those
who live close to the road and have access to market, who were investigated by the
Terre-Tany and BEMA (Chapters 3 and 6) and received “support” from development
projects (Chapter 6); and those who live in remote villages, such as Ambodilaingo
(Chapter 5) and are out of reach of markets and project interventions. Farmers living
farmers due to the very limited extension of the road network in eastern
Madagascar. 250 In the case of Ambodilaingo, households survive in a day by day and
almost autarkist economy based on the practice of tavy. Mining the natural resources
(clearing forest and harvesting wood) helps them to survive but is increasingly
fields is the most obvious alternative to tavy and the technology is already available
(Chapter 7). It will not suffice, however, and necessitates significant investments.
Home gardens could also play a role but are constrained by difficult access to market.
Crop rotation on the most fertile soils is another option but trials over long periods
that will replace the role played by fallow. If these alternatives are encouraged, tavy
will continue to be practiced, but its extension will decrease over time, while the new
systems will cover larger and larger areas. Getting back to farmers living close to the
road, market offers them more opportunities to receive income that can be invested in
250
If one walks from Beforona to Ifanadiana, about 500 kilometers south, he will pass a village about
every one or two hours, and cross just one road that even four wheel drive vehicles cannot use most of
the year, in Marolambo.
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intensification. But due to land degradation, yields are low and investment capacity
households that I called the rural elite (Chapter 5). It includes an entrepreneurial group
of merchants that buy some of the best land, pay labor force and specialize in the most
profitable crops, mostly rice and ginger. These entrepreneurs have strong links with
influential local stakeholders such as civil servants, association leaders and project
staff, who constitute the rest of the rural elite. The two groups are culturally, socially
and economically less distant from each other than from the rest of the population.
This gives to the merchants and entrepreneurs an advantage to channel most of the aid
provided by NGOs and other organizations (Chapter 6). Zanaky ny Ala did not make
the exception and ended in privileging collaboration with the local elite. Due to this
wrong target, projects may eventually contribute to the marginalization of the poorest
farmers, those who would sell their land or would move away to the forest frontier,
any society. It is also normal that people who are culturally closer to each other
collaborate more closely. But in Madagascar, those who get marginalized do not move
to cities in the search for a job, as European farmers did during the enclosure and the
industrial revolution. Instead, they move to the forest. If the objective of rural
development projects that work in the area is to fight against poverty and
deforestation, these entrepreneurs are the wrong target, a fact that the ERI project also
recognized. This is not to deny the necessity of having a class of entrepreneurs and
traders. But this class will benefit from the development of the area anyway, through
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This third part further showed that projects perpetuate received wisdoms
(conclusion of Chapter 6), and that this maintains them is a state of ignorance about
local realities.
One reason for this may be that there is no physical contact between those who
take decisions and those who are subject to these decisions. They never experience
each other. Actors located in Washington D.C. meet their partners from Antananarivo,
who meet their partners from Moramanga, who meet their partners from Beforona,
who meet their partners from villages located close to the road. In a few cases, the two
ends of the chain are briefly connected. But this occurs in a virtual world recreated
purposely for this occasion, in the form of a workshop, such as those organized at the
nobody meets the population from villages located ten kilometers away from the road
whereas this population is practicing tavy, suffers from deep poverty and is subject to
the same global economic and political system. This situation may worsen in the
future because the centers of decisions will move farther and farther away from
Malagasy realities, due to the globalization of environmental issues and the increasing
A second reason may be that the methods used to acquire knowledge focus on
spare parts of the reality rather than on the whole, and on measurable aspects rather
than on nonmeasurable ones. In consequence, biophysical realities are paid much more
attention than social ones, economic realities being in an intermediate position. This
soil-plant biophysical interaction, while the main problems are located elsewhere, in
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the lack of investment capacity of farmers, in the vulnerability of marginal groups to
We are now getting to the turning point of this dissertation. This will lead us
from the local to the global, from projects to policies, from facts to discourses, from
achieve this, three main discourses need to be extracted from the outcomes of this
second part: the alternatives to slash-and-burn discourse, whose translation into project
natural resource management approaches); and the antifire discourse, which motivated
the excessive focus on fireless alternatives and the tavy repression campaigns
described in Chapter 6. These discourses will be analyzed in the fourth part of this
dissertation (Chapter 10, 11 and 12). Once these analyses will be completed, the
outcomes will be joined to those of Part III in a synthesis that will constitute the fifth
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SLASH-AND-BURN CULTIVATION AND DEFORESTATION IN THE
Volume 2
A Dissertation
of Cornell University
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Jacques Pollini
August 2007
PART IV
THE REPRESENTATIONS:
DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL
DISCOURSES
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INTRODUCTION
clear primary forest in a given biological, social, economic, cultural, political, local
and global context. I dedicated Part III to describing this object in detail, avoiding as
Slash-and-burn farmers in Ambodilaingo are poor, lack food during half of the year,
have almost no capacity to invest, have low willingness to take risks, suffer from
environmental policies and do not receive support from projects. They struggle to
develop more intensive land uses and most often fail to do so. In villages located
closer to the road, markets offer some opportunities, but poor farmers are in
competition with a rural elite, usually migrants and traders, who buy land, hire labor
force and benefit from foreign aid. Rural development projects fail to consider these
social dynamics and may eventually contribute to the marginalization of the poorest
farmers. Their failure can be explained by the existence of wrong beliefs, myths or
received wisdoms that orientate projects and policies to unwise strategies. In other
words, there is a mismatch between the realities and the representations of these
In this third part, I will analyze the genesis of these myths or received
wisdoms, in order to deconstruct the discourses within which they are embedded, as
far as this is possible. This exercise will provide more evidence of the existence of a
gap between representation and realities and may help to reduce this gap.
emerged (Chapter 8). I will then introduce the concepts and methods which I will
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subsequently use to deconstruct more specific discourses (Chapter 9). This
wisdoms together and that I considered particularly relevant for understanding the
which helps to explain the excessive focus on agrobiological techniques and fireless
which motivated the creation of Kolo Harena associations and the implementation of a
farmer to farmer approach by the LDI and PTE projects (Chapter 6). The participatory
several operators, including LDI (in places others than Beforona) to address
deforestation and slash-and-burn cultivation. The third discourse (Chapter 12) is the
and conservation practices and policies. It may sustain, indeed, the other discourses,
studied by Kull (2004), Chapter 12 will be mostly based on the outcomes of this
author.
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CHAPTER 8
DISCOURSES
1. Introduction
Dryzek (2005). In Section 4, I will use the categories of discourses presented by this
better the tension between two conflicting ideologies. This will enable the
establishment of a link between Part II and Part IV, jumping over Part III.
2. Development discourses
ideologies, policies and passions. I will not review these discourses and the abundant
literature (Sachs 1992; Rist 1997; Roberts and Hite 2000; Todaro and Smith 2003)
that relates to this concept. Instead, I will attempt to cleanse the concept from its
ideological layers, in order to bring back to the surface its core meaning, as far as this
can be done. I will use two tools to achieve this: a dictionary and an analytical frame
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2.1. The core meaning of “development”
development, evolution and growth. However, one feature appears repeatedly and
something develops, it does not remain equal along time, neither quantitatively nor
251
http://dictionary.oed.com.
376
How Organisms Ecosystems Economies Societies The Earth
do…
Change? Through Non-equilibrium Through external Through external Due to movements
polymorphism, ecology reveals changes such as changes such as in the solar system,
which results in ecosystems change, unstable markets and cultural influences, which provoke
changes along from one state or sub- prices, which conflicts, and climate change,
generations; these climax to another provoke adaptive environmental displacement of
changes can be changes, such as changes, which result ecosystems; due to
random (non- restructuring, in adaptive changes tectonic
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evolve?
one thing made at the expense of other things. It is one dimension of more complex
This program is the genetic code in the case of organisms, or a sum of genetic codes in
the case of ecosystems. In the case of the earth, development is linked to the life cycle
of the sun, from birth to death, and the elementary laws of the physical world set its
program. Concerning social and economic systems, the program is more flexible but
still exists. It can be a collective project determined by the collective willing of the
society. This program shapes the knowledge produced by this society and orients
such pervasive programs. Communism and neoliberalism, on the other hand, are
Evolution implies the replacement of ancient systems by new ones that are
379
377
more complex and even created to restart development from zero. In the case of living
organisms, this is done by mutation and natural selection. The entities that receive the
improved programs have an advantage and eliminate the others, unless these
modifications are flawed. With respect to the earth, I contend that it cannot evolve
because it is unique, cannot be put into competition with other systems and cannot
change its program, which is determined outside, by the sun. Earth is just the
delineated by universal laws. In the case of societies, a change of social program can
be seen as paradigmatic change; the passage from a civilization to another one; a total
change in the system of values. When civilizations disappear, others usually replace
them that are more powerful and more efficient, in the sense that they are able to
satisfy more needs for a greater number of people, still exploiting the same ecosystem.
In the future, there will be a point where our own society will face the same fate. It
will be unable to develop following the same program and conserving the same system
of values. It will have to evolve in order to restart its development following a new
program and a crisis may occur before this happens. A social entropy may exist which
can be paralleled to the chemical entropy of living organisms and which determines an
In sum, evolution works by the creation of new programs aimed at starting new
societal projects when development cannot be sustained anymore. Over long time
spans, it may be that societies have to evolve rather than “develop.” Evolution is thus
I conclude from this overview that we cannot and should not get rid of
development, whatever the type of system we deal with. But this concept must not be
confused with change, growth, and evolution. All systems are dynamic, are
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development would result in an ontological vacuum because there would be no word
program, this program has to be deconstructed and analyzed, not the fact that there is a
program. The key questions to ask are what develops and for what achievements. I
will now ask these questions, in order to identify the constructed meanings that
“the process whereby simple, low income national economies are transformed into
far beyond the core concept as delineated in the previous section. It renders explicit
the content of the program associated with development. This program is the march to
refers to the entry “Economic Growth and Planning” for “full treatment” of the
concept and has no entry for social development. In sum, the development of human
many and I will not address them here. But to say just a few words, this conflation of
concepts may be the cause of the failure of our development models to solve issues
such as deep poverty, food scarcity, social violence, deforestation, pollution, global
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Many theories have been proposed to support, criticize or challenge this model
of development. I will not discuss them here because it would lead us far away from
the empirical subject of this dissertation. But to summarize, we can distinguish three
general trends according to the way the dominant development paradigm is regarded.
stages that all societies would have to follow to successfully achieve development
(Rostow 1960). The fact that the program must lead to industrialization is not
center (Galeano 1974; Walleirstein 1974; Amin 1977). The development of this center
(the developed countries) depends on the maintenance of the periphery (the third
but capitalism is not regarded as the appropriate pathway to achieve it. Third,
all together or are ambiguous in the way they consider these concepts (Sachs 1992).
They usually fail to provide an alternate paradigm, probably because they reject the
industrialization is still, and by far, the dominant discourse when dealing with
industrialism is also the key concept upon which environmental discourses articulate.
There is little doubt that this hegemony has been harmful and that the postmodern
critique (Sachs 1992) was necessary and relevant. I would contend, however, that the
concept of modernization should not be rejected for not falling, like in the case of
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On Line, 252 modernization is “the action or an act of modernizing something,” and
modern means “being in existence at this time; current, present,” or “relating to the
present and recent times, as opposed to the remote past.” There can thus be as many
modernization processes as there are systems of values. But due to the framing of this
program, “industrial societies” now replaces “the present” as the benchmark to refer to
questioned. There can be no world that does not try to adjust to its time, but there can
be a world that does not consider industrialization as the benchmark for this
adjustment.
The more radical forms of Western modernization have been studied in detail
by James Scott (1998), who called them High Modernism. Due to the huge economic,
social, political and cultural gap that exists between “developed” and “developing”
countries, the sometimes extreme realities Scott describes are particularly relevant to
252
http://www.oed.com/.
383
synoptic view. As a result, its interventions were often crude and self-
defeating. (Scott 1998, 2)
In this perspective, modernization is the process by which states create
“enable much of the reality they depict to be remade” (Scott 1998, 3). Nature and
society are reordered according to the canon of modernity. The society becomes “a
reified object” (Scott 1998, 91) that can be scientifically described. It is reshaped in
order to match with this description and be assigned more productive functions. “In
place of the plasticity and autonomy of social life, [administrative engineering creates]
a fixed social order in which positions [are] designated,” leading to various forms of
“social taxidermy” (Scott 1998, 93). This administrative engineering project is what
Scott calls high modernism. It is “a vision of how the benefits of technical and
scientific progress might be applied – usually through the state – in every field of
“driven by utopian plans and an authoritarian disregard for the values, desires, and
objections of their subjects” (Scott 1998, 7). These cases involved “an authoritarian
state … willing and able to use the full weight of its coercive power to bring [its]
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designs into being” (Scott 1998, 7). However, states are not the only promoters of high
modernism:
large scale capitalism is just as much an agency of homogenization,
uniformity, grids, and heroic simplification as the state is, with the
difference being that, for capitalists, simplification must pay. (Scott 1998,
8)
High-modernism is challenged by approaches that put the emphasis on
unpredictability” (Scott 1998, 6). Scott uses the Greek concept “metis” to depict this
Scott proposes three examples of high modernism that are particularly relevant
A first example is scientific forestry. Its invention dates from the eighteenth
century and is located in Prussia and Saxony. It influenced tropical forestry as early as
the late eighteen century, in Indonesia (Peluso 1992), India (Guha 1990) and East
aesthetic as well” (Scott 1998, 18). Natural resources replaced nature and lines of trees
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A second example is the cadastral survey and other mapping devices aimed at
grail” (Scott 1998, 293). It also developed a “visual aesthetic” (Scott 1998, 281) that
processes. Seedling densities and yields can be easily measured and factors that
determined production can be separated from each other. High modernism also
all other factors would be controlled. Artificial conditions were created that had little
significance with regard to reality but could be described in simple terms. In the end,
agronomy had “a weak peripheral vision” (Scott 1998, 292), especially in the context
of complex and heterogeneous traditional systems. But what it needed to see was the
reality it intended to create, not the existing one. The alternatives to tavy developed in
Beforona, with their emphasis on yield and perfect biophysical design, match with this
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In sum, high modernism
failed in important ways to represent the complex, supple, negotiated
objectives of real farmers and their communities, … the space in which
farmers plant crops – its microclimates, its moisture and water movement,
its microrelief, and its local biotic history. (Scott 1998, 262)
This failure has been particularly visible in the case of shifting cultivation.
From the perspective of a sovereign state and its field extension agents,
[this land use was] an exceptionally complex and hence illegible form of
agriculture [that] violated in almost every respect [the] understanding of
what modern agriculture had to look like. (Scott 1998, 282)
The fields were “fugitive, going in and out of cultivation at irregular intervals –
hardly promising for a cadastral map” (Scott 1998, 282). The cultivators themselves
such populations, let alone turning them into easily assessable taxpayers, [was] a
productivities. It even allowed it in many countries and regions of the world. It then
must be asked why it also led to so many failures. For Scott, the main reasons were the
preparation that turned out to work badly in other contexts” (Scott 1998, 264); the fact
that “the actual schemes were continually bent to serve the power and status of
officials and of the state organs they controlled” (Scott 1998, 264); a shortsightedness
that led to focus on short-term productive goals and neglect of long-term outcomes
and externalities; the incapacity to deal with complexity. It was not science and
modern agriculture that had to be put into question. The culprit was rather the
incapacity to integrate local experience, knowledge and culture into innovation and
extension strategies.
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3. Environmental discourses
The content of this section is mostly derived from the book The Politics of the
Earth, by John S. Dryzek (2005), with a few additional insights when indicated and
when giving examples that relate to Madagascar. Dryzek’s essay matches exactly with
the intent of this chapter. It proposes categories of discourses consistent with those I
would have derived from my own representations and experiences. However, I will
Foucault, upon whom more will be said in the next chapter, but some distinctions are
also explicitly made. For Foucauldians, “individuals are for the most part subject to
the discourses in which they move, and are seldom able to step back and make
comparative assessments and choices across different discourses” (Dryzek 2005, 22).
In Foucault’s writing, discourses are portrayed “in hegemonic terms, meaning that one
single discourse is typically dominant in any time and place, conditioning not just
agreement but the terms of the dispute” (Dryzek 2005, 22). Dryzek disagrees with
that. For him, “discourses are powerful, but they are not impenetrable” (Dryzek 2005,
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22). Dryzek will thus attempt to describe “the basic structure of the discourses that
have dominated recent environmental politics” (Dryzek 2005, 10). He will “present
their history, conflicts and transformations” (Dryzek 2005, 10) and delineate their core
determinants.
Whether Dryzek is right or wrong does not really matter in this chapter, which
management [perspectives], advocated by the U.S. Forest Service’s first chief forester
Gifford Pinchot, and the deeper respect for nature propounded by Sierra Club founder
John Muir” (Dryzek 2005, 11). Pinchot emphasized the utilitarian value of natural
resources. Muir, on the other hand, put at the forefront an esthetic and spiritual
dimension of nature that would be worth conserving for its intrinsic value and that
biocentric ways of thinking remained in conflict until present time. Muir’s perspective
has received increasing attention in recent decades. What most Americans used to
be preserved.
in the context of the long dominant discourse of industrial society” (Dryzek 2005, 13),
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services produced and to the material well-being that growth brings” (Dryzek 2005,
13). However, this framing “eventually started to disintegrate, yielding the range of
2005, 14). This distinction refers to the pace and scale of change. Reformists support a
step by step change along a series of pragmatic reforms, whereas radicals consider that
issues.
discourses (Dryzek 2005, 14). It relates to the way environmentalism articulates with
larger frames, and especially with industrialism. “Prosaic departures take the political-
economic chess-board set by industrial society as pretty much given” (Dryzek 2005,
14). “Environmental problems are seen mainly in terms of troubles encountered by the
established industrial political economy” (Dryzek 2005, 14). Hence action is required
but does not imply moving to a different kind of society. “In contrast, imaginative
departures seek to redefine the chessboard” (Dryzek 2005, 14). “The environment is
brought into the heart of the society and its cultural, moral and economic systems”
identified by Dryzek.
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3.2. Dryzek’s categories
3.2.1. Survivalism
Rome” (Dryzek 2005, 15), through the publication of The Limits to Growth (Meadows
et al. 1972). “The basic idea is that continued economic and population growth will
eventually hit limits set by the Earth’s stock of natural resources and the capacity of its
ecosystems to support human agricultural and industrial activity” (Dryzek 2005, 15).
survivalism are Garrett Hardin’s (1968) Tragedy of the Commons and Ehrlich and
Ehrlich’s (1970) Population Bomb. Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1970) put into question the
right to give birth and Hardin (1974) went still farther by proposing his famous
survival while developing countries are allowed to drown in misery, unless they accept
survivalist discourse to defend technocratic and authoritarian policies that could open
the doors to some forms of totalitarianism, as also argued by Rossi (2003). William
ecological mandarins” (Ophuls 1977, in Dryzek 2005). In such a scheme, the absence
of democratic feed-back could impede local knowledge from being taken into account.
In the best cases, short term results in term of environmental conservation could be
achieved but at the cost of ethical violations that would render long term results
questionable. In the worst cases, received wisdom would spread without obstacle and
result in irrational policies whose impact may be both unethical and the reverse of
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the Toamasina Province, in Madagascar, provided an illustration of this logic (Chapter
6).
which is a key feature of all industrial societies, and prosaic because “it can see
solutions only in terms of the options set by industrialism, notably, greater control of
2005, 15). Most of its prominent early figures have a background in biology but they
have been joined in 1995 by a few leading economists (Arrow et al. 1995, in Dryzek
2005, 35), who defended less radical positions. Authoritarianism was softened and
more emphasis was put on the “creation and enforcement of environmental quality
standards” (Dryzek 2005, 37), opening the way to the “problem solving” discourses
3.2.2. Promethean
received
counter-attack from defenders of the established industrial economy.
These defenders argued that humans are characterized by unlimited
ingenuity, symbolized in Greek mythology by the progress made possible
by the theft of fire from the gods by Prometheus. (Dryzek 2005, 25)
Dryzek calls these counter-attackers “prometheans.” They increased their
influence in the 1980s. They asserted that the resources of the earth were wholly
unlimited and that “as soon as one resource threatened to run out, ingenious people
would develop a substitute” (Dryzek 2005, 26). Key figures of the promethean
discourse are Barnett and Morse (1963), who contended that decreases in the price of
natural resources since the beginning of the century proved there was no scarcity.
Simon (1981) continued these arguments and contended that there was no scientific
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proof of global environmental degradation. Lomborg (2001), who became famous
through his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, defended a similar thesis. The U.S.
administration, under the presidencies of the Bushes and Reagan, has been strongly
moderate perspective. The key argument, that “nature is, indeed, just brute
is theoretically acceptable. The flows of energy and matter used by human societies
are still low in comparison with the total flows of the world we live in. Energy
environmental problems, and that markets would provide the right incentives to adopt
these technologies is certainly just a dream. With respect to the impacts of our
technologies to solve environmental problems will remain only anecdotal for the near
future.
realities, the promethean belief in science provides useful criticisms to the excessively
people.… Skilled, spirited, and hopeful people will exert their wills and imagination
for their own benefit, and [for] the rest of us as well” (Simon 1996, 589, in Dryzek
2005, 59). So, “the more people, the better” (Dryzek 2005, 59). In the case of changes
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how communities of farmers in a situation of crisis eventually develop more intensive
the biocentric character of survivalism, but an answer that became too radical. This
bipolarity presents some similarities with the opposition of the biocentric and
survivalism has its foundation in both Muir’s and Pinchot’s ideals. Two bipolarities
goals. The approach is prosaic because it is implemented using the tools of the
reforms. The three main pathways for doing so are “administrative rationalism,
problems. Experts are called to assess environmental issues and propose solutions that
are translated into policies. State organizations such as national park services and
pollution control agencies are created and new regulations are issued.
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A first limit to this approach is that it solves problems only when they become
insufficiently addressed because people get used to them and tolerate them more than
boundaries, and lack coordination, which limits their capacities to address global and
with a conundrum when problems are global but solutions have to adapt to local
realities: “the more an organization is disciplined, the less it can be expected to learn”
from the local, and “the more it learns, the less easy will it be to maintain discipline by
administrative means” (Dryzek 2005, 96). This problem was also raised by Scott
(1998) in his analysis of “high modernism” and is particularly relevant in the case of
weak states.
government to manage their resources put the emphasis on local knowledge, flexibility
central agency [would] set standards, while compliance [would be] negotiated locally
with activists and corporation” (Dryzek 2005, 96). But the distinction with the next
philosophers such as John Dewey (Ratner 1939). For these philosophers, the world is
full of uncertainties that science cannot remove, but that we need to consider to
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determine our acts. In consequence, experimenting, in the wide sense of being
mediators can be called to solve disputes and help to find the best consensus. Impact
legislation, and alternative dispute resolutions are concepts and tools that took their
impetus from this new framework (Dryzek 2005). The experiment conducted by the
solving through experimentation. Chapter 11, about the GELOSE legislation, will
“governance.”
Government has a top-down imagery in which administrative rationalism
rules once goals and principles have been set.… Governance, in contrast,
dispenses with a central locus of authority, revealing in informal
interactions.… The image of a network replaces that of the hierarchy.
(Dryzek 2005, 109)
In this network interactions occur such as “committee meetings, legislative
exposing, deceiving, image building, insulting, and questioning” (Dryzek 2005, 108).
The working groups of NEAP (Chapter 2) illustrate the increasing momentum given to
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Critics of democratic pragmatism argue that its chaotic character puts it at odds
with a scientific and rational administration. But Karl Popper showed that science
itself advances in such a chaotic schemes. He advocated for an open and democratic
experiment. Uncertainty is both accepted and addressed. Chapter 15 will come back
on this approach.
existence of political power” that can have “large financial resources at their disposal”
and “try to skew the outcomes of policy debates and decision making processes in
their direction (Gonzales 2001)” (Dryzek 2005, 117). Chapter 11 will provide a good
illustration of this problem. Second, stakeholders can think as citizens but still act as
consumers. Instead of changing their behavior, they expect that the state will use its
authority and expertise to enforce regulations that will oblige them to behave as good
citizens (Dryzek 2005). Global warning provides a good example: the public
awareness of this event increases constantly, but results more in expectation of state
some achievement. As in the case of survivalism and prometheans, the two discourses
have to be regarded as complementary rather than contradictory. But they may also
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administrative rationalism in its hostility to environmental management on
the part of government administrators - except, of course, in establishing
the basic parameters of designed markets. (Dryzek 2005, 121)
Economic rationalism considers that market and private properties are the
solutions to the Tragedies of the Commons. When dealing with resources that cannot
legislation. Green taxes can be created to oblige individual consumers to pay a price
that better reflects the real cost of what they buy. The trading of emission rights makes
it possible to reduce the cost of pollution control. This mechanism helped to achieve
targets in the reduction of industrial sulfur pollutants in the United States and is
included in the Kyoto protocol as a mechanism to reduce green house gases (Clean
“exists only to provide inputs to the socio-economic machine, to satisfy human wants
and needs” (Dryzek 2005, 134). “Missing from economic rationalism is any notion of
active citizenship” (Dryzek 2005, 135). Humans are reduced to their Homo
economicus dimension and nature to its marketable value. This argument is, however,
value of nature if this value is recognized. It is true, however, that the utilitarian
perspective that prevails in our world does not encourage using economic rationalism
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3.2.4. Sustainability
Problem solving approaches do not state clearly where they posit themselves
question of limits. Their concern is empirical and local, rather than theoretical and
global. They focus “on the work to be done in the here and now” (Dryzek 2005, 142).
economic growth. I will show that, unfortunately, the sustainability discourse has been
follows:
sustainable development is a process of change in which the exploitation of
resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological
development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both
current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. (WCED
1987)
In other words, humanity “meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED
399
1987, in Dryzek 2005). This definition is one of the most frequent citations in the
on the anthropocentric side. “The environment does not exist as a sphere separate from
human ambitions, action and needs…the environment is where we all live” (WCED
1987, in Drykek 2005, 153). The intrinsic value of nature, which may exist
independently of our “ambitions, action and needs” (WCED 1987, xi, in Dryzek 2005,
153), is not explicitly recognized. What has to be conserved is the environment that
contends that “growth has no set limits in terms of population or resource use beyond
which lies ecological disaster,” in part because “accumulation of knowledge and the
development of technology can enhance the carrying capacity of the resource base”
where it reflects quite different objectives. Brundtland’s definition has been repeatedly
quoted and other definitions proliferated, questioning “what is to be sustained, for how
long, for whom, and in what terms” (Dryzek 2005, 146). In the end, sustainable
development may have become “an empty vessel that can be filled with whatever one
according to a program, has a beginning and an end. When the program finishes, i.e.
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when an organism or a society achieves the complete unfolding of its potentialities,
chemical or social entropy may lead to crisis, decay and death. Societies may need to
be reinvented to remain dynamic. They have to evolve, a process which should not be
created this confusion. Those who believe in it keep on hoping that the same program,
the same system of values can be indefinitely conserved and support population and
GNP increase, with just a few corrections. Those who reject it refuse the idea that
human population could continue their expansion, because they are detoured from the
concept of evolution and from the possibility of adopting new and more appropriate
“programs.”
growth and environmental conservation, but an attempt that has failed due to a
confusion between development and evolution. Things can evolve forever but
development has a limit which is set by its program and the environment within which
this program runs. This misleading confusion between two concepts is revealed by
and a change in this program may need to occur in order to allow future evolution, a
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3.2.4.2. Ecological modernization
Ecological modernization refers to a restructuring of the capitalist political
economy along more environmentally sound lines…. Environmental
criteria must be built into the re-design of the system. (Dryzek 2005, 167)
Industry is invited to cooperate to this redesign. It receives incentives to
“embrace rather than resist ecological modernization, provided only that business is
sufficiently far-sighted rather than interested only in quick profits” (Dryzek 2005,
167).
Key assumptions are that pollution are “a sign of waste” (Dryzek 2005, 167),
that solving them in the future will be “vastly more expensive for both business and
government” (Dryzek 2005, 168), and that “there is money to be made in selling green
goods and services” (Dryzek 2005, 168). The challenge is to guide industrial societies
(Dryzek 2005, 171) of economics and ecology, remembering that both concepts are
development, ecological modernization “does not easily admit the idea that nature
might have intrinsic value beyond its material uses” (Dryzek 2005, 179). It also
driven by utilitarian values and whether it significantly opens the way for imaginative
evolutions.
Moreover, “ecological modernization was long silent about what might be the
appropriate developmental path for Third World societies, and attempts by theorists to
402
apply ecological modernization concepts to these societies often misfire” (Dryzek
2005, 172).
Green radicalism may be the most imaginative discourse; the only one that
could be located on the other side of the great partition that determined the march to
behaviors, which determine two sub discourses: green consciousness and green
politics.
One of the most popular forms of green consciousness is deep ecology, which
advocates for a minimal human footprint on the planet and, in its more radical forms,
anecdotal or absent from Madagascar, I will not present in length the movement and
discourse is important because it can help to delineate the frontier between discourses
Romanticism can be seen as the alternate pathway that Western societies could
intellectual movement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that opposed the rise
of modern science and liberal politics” (Dryzek 2005, 191-192) that characterized the
403
Enlightenment. Green consciousness posits itself on the romantic side. It considers
that “environmental destruction [is] caused by modern science and technology wielded
Green consciousness is idealistic, in the sense that it considers that “ideas, not
experiences, contemplation and harmony with unknown forces. If nature is what is set
out of the control of human societies, green consciousness replaces it at the center of
their life. It considers that nature cannot coexist with rationale industrial societies and
values. The adept of this movement take the risk of advancing into new realms of
knowledge in spite of the prejudice this creates with respect to the way they are
perceived.
that was lost after the great partition of the enlightenment. This dimension could be a
harmony with the unknown and the uncontrolled. It could help us to re-discover things
that were not given paramount importance in the representation of our world that we
created and in the societies and the environment that we built from these
representations.
Green consciousness movements, however, “cannot tell us how to get from our
current severe disequilibrium to this harmonious state” (Dryzek 2005, 201). They have
often taken radical positions that made their movement unpopular and as exclusive as
the ideologies they criticize. From their statement that there is a conflict between
nature and culture, they often end in rejecting human societies and cultural
productions altogether. In short, because it was the most radical and imaginative
departure from industrialism, green consciousness also engendered some of the most
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exclusive and intolerant environmental discourses. Instead of opening up society, it
closed it in a different way. Green politics may be the answer to these excesses.
life and decision making, through the creation of political parties aimed at challenging
the dominant development pathways of modern societies. This was done at the cost of
internal divisions, the more radical members preferring to confront the political system
rather than working within it. Green politics also favored the establishment of links
the poorest nations, globalization, and global justice. These connections were manifest
during the global protest that accompanied the global conference of the World Trade
Green politics adopted more moderate positions concerning the way it regards
human activities and culture. One of its sub-movements, Social Ecology, treats
humans as part of nature, but “the only bit of nature that has yet achieved self-
(Dryzek 2005, 206). Culture is viewed as being part of nature, or as Bookchin (1986,
in Dryzek 2005, 206) puts it, a “second nature.” The intrinsic value of nature is still
movements, to create a new world where the relationship with nature will be modified
promises return to some primal eden” (Dryzek 2005, 218). Green politics was
405
integrate green discourses into political debates. But it lacked an elaborate blueprint
absorbed the ideas of green politics and made them lose their imaginative capacity.
dilemma. Green politics, in the end, could become “just a minor set of irritants to [a]
propose an analytical framework that is different from the one proposed by Dryzek
the most radical version of the limit discourse on one side (survivalism), and the
promethean negation of limits on the other side. Different positions on this axis reflect
the way interactions between human beings and their physical and natural
environment are seen. On one side, we find a broken harmony that has to be recovered
if we are to survive, while on the other side, the environment is permanently reshaped
A second axis can be drawn to map John Muir’s and Gifford Pinchot’s
philosophies. It would reflect the value that is given to nature: an immanent realm with
The two axes do not superimpose. Promethean discourse clearly rejects the
survivalism, to the contrary, adopt the limit discourse but can be either romantic or
406
utilitarian; biocentric or anthropocentric. Sustainable development is an attempt to
economy and ecology, but failed to achieve this synthesis. Sustainable development
eventually adopted a rather utilitarian perspective and challenged the limit discourses.
green consciousness) make it possible to map the different ways human beings think
about their environment, at least in Western societies and cultures. They help us to
the way the environment is conceived. It would not make sense to map them according
sense that it proposes incremental changes on specific issues, and prosaic, in the sense
that it does not see beyond the framework of industrial societies. This makes problem
solving distinct from ecological modernization and green politics. But problem solving
discourses.
obliges it to question the way industrial societies work. It can be adopted by the
407
consciousness. As it addresses large scale issues, it goes beyond problem solving but
can integrate its tools and methods, which determines several sub-currents. For
(Dryzek 2005, 173) (as does administrative rationalism) whereas “strong ecological
Green politics is the entry in the political arena of green radicalism. It is both
radical and imaginative because its role is to question and provoke from the verge. But
when its proponents become actors that implement policies (when they get elected),
“developed in the European heartland of green party politics” (Dryzek 2005, 219). The
lack of clear distinction between ecological modernization and green radicalism may
reflect the dilemma of choosing between changing systems from the inside, with a
discourses. The three first analyze the industrial society from different perspectives
but do not put it into question. Achieving material wealth is still accepted as being the
main goal of human development. This has to be done with respect for the
Conventional science and rational thinking are still viewed as appropriate and
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to analyze Western society from outside and to put into question the dominant
paradigms within which Western people are all embedded. Unfortunately, this leads
(problem solving, ecological modernization and green politics) are translations into
policies of these four perspectives. Their combination depends more on the actors’
position (more or less embedded in the system, more or less pragmatic, committed to
local or global issues) than on the way they actually see their environment and its
This framework enables one not to choose a camp among the discourses
identified by Dryzek (2005). Discourses are representations of the reality; not the
issue is being dealt with (local or global, practical or theoretical, political or technical).
The same person could adopt survivalism when analyzing a Malthusian agro-
favorable position to influence this future, and exhibit green consciousness when
available and the current institutional, social and economic environment. With more
an activist in a lobby group or member of a green party, he could be more radical and
409
imaginative and adopt green politics. But he may have to move back toward
It is now time to go back to the Malagasy realities, in the light the analytical
frameworks proposed in this chapter. This will allow a new reading of the Malagasy
and policies in Madagascar, by working during two years as a technical advisor for the
Water and Forest. 253 As I mentioned earlier, I was a member of several working
groups that advised the Malagasy government with respect to the implementation of
the third phase of the National Environmental Action Plan (Chapter 2). My colleagues
organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil societies, and the private
sector). I became a part of my study object and promoted some of the discourses and
Due to this particular situation, I did not use any particular methodology to
carry out this part of the “research.” During the two years I spent in the decision
makers’ arena, I had no research plan, no questionnaire and no schedule. My job led
me to question myself about what was going on in these various working group
meetings, and out of these meetings, as they were not the main location where
253
Decentralized Natural Resources Management Project of the Priority Aid Fund of the Malagasy-
French Cooperation. In French: “Projet Gestion Décentralisée des Ressources Naturelles du Fonds de
Solidarite Prioritaire de la Coopération Franco-Malgache”, financed by the French Ministry of Foreign
Affair. I worked on this project from February 2004 to February 2006.
410
decisions were taken. I had not yet read Politics of the Earth by Dryzeck (2005). I
knew about sustainable development, deep ecology, green politics, and the works of
Muir, Pinchot, Hardin, and Ehrlich, but I did not articulate these elements in a clear
intuitive process. I will now describe this picture, using Dryzek’s words and linking it
The adherents of Muir and Pinchot clearly confronted each other in the
Malagasy political arena at the central level. But the confrontation was not between
On one side was a group of actors whose main goal was to enlarge the system
of protected areas from 1.7 to six million hectares, in accordance with the commitment
September 2003. These protected areas would only allow the strict minimum of
human activities, as we saw in Chapter 2. Under this vision, the Malagasy state was
encouraged to relocate forest exploitation from the harvest of valuable trees in natural
ecosystems to plantation forestry. This group was led by conservation NGOs such as
Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Durrell Wildlife
Trust, and by the main donors to the Environmental Action Plan (the World Bank and
USAID), with sometimes some hesitation for the later. Muir’s vision clearly
dominated the discourses of this group, while administrative rationalism was the
On the other side were the bilateral agencies, some research projects and some
conservation and rural development agencies or NGOs who held that natural
resources, including timber, could be harvested, under strict regulation, in the new
protected areas that would be created. No activity would be excluded a priori but
sustainability had to be proven and was the condition to allow forest product
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extraction under the status of protected area (Chapter 2). Industrial exploitation
involving powerful companies was rejected. The goal was to allow local communities
to sustain their livelihood from the extraction of natural resources, including wood.
This extraction could be market oriented but would remain traditional (no roads, no
machines). The GELOSE legislation (Chapter 11) would provide the tools to
implement this system. The state would get its share of the benefit through taxation. It
the classification into protected area, would make possible successful control and tax
collection. This group was led by the German and French cooperation, SAGE 254 and
the WWF. The heritage of Pinchot was clearly present and democratic pragmatism
pragmatism was officially accepted by both groups. The GELOSE legislation was
development discourse was also accepted on both sides but different meanings were
implicitly given to the term, “thanks” to the oxymoronic character of this term.
Malagasy officials usually let their partners have their polemics during the
meetings. But when they were asked their opinion, as occurred sometimes when
debates became too animated, they clearly chose the second group. Forests included
great resources, with high value on the international market, and most Malagasy
254
Environmental Management Service. In French: Service d’Appui a la Gestion de l’Environnement.
See Chapter 2.
412
officials believed that these resources had to be harvested. Management had to be
improved to make this extraction sustainable and all recognized the many risks and
difficulties. But to abandon the objective of sustainable extraction did not raise any
enthusiasm due to the loss of potential income for the country and the discontentment
of the private sector. Nevertheless, when decisions were made by the sovereign state,
they mostly followed the recommendation from the first group, which was that of the
main donors. Hence, Muir won the debate and the area of forest dedicated to his vision
was much wider than that dedicated to Pinchot’s vision, as we saw in Chapter 2. This
was, however, only virtual. On the ground, forests continued to be exploited. Many
Malagasy officials tolerated it, due to important regional, private and political lobbies.
Muir’s vision just forced the extraction of forest products to remain illegal.
Concerning the second axis of analysis (the opposition between survivalist and
and poverty that was transforming the green island into a red one. Population had to be
controlled. In the second group, survivalism was not the rule. Deforestation and the
existence of limits were accepted and efforts were made to de-dramatize the situation.
There was also something promethean in both groups. The same technical or
legislative solutions, such as agroforestry, SRI, zero tillage, the GELOSE, or zoning
were promoted on both sides. A soft, high modernist project pervaded in all
solutions to the existence of limits. Experts and engineers were called upon to propose
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survivalism prevailed when assessing the state of the environment while a promethean
Nevertheless, we can say that the first group gave more intrinsic value to the forest
than the second. This argument was, however, marginal in the debates. Both groups
preferred to refer to the utilitarian and economic value of ecosystems, whether this
value would result from forest products extraction, tourism, or environmental services.
We arrive now at the second set of discourses, which relate to the way
were totally absent or were not expressed. Clearly, the privileged approach was
more tangible than the two other approaches. It was expressed by the ban on fires and
tavy, by the conditionality of the World Bank grants and by the importance given to
expertise. Any subject of debate could result in the launching of a new study and
funding was most often available for this. But science and expertise were called on to
administrative process.
pragmatism was, however, an illusion because these groups, like the associations
created by the GELOSE legislation (Chapter 11), rather served to legitimate decisions
taken at the upper level. Lobbies from conservation organizations on one side, and
414
from private interests and regional political powers on the other side, were more
influential on the decisions taken. At the local level, the policies decided in
tools were set up in the name of democratic pragmatism but mostly served to obtain
Moramanga workshop about the practice of tavy gives an example (Chapter 6). The
and to put in place payments for environmental services. The VMCRCC project,
the future.
In sum, a few actors had more power and more influence: the state’s higher
authorities, due to their sovereignty to take decisions; the main donors, due to some
explicit and implicit conditions associated with the grants; and a few conservation
the donors and on the Malagasy state. Beneath this, staff from Malagasy services,
minor donors, and field partners had less influence. They had different opinions but
had to follow the general move in favor of Muir’s vision, renamed the Durban Vision
(Chapter 2). An environment family was formed which built up a common culture and
committed to achieving this vision. This vision became a dream that widened the gap
justifying, showing that little may have changed from the tautological evaluation of
EP2 by OSIPD (2000) (Chapter 2). The reason may be that the most essential actors,
those who shape the reality on the ground, were not members of this family. These
most important actors are, of course, the Malagasy farmers. Their presence in NEAP’s
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working groups was just in the form of numbers, as in the OSIPD’s (2000) evaluation
5. Conclusion
This Chapter showed that development, and now sustainable development, are
central concepts in our representations of our world. This central position is justified
by the fact that development has an essential ontological signification. Nothing can be
static and no change can occur without being under the influence of forces that give it
a direction, although these forces are so complexes that the direction cannot be
predicted in most cases. But development, beyond this core meaning, received
case, an ideology or a dogma in the worst case. The same occurred to sustainable
character of the concept. Reconciling the environment with human development thus
in achieving success and with the ideological battle that occurred in this program
(Chapter 2).
I will now analyze in more detail the three sub-discourses that I identified in
Part III. But first, I have to explain the methodology I will use, which I derived from
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CHAPTER 9
1.Introduction
In this chapter, I will present a series of concepts which I will use to analyze
discourses in the subsequent chapters. These concepts have been elaborated by Michel
Foucault (1970) and Bruno Latour (1987) and had a strong influence on
poststructuralism and postmodernism for the first, on social constructionism and actor
network theory (ANT) for the second. More will be said about social constructionism
to Bruno Latour’s. I will then synthesize the outcomes of these authors (Section 4),
and propose a way to avoid the relativist trap toward which a radical interpretation of
their epistemology could lead (Section 5). This will lead me to propose a personal
model which can be regarded as a form of critical realism (Section 6) and which I will
Foucault’s (1970) work: his first course of at the College de France, in 1970.
255
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “dans toutes les sociétés, la production de discours
est a la fois contrôlée, sélectionnée, organisée et redistribuée par un certain nombre de procédures qui
ont pour rôle d’en conjurer les pouvoirs et les dangers, d’en maîtriser l’événement aléatoire, d’en
esquiver la lourde, la redoutable matérialité.”
417
In other words, knowledge is not built through a neutral collection of empirical
facts. It is produced and organized by a society that needs it in order to justify and
maintain its rules, its organization and its culture. Subjective forces emanate from the
social and pervade into discourses, reshaping certain facts and discarding or re-
articulating others. Discourses are thus both the consequence and the cause of power.
They can be hegemonic and pervade into the mind and body of people, controlling
their behavior and shaping their common culture. Rather than mirroring the world,
identity. It would be unquestionable from inside. We can say, in the light of the
outcomes of Chapter 8, that discourses are intimately linked to the program run by a
society. They may hence be the cause of the difficulties for societies to evolve, while
of tools to control the emergence and evolution of new forms of knowledge. They
create what Foucault called domains of exclusion. They fix the boundaries or
This first series of principles concern modes of exclusion that operate from
outside discourses.
First are the statements and the taboos that reflect them. Statements are
discursive elements whose presence is hegemonic even if they are not visible. They
spread and unfold in the whole discursive field, fill interstices between discursive
elements which they link and reshape. They are the sources and the manifestation of
power. They are taken for granted by most subjects. They determine what we can
418
think and say, what we dare to say and what the persons we talk with can hear from
what we say.
A second mode of exclusion is the divide that all societies establish between
reason and madness. Foucault (1961) showed that the location of this divide varies
according to time and place. In Europe, there was a period when madness was
regarded as capable of revealing important truths. It was thought that phenomenon not
explained by reason could be better perceived and understood by people who lost their
reason. This belief disappeared with the emergence of the enlightenment philosophy
The third mode of exclusion is the partition between true and false, which
Foucault calls the “great partition.” It occurs at the early stages of the formation of
societies and cultures. It determines the dominant statements that will become
hegemonic (the truth) and those that will be rejected (the false). Its determinants have
to be sought at the origin of discourses and culture and on their outlets, through a
process of deconstruction that is aimed at re-questioning true and false, revealing their
relative character.
and partitions. This exercise enables him to delineate the condition of possibility of
discourses, or to reveal their will for truth. His approach presents some similarities
with Nietzsche’s (2003 256 ) Genealogy of Morals, which may have been an earlier
attempt to deconstruct Western civilization, culture and discourses. Foucault did the
(1963), and prisons and education (1975). These exercises were challenging because
none can totally escape from the will for truth. “Thus appears to our eyes only a truth
256
First published in 1887.
419
that would be wealth, fecundity, a sweet and insidiously universal force. And we
ignore on the other hand the will for truth, as prodigious machinery destined to
first ones, are directed toward what is inside discourses. These forces of exclusion
subsets of discourses and help to control the emergence of new ideas and paradigms,
commentary impedes the random occurrence of subversive new ideas and thinking. It
the commentator because they gain increasing momentum from the authority of
The second internal mode of exclusion is the author; not the physical author,
but the author as a point of origin of discourses. In the same manner as “the
commentary limited random events by the play of an identity that would have the form
of the repetition, … the principle of the author limits chance by putting at play an
257
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French : “ainsi n’apparaît a nos yeux qu’une vérité qui serait
richesse, fécondité, force douce et insidieusement universelle. Et nous ignorons en revanche la volonté
de vérité, comme prodigieuse machinerie destinée à exclure.”
420
identity that has the form of the individuality and the self” 258 (Foucault 1970, 31). The
author is a sign of the unity of discourse. It provides an identity to a set of ideas and
studied object rather than by a discipline. This third mode is actually the discipline. It
is significant that the same term refers to “a control or order exercised over people or
animals,” “the system of rules used to maintain this control,” and “a branch of
instruction or learning.” 259 According to Foucault, “a discipline is not the sum of all
the truth that can be said about something” 260 (Foucault 1970, 32). Rather, “inside its
limits, each discipline recognizes true and false propositions; but it pushes away, on its
margins, a teratology of knowledge” 261 (Foucault 1970, 35). It does this in several
certain category of objects. Second, facts must to be collected using certain tools and
concepts. Third, they must lead to propositions that match with a given theoretical
framework. It can nevertheless happen that some facts challenge this framework and
lead to a scientific revolution, or a paradigm change in the sense of Kuhn (1970). But
disciplines try to retard this as long as they can. They may be the key machinery that
258
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “ le commentaire limitait le hasard par le jeu
d’une identité qui aurait la forme de la répétition et du même. Le principe de l’auteur limite ce même
hasard par le jeu d’une identité qui a la forme de l’individualité et du moi.”
259
The Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, 1998.
260
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: une discipline, ce n’est pas la somme de tout ce
qui peut être dit de vrai a propos de quelque chose.”
261
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “ A l’intérieur de ses limites, chaque discipline
reconnaît des propositions varies et fausses; mais elle repousse, de l’autre cote de ses marges, toute une
tératologie du savoir.”
421
2.3. The third series of principles
control exerted upon the persons that enunciate discourses. First are the rituals that
accompany speeches, such as the behaviors, the body movements and other signs that
speakers express under the control of their peers. Second are the societies of
discourses, which serve to create affinities and connections by which discourses are
recognized, shared, adopted, spread and given more momentum. Third are the
doctrines, which determine more narrowly than disciplines the areas around which
to maintain and modify the appropriation of discourses, with the knowledge and power
they carry with them” 262 (Foucault 1970, 46). Education may be the key to control
societies because it trains the future leaders. Through it, institutions get embedded in
the dominant discourses and are provided with appropriate knowledge, authority and
power.
that explain the creation of discourses and their hegemony. He asserts that the need for
rationality leads to considering the will for truth as the truth itself. As a result, the
specificity of discourses, as entities distinct from the reality itself, is denied by three
myths that are indeed the roots of discourses. First is the myth of the original subject.
It is the belief that there is an objective point of departure at the origin of commentary
chains. This point is regarded as untouchable because it would be real, anchored in the
reality. Second is the myth of the original experience. According to it, meanings
262
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: Tout système d’éducation est une manière
politique de maintenir ou de modifier l’appropriation des discours, avec les savoirs et les pouvoirs
qu’ils portent avec eux.”
422
existed in the world before discourses. They would just have to be deciphered and
articulated together. “An early complicity with the world would be the foundation of
our possibility to speak about it and in it, to designate and name it, to judge it and to
know it in the form of a truth” 263 (Foucault 1970, 50). Foucault rejects this conception
and contends that “we should not expect the world to show us a readable image that
we need only to decipher. It is not accomplice of our knowledge” 264 (Foucault 1970,
55). The third myth is the “universal mediation.” It consists in substituting discourses
to real objects. Through it, discourses have their own life and exist for themselves,
along subsequent exegesis. They would become “nothing more than the reflection of a
truth that is revealed under its own eyes” 265 (Foucault 1970, 51).
Foucault committed his life to disputing the will for truth, to restore to
discourses their incidental nature and to lift the sovereignty of signs (the myth of the
263
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “Une complicité première avec le monde
fonderait pour nous la possibilité de parler de lui, en lui, de le designer et de le nommer, de le juger et
de le connaître finalement dans la forme de la vérité.”
264
Translation by Pollini. Original citation: Il ne faut pas “s’imaginer que le monde tourne vers nous
une image lisible que nous n’aurions plus qu’à déchiffrer. Il n’est pas complice de notre connaissance.”
265
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French : “Le discours n’est guère plus que le miroir d’une
vérité en train de naître a ses propres yeux.”
423
recognize the negative game of the division and rarification of
discourses. 266 (Foucault 1970, 53) (emphasis added)
Second is the principle of discontinuity. It requests us to recognize the
of signs that would reveal the truth. Rather, they would have their own truth. Fourth is
the principle of exteriority: discourses have to be analyzed for what determines them
outside rather than what they are inside. We have to understand “the condition of
their possibilities.” Having these principles in mind, the architecture of discourses can
be deconstructed using the three series of principles listed in the previous section. An
attempt can then be made to go beyond discourses, although a total emancipation may
be impossible.
2.5. Conclusion
got formed, under which system of constraint, and what are the conditions of their
apparition. The second series serves to delineate their current boundaries, to identify
domains of exclusion, to analyze the ways exclusion operates. For both series of
concepts, the objective is to understand the location of the determinants that shape
discourse. Only the perspective changes, from a temporal one for the first series of
266
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “La ou, selon la tradition, on croit reconnaître la
source des discours, le principe de leur foisonnement et de leur continuité, dans ces figures qui semblent
jouer un rôle positif, comme celle de l’auteur, de la discipline, de la volonté de vérité, il faut plutôt
reconnaître le jeu négative d’une découpe et d’une raréfaction du discours.”
424
constructionism, two movements characterized by the assumption that truth is relative
to the observer. The question that remains to answer is until what point this revolution
must go, between a strict positivism that already showed its limits and a radical
relativism that could lead to ontological vacuums, as occurred with the postmodern
departed from this movement, which he criticized for the relativist dead-end it led to.
anthropologists did when they studied exotic tribes. His main conclusion was that
scientific facts are socially constructed: cultural, social and economic factors, not the
actual realities of the biophysical world, determine the direction in which knowledge
sciences, nor the search for socially or culturally determined scientific mistakes. The
focus would shift from the ideas themselves to their construction; from the analysis of
the “ready made science” (Latour 1987) and its relation with society, to the analysis
of the social process of “science in the making” (Latour 1987). This shift determined
a first methodological principle: “[the] entry into science and technology will be
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through the back door of science in the making, not through the more grandiose
This principle being stated, Latour identified the type of knowledge that needs
to be collected in order to do this new travel into science and technology. He observes
that “context and content fuse together” (Latour 1987, 6) in the making of science:
Suspense, game, tone, delay of publication, awe, six week delay, are not
common words for describing a molecule [sic] structure. This is the case at
least once the structure is known and learned by every student. However,
as long as the structure is submitted to a competitor’s probing, these queer
words are part and parcel of the very chemical structure under
investigation. (Latour 1987, 6)
In other words, the social relations between researchers and institutions, in a
context of competition, lead to discarding certain facts and retaining others. At the end
of this social process, a truth is accepted and a controversy can be closed. A new
scientific fact is created and enters the realm of ready made science.
Controversies play a central role in Latour’s epistemology because they justify the
careful experiments, provide the equipment that scientists need to create facts and
translate these facts into texts (articles), which strengthens their position in
politicians, and research clients far beyond their technical boundaries. The aggregate
of these technical, human and social resources produces what Latour calls the
machines. The stronger machines are those that will mobilize more resources, create
way to articulate arguments in the literature and in talks); the recruitment of more
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“friends”; the creation of new laboratories in order to mobilize more resources; the
argument of authority (an alliance with scientists that have more recognition or social
status in their field); stylization, through pictures, figures and diagrams that provide
more visual impact to the text; stratification, that operates by relating a new statement
to others that are out of controversy; and citation. This last weapon is essential
because “the strength of the original statement does not lie in itself, but is derived
from any of the papers that incorporate it” (Latour 1987, 42). But the most powerful of
consequence “the dissenter will be unable to expose the text to the real world out
there, since the text claims to bring within it the real world “in there” (Latour 1987,
49). In sum, a constructed world replaces the real one. As this new world is clearer
and, apparently, better organized and easier to understand than the real one, the reader
will think it is an accurate reflection of the reality. Stratification is hence “the surest
Latour also mentions several tactics used for stratification: stacking facts in
logical order, which leads the reader to pay more attention to inductive arguments;
staging, which makes explicit what type of reader is targeted by the text and
convinces opponents to consider it seriously; framing, which impedes the reader from
wandering around the arguments and to being out of control; captation, “the subtle
control of the objector’s moves” (Latour 1987, 57), achieved by all tactics working
together. If captation is successfully achieved, the text will be laid out in such a
manner that “wherever the reader is, there is only one way to go” (Latour 1987, 57).
This canalization may eventually lead opponents to become supporters of the key
statements (to be recruited). They will still feel they are free but will be convinced that
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3.2. Latour’s departure from Foucault
In sum, for Latour as for Foucault, social forces of exclusion and inclusion are
specific mode of knowledge that we call science and on the way it produces facts,
while Foucault analyses discourses at a broader scale and searches their determinants
outside.
But the main distinction between Latour and Foucault is the way they consider
social constructions. For Foucault, they are hegemonic representations that shape our
mind and our body. We should attempt to depart from them in order to be free and
fulfil ourselves. For Latour (1987), they are the outcomes of a social process but these
outcomes have to be accepted. Latour (1987), like Foucault, believes that the real
world is not an accomplice of our knowledge. Nature does not determine how
controversies are closed because no researcher can have it on its side. Latour (1987,
97) refuses the idea that “the goliath of rhetoric with his laboratory set-up and all his
attendant Philistines [would] be put to flight by one David alone using simple truths
about nature and his slingshot.” But in order to avoid the relativist trap this could lead
to, he declares that the constructed nature is the one we have to deal with; that it is the
267
Italicized by Latour.
268
Italicized by Latour.
428
letter, the real natural world is assimilated to its representation. No realities can exist
other than the representations that have been fixed by closing controversies. This very
radical and provocative assertion has been perceived by many as a declaration of war
against science and empiricism. Gross and Levitt (1994, 58), for example, parody
In several passages of his books, Latour recognizes the existence of a world out there,
distinct from its representations. There is indeed another way to understand Latour.
Saying that nature is the cause of the settlement of a controversy could simply mean
that the representations we create contribute to shape our world in return, and that this
created world is the one that matters. The epistemological consequences of this
perspective are important as well, and can be criticized, but I will not address this
issue here. I will come back on Latour’s work in Chapter 14. For now, I am just
interested in the tools proposed by Latour to analyze science in action, assuming that
4. Synthesis
Foucault and Latour proposed a series of tools and concepts that will be very
The second and third set of principles, which concern the internal driving
But Foucault’s first series of principles, which deals with what is located at the outlet
429
Table 19: Comparison of Foucault’s (1970) and Latour’s (1989) concepts.
Third series of principles (shaping the behavior of those who pronounce discourses)
Foucault Latour
Rituals Staging
Societies of discourse Recruitment
Doctrines Framing
Education Captation
430
and at the origin of discourse, does not have equivalent in Latour’s epistemology. This
absence may explain why Latour needs to find a truth inside the discourses
themselves, and adopts the idea that nature is the outcome of closed controversies. If
the truth cannot be found outside, it must be located inside. The consequence is that, if
we follow Latour’s conception, the world out there is internalized through the social
construction of discourses. For Foucault, the world out there takes a form that we do
the starting point or the cause of the great partition. It determines which facts
participate in the production of knowledge and which facts do not. Latour’s ready-
made science may be the knowledge that has been produced in the end. It could thus
reflect Foucault’s original experience, closing a cycle that started with this original
experience. By accepting the outcome of controversies as being the real world, Latour
may have refused to question the original experience, the great partition, the
conditions of apparition of discourses, which may explain why his epistemology does
Getting back to the subject of this dissertation, I will use the concepts of both
knowledge and to search for hidden truth outside discourses and controversies.
Latour’s concepts may be better adapted to analyze scientific discourses and the
process of their creation. But before starting my analysis, I have to point out an
essential distinction between the stance I will take and the one proposed by Foucault
and Latour.
431
5. Avoiding the trap of relativism
As I already quoted, Foucault (1970, 55) contended that the world “is not
accomplice of our knowledge.” The danger of this conception is that it could lead to
radical forms of relativism. If knowledge is not linked to reality in one way or another,
to avoid this trap, I propose to add just one word in Foucault’s assertion, and to say
that
the advancement of knowledge are possible again. The unfolding of signs from nature
can tell us again something and give a positive dimension to knowledge. But from a
pragmatic perspective, as has been adopted for this dissertation, the difference may be
marginal. The forces of exclusion and subjectivity that Foucault identified are still
recognized. They may even overwhelm the positive forces that emanate from the
This model is not a return to positivism because the real world cannot act
alone: it is just one determinant of knowledge among others. It can be the major
determinant in some cases, and be marginal in others. What matters will be to identify
the factors that render this “natural” positivity marginal. In the case of complex
objects embedded in the cultural, social construction may be more determinant than
the unfolding of signs from the real world. But in the physical act of jumping from the
432
scientist, instead of risking our life after deciding not to trust the signs that unfold
from nature. We could even listen to Aristotle’s advice, despite Galileo proving he
was wrong. This trivial example shows that from a pragmatic perspective, positivities
The position I take with regard to Latour’s work is similar to the one I took
with Foucault’s: the social construction cannot explain everything. I disagree with
disagreed with Foucault that the real world is not an accomplice of our knowledge. I
prefer to consider that nature is indeed behind the laboratory, despite the fact that its
role is often marginal. This explains why Lysenko’s biology was eventually rejected.
whereas the real nature is one of the causes of the settlement of controversies.
provide us with powerful tools for debunking the social and cultural forces that bias
use these tools to make all possible attempts to get closer to reality, to control the
forces that bias knowledge, to read more directly the “words” that nature says to us. If
the real world or nature were not accomplices to our knowledge, we would fall into a
relativist trap where these tools would become useless. This dissertation would then be
a fun exercise but would have no practical use. The controversies I am dealing with
will close some day and the reality would just be the consequence of this closing. So
why bother with it? This is the paradox within which postmodernism and social
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6. A new model
call “relative relativism.” In this stance, we can use the real world to explain how and
why a controversy is settled. But we cannot use it alone to provide the explanation.
statements embedded in the social, the political and the cultural. The construction of
representation thus results from the influence of the real world on one side (nature
being part of it) and of preexisting false statements on the other side. Figure 15 helps
asymptote in cases where they are more influenced by false statements, and closer to
the 100% match in the opposite case. The influence of false statements on one side,
and of the real world on the other hand, are represented by the two magnets behind the
asymptotes. These influences are the sum of factors of subjectivity in the first case
(left magnet), and the sum of factors of objectivity in the second case (right magnet).
ignorance.
all elements of this representation (all statements) are true. Such a representation could
be produced by a perfect spirit (a unique god) whose perceptions and skills would
have no limit. The starting point would be ignorance but no false statements would
434
Part of the world that is
integrated into representations Paradigms
C D B
100%
100%
mismatch 100% match
asymptote asymptote
F
False E
Real
statements
world
0%
A
435
C represents a situation in which the whole world is represented, but
inverse statements.
mix of true and false statements. On the right side of this line, representations are more
true than false. On the left side, they are more false than true. Paradigms are located at
different levels of balance between true and false. For example, Lysenko’s biology
reality and about which there can be little doubt. E can be, for example, the statement
that “fire volatilizes nitrogen and burns organic matter.” F relates, to the contrary, to a
broader object whose representation can be largely put into doubt, such as “Fire leads
to poverty.” One could contend that there are cases where statements are proven and
are located on the right asymptote, for example: 2+2=4. I contend that this could be
true in practice, but must not be accepted in theory. The probability that a statement is
false can tend to zero, but cannot be equal to zero. This precaution allows knowledge
to always remain open. It is a recognition of the limits we face in the perception of our
open: “two persons having the same age will necessarily have the same age all their
life.” One century ago, no doubt was possible about this statement. We know now that
it is false.
The following assumptions can further be made about how this diagram works.
First, there is no way to know for sure where a given representation is located
inside the diagram, in between the false and the true. The magnets act but we cannot
know how much they act, and which one acts more. This is what differentiates this
436
model from certain forms of critical realism according to which certainty would be
difficult to achieve, with many traps along the way, but could be achieved in the end.
In the present model, a doubt always remains. The consequence is that controversies
are never closed and representations always remain open to modifications. This model
may indeed illustrate a form of Popperian critical realism where knowledge advances
by falsification and where scientific facts are uncertain by definition (they are facts
uncertain and this uncertainty is precisely what renders progress possible. The
(Bernstein 1983), not on its rejection. The relation between knowledge and reality is
probabilistic: there is no way to know for sure whether a representation matches with
realities, but the chances for a better match can be increased by diminishing the
influence of the left magnet (by identifying factors of subjectivity and distancing
oneself from them) and by increasing the influence of the right magnet (by having a
more direct experience of the real world). What matters then is to identify the factors
that decrease these chances. Certainty is one of these factors because it freezes
knowledge or fixes once and for all the direction of its advancement. This is why
nor do they reach its bottom and upper lines. They navigate inside these boundaries.
absolute doubt, and that representations are never complete. Representations that
437
Third, in case of controversy, the observers whose representation match better
with realities will be given a supplementary chance to win the controversy, as a result
of the action of the right magnet. But the observers whose representations match better
with preexisting false statements will also have an advantage, as a result of the action
of the left magnet. Reality does not determine who wins the controversy, but gives a
greater chance to the representations that match better with it. In the same manner,
false statements give more chance to the representations that match with them.
biophysical world are less prone to the effects of false statements and are more prone
to the effects of realities, compared with complex and broader objects more embedded
from relativism. The term relativism relates to the departure from positivism, while the
term relative relates to the departure from relativism. The model could be regarded as
a form of critical realism but critical realism is not always clear whether it accepts the
possibility of certainty. In the model I propose, the key feature is explicitly the
two positivities which interact. I will call them the natural positivity and the cultural
positivity. The natural positivity drives representations in a direction that makes them
match better with realities. It is the line that was rendered hegemonic by positivist
direction that makes them match better with themselves. It is the line that received
much attention from Foucault (1970, 51), who described it as “nothing more than the
438
The need for certainty may be a characteristic of our Western civilization and
culture. By giving exclusivity to the cultural positivity (by asserting that nature would
uncertainty in the same way as positivist scientists did before. He just replaced one
positivity by another one. This may have been necessary to demystify a form of
science that gave a hegemonic power to the natural positivity. But now that the shift
toward relativism has been digested, the natural positivity should be considered again
the cultural positivity and the natural positivity, we can impede scientific positivism
from becoming hegemonic again, while avoiding a fall into the trap of relativism. I
7. Conclusion
here.
First, discourses have a point of origin and to identify this point (to uncover
elements that were set apart (domains of exclusion) and elements that remained
accepted. For example, the Enlightenment set apart Romanticism, leading to our
positivist rationale civilization and to the conflation of development with the concepts
Second, discourses have implicit or hidden statements that are the consequence
of this great partition. For example, the belief that nature has no intrinsic value, that
farmers are irrational, that regular geometry is good, that yield increase results in
production increase and that fires are evil, are widespread hidden statements among
439
Third, the agents of discourses are committed to recruiting more people and
Fourth, discourses that get consideration from rulers and institutions vested
with authority spread in the rest of the society through education, determine or reshape
disciplines and produce doctrines and received wisdoms. In this way, they increase
their control upon the subsequent production of knowledge and impede the emergence
of alternative discourses.
discourses serve, what are their objectives and who benefits or suffers from the actions
Chapters 10, 11 and 12 will now show that the concepts elaborated by Foucault
(1970) and Latour (1987) are powerful tools for understanding the condition of
apparition of wrong beliefs or received wisdoms, such as those listed in the conclusion
that the real world is an accomplice of our knowledge, though often a powerless
accomplice, and by considering that controversies should never be closed. In this way,
I avoided falling into the trap of relativism. I recognized that uncertainty exists in all
representations, but also that some things are less uncertain than others. The facts and
theories that are less uncertain, in a given state of knowledge, have to be accepted to
drive our decisions. They can sometimes be regarded as certain in practice despite the
fact that they are not certain ontologically. If they were, this would create a risk of
440
not match with the facts but that is regarded as certain. This is why Latour’s
epistemological model, which accepts the closing of controversies, can lead to the
441
CHAPTER 10
1. Introduction
In this chapter, I will present a research and extension program, the ASB
(ASB). This program promotes agroforestry technologies and the outcomes of its work
cultivation worldwide. This analysis will help to understand the faith in agroforestry
and other agrobiological alternatives of the LDI, PTE and VMCRCC projects in
I will start by relating the birth of this program (Section 2) and the early
development of agroforestry research, from which the ASB concept emerged (Section
cultivation that existed when the program was launched. Sections 5 and 6 will analyze
the work of the Consortium and the conclusions of its two phases. In the conclusion
(Section 7), I will show that the ASB Consortium eventually proposed a significant
paradigm shift which is consistent with the outcomes of the case study presented in
Part III.
In 1987, the Brundtland Report (WCED 1987) called for more attention to
tropical deforestation and its relation with poverty. It pointed out “the serious lack of
funding “for conservation projects and strategies that improve the resource base for
development” ” (Brady 1996, 7). As a consequence, the UNDP 268 “commissioned the
268
United Nations Development Program.
442
World Resources Institute (WRI) to study the problem” (Brady 1996, 7). This institute
Resources Institute 1989), leading to the creation, in 1991, of the Global Environment
Facility (GEF), co-sponsored by the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. 269 One of the
first GEF operations was the funding of development and conservation organizations
international and national research centers and NGOs, led by the International Centre
present). A workshop was held in February 1992 in Brazil to launch the program. It
was “attended by 26 environmental policy makers and research leaders, five NGOs,
six international research centers, three regional research organizations and six donor
agencies” (Sanchez et al. 2005, 10). The ASB Consortium was born. It became a
CGIAR 271 program in 1994 and its legitimacy increased after the adoption of the
Convention on Biological Diversity and of the Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations
Congress of Soil Science, held in 1994 in Mexico and published in Sanchez and Hailu
269
United Nations Environment Program.
270
Now the World Agroforestry Centre.
271
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
443
(1996). A second research phase followed, whose outcomes are synthesized in Palm et
al. (2005a). Before examining these two syntheses, I will briefly review the
agroforestry research conducted at ICRAF and analyze the discourses about slash-and-
3. Agroforestry at ICRAF
ICRAF’s work started in the early 1980s with an inventory and description of
agroforestry systems around the world. Most outcomes of this early agroforestry
research were published in the first issues of the journal Agroforestry Systems, in the
components, ICRAF was concerned by the results of this inventory and the lack of
context was pointed out (Raintree and Warner 1986). At that time, ICRAF was
planted on contours lines and improved fallows, which were quickly viewed as the
ICRAF also carried out research on indigenous agroforestry land uses, such as
the multistory agroforests described by Michon (1985). But the long cycle of these
systems, due to the presence of forest trees, did not facilitate research funding and
extension programs. Alley-cropping and contour lines, to the contrary, were perfect
candidates as research objects. They were appealing to donors because they privileged
third criteria introduced by the Brundtland report (WCED 1987), are put at the
forefront. ICRAF and its partners received significant funding to develop these
technologies, allowing the selection of more productive grasses and legume trees and
444
Figure 16: The agroforestry pathways to change.
Source: Raintree and Varner (1986, 44).
445
Alley-cropping and improved fallows clearly showed their superior efficiency
supporting high yields. Their performance in terms of sustainability gave the illusion
of a departure from high input agriculture, but this departure was only partial. In
contour strips and alley-cropping systems, simple geometry and regularity are still
regarded as essential (Pollini 1994), as they are in the high modernist scheme of
of norms about plantation spacing, pruning schedule and frequency, which have to be
rigorously respected, as shown by Messerli (2003) in the case of Beforona (Chapter 6).
Optimum values are defined at cropping system scale and farming system constraints
are often overlooked (Pollini 1994). Complexity and heterogeneity, on the other hand,
In Burundi, for example, rural development projects complained about the low
adoption rate of alley-cropping and contour strips technologies, while farmers planted
perennial grasses as live fences around their fields. 272 As the landscape is a patchwork
of contiguous fields with no regular geometric forms, these fences rarely follow
contour lines. Their efficiency in terms of erosion control may be lower than
hedgerows planted on contour lines, but the competition with crops and the
management costs are lower. By conditioning the promotion of these grasses to their
being planted along contour lines, projects limited their adoption and hence their
overall impact in terms of erosion control. In sum, the high modernist ideal of a
perfectly managed landscape was confronted with the logic of heterogeneous and
complex social landscapes, where larger spatial and temporal scales matter more and
272
Statement based on my experience as a research associate in Agroforestry at the Burundi Agronomy
Institute, from January 1993 to January 1994.
446
Beyond this lack of flexibility, the excessive attention paid to agroforestry
Chapters 5 and 6. Figure 17 shows the case of the Burundi highlands, where slash-
and-burn systems coexisted with more intensive land uses in the early twentieth
century (Pollini 1993). Fallow and livestock husbandry both contributed to maintain
soil fertility until the lack of space forced farmers to practice very short fallows.
Today, several crops are associated and two or three harvests per year are obtained on
the same land. This history provides supplementary evidence in favor of the
Raintree and Warner (1986), however, did not overlook Boserupian dynamics.
In their diagram showing the pathways to intensification (Figure 16 page 435), they
use Boserup’s (1965) terms “annual cropping” and “multiple cropping.” But they
propose a departure from this “natural” pathway, by a shift from techniques aimed at
increasing labor intensity to techniques that increase land use intensity. In other words,
they propose to maximize yield rather than labor productivity. We saw in Chapter 6
the consequences of this excessive focus on yield in a context where land is not the
limiting resource.
In sum, ICRAF’s agroforestry technologies, beyond the fact that they have real
biophysical qualities, 273 became fashionable and diverted attention from other
pathways to intensification and erosion control. The concept of agroforestry ended up
273
Agroforestry also includes a variety of low input land uses which recently developed in temperate
countries (Lassoie and Buck 1999). Their advantages in this different context, notably to improve the
quality of agricultural products and provide alternative pathways to agro-chemical intensification, are
indisputable.
447
Household Permanent
agriculture
Herd
Shifting
Primary forest cultivation
(degraded)
Browsing area
(savannah)
Hunter
1910 Manure Swamps
Pasture
(papyrus)
Food crops
Banana trees (sorghum, maize,
Hedgerows beans, peas,
tubers)
Pasture
Coffee
Eucalyptus
Dry
Papyrus season
1950 crops
448
Agro-arboriculture (Grevillea, Cedrella, fruit trees)
Banana trees
Houses
Hedgerow
(Setaria,
Tripsacum,
Pennisetum)
Eucalyptus
Figure 17 (continued).
449
many rural development actors, whereas shifting cultivation is indeed the only
agricultural land use that integrates natural ecosystems (secondary vegetation if not
primary forests). Ironically, the term forest, which initially designated natural areas
not under control — an “outside” territory as we are reminded by the Italian word
“fuori” (outside), derived from the same Latin root — ended up being synonymous
with perfectly managed rows of shrubs and grasses cut three times a year. Model
Burundian farmers who received agricultural medals for their perfect appropriation of
agroforestry technologies, in the early 1990s, would not have been at odds in the
Cartesian world of a French garden. But in the hills of Burundi, they were just
temporary artifacts that provided donors with some illusions that projects achieved
results. 274 For the bureaucracies of donor agencies and for the states they support,
systems. This pathway gave the illusion that a fast and radical change was possible
agroforestry technologies were central in the building of what Latour (1987) would
call a strong rhetoric. This rhetoric contributed to strengthening many of the received
wisdoms identified in Part III. To use the concepts introduced in Chapter 9, the
“author” was ICRAF, which was provided with “authority” by the “discipline” of soil
having strong ties with donors and “recruiting” partners among the elite of developing
countries. In the end, agroforestry became a “doctrine” and the indigenous pathways
To illustrate the building of this strong rhetoric, Figure 18 shows the number of
hits of certain concepts in CAB abstracts, one of the main databases used by experts
274
Based on the visit of rural development projects I did in Burundi, in 1993.
450
Indigenous know ledge 4201
3946
Gliricidia 1889
1781
calliandra 671
631
Leucaena 6414
6038
Marginalization 843
316
Poverty 29753
8530
C o n c e p ts
Market 10203
Erosion 68218
24282
Agroforestry 46287
7662
Geography 24349
2965
Socio-econom* 11001
6175
Figure 18: Number of hits for several concepts in the entire CAB Abstracts
database (2003).
451
working in international rural development programs. The scores are indicated for
searches done in all fields or in descriptive fields only. Erosion receives the highest
cropping and contour strip technologies, has a higher score than indigenous
knowledge. Figure 19 repeats the same exercise but restricts the search to references
their fields (3506 references in total). 275 Soil has the highest score, which could be
explained by the fact that it is a common word. But the words “farmer” and “people,”
also very common, have much lower scores, whereas “nutrient” and “erosion,” which
are more specific, still have a relatively high scores (blue dots). In the case of more
specialized concepts, those that relate to biophysical elements (mulch, legume, organic
matter, alley-cropping, runoff, leucaena; see black dots) have higher scores than those
that relate to social aspects (social capital, marginalization, local knowledge; see red
green dots). The fact that agroforestry has a score similar to polic*/polit* and a higher
development actors. This new discipline provided a justification for the monitoring of
rural development programs by agronomists and soil scientists. Social sciences were
not absent, however. Low adoption rates of contour strips and alley-cropping
technologies raised awareness that something was going wrong. In order to understand
the reasons, biophysical scientists called for the support of social scientists and
knowledge. Figures 18 and 19 (pages 451 and 453) confirm the important attention
275
These searches were done in 2003.
452
451
Paup erizat io n 1
Po lit ical eco lo g y 3
So cial cap ital 3
Po litical eco no my 6
M arg inaliz* 8
Lo cal kno wled g e 10 Number of hits
Green manure 31
Fo o d s ecurity 33
leucaena 44
hed g ero w 47
Po verty 52
Cred it 59
To o l 67
Runo ff 68
Inves tment 69
Co nflict 71
Taung ya 74
Tillag e o r p lo ug hing 74
Anthro p o l* 75
alley cro p p ing 80
manure 90
Refo res tat io n 97
Leg ume 103
M ulch 103
M ig rat io n 107
Land tenure 109
Bio d ivers ity 111
Lives to ck 161
Co mmunity 167
Org anic matt er 195
Ind ig eno us 218
Peo p le 271
M arket 273
Fire 335
So cial 341
Defo res tat io n 351
Ero s io n 397
Nut rient 402
Ag ro fo res t ry 408
Farmer 421
Co ns ervatio n 447
Po lit* o r p o lic* 451
Eco no m* 831
So il 1435
Figure 19: Number of hits for several concepts in 3506 references retrieved
from CAB Abstracts and having the word slash-and-burn, swidden or
shifting cultivation in any of their fields (2003).
453
given to indigenous knowledge. But social scientists were called on to find a way to
make adoption occur, rather than to help define how erosion could be controlled and
scientists who had already determined the pathways to privilege. Concerning the
"participatory methods," we can still question whether they were genuinely translated
into action, for reasons that can be guessed from the outcomes of Chapter 6 and which
knowledge," quotes of this concept are very frequent but mostly relate to work that
concerns the collection of ethno-botanical data. What was needed from the social
sciences was a criticism of the approach in the light of social realities. Unfortunately
this was seldom done, except by a few researchers as I will now show.
systems preceded the development of this discipline. I will not analyze these
I will merely present, based on the work of Dove (1983), the main received wisdoms
or “myths” that prevailed when ICRAF started to develop its technologies in the early
1980s.
Dove (1983) argued that much of the debate “deals not with the empirical facts
of swidden agriculture, 276 … but rather with widely accepted myths, and that this
explains the failures of developmental schemes involving swidden agriculturalists.”
He examines three of these myths and proposes alternate conceptions with a quite
276
Synonym for shifting cultivation.
454
452
One myth is that swidden agriculturalists own their land communally (or
not at all), work it communally, and consume its yields communally. The
truth is that their land (including land under secondary forest fallow) is
typically owned by individual households. It is worked by individual labor
forces and/or by reciprocal but not communal work groups, and its yields
are owned and consumed privately and individually by each household. A
second myth is that swidden cultivation of forested land is destructive and
wasteful, and in the worst cases results in barren, useless grassland
successions. The truth is that swidden cultivation is a productive use of the
forests, indeed more productive than commercial logging in terms of the
size of the population supported, and forest-grassland successions are
typically a function not of rapaciousness but of increasing population/land
pressure and agricultural intensification – the grasses, including Imperata
cylindrica, having value both as a fallow period soil-rebuilder and as cattle
fodder. A third myth is that “swidden agriculturalists have a totally
subsistence economy, completely cut-off from the rest of the world. The
truth is that swidden agriculturalists, in addition to planting their
subsistence food crops, typically plant market-oriented cash crops as well,
and as a result they are actually more integrated into the world economy
than many of the practitioners of more intensive forms of agriculture.
(Dove 1983, 85)
The reality Dove describes in this paragraph, despite sometimes being a slight
farmers individually appropriate their land, under the authority of their traditional
chief, and consume their harvest at household level (Chapter 5). The fallow period is
regarded as part of the cultivation cycle and fallow land is not in free access, as long
as no external factor disrupts traditional authorities. Only when the land is fallowed
for a duration that exceeds what is regarded as necessary for a new cultivation cycle
can it return to the collective and be appropriated by another household. But even so,
this can provoke land tenure conflicts between households, confirming that use-rights
is more disputable, as shifting cultivation systems have lower carrying capacity than
most other agricultural systems. It is nevertheless clear that the productive capacity of
455
what is usually thought. Hunting and gathering of forest and fallow products
complement the diet of slash-and-burn farmers. The products are often marketed, can
Concerning the third point, we clearly saw, in the case of Beforona (Chapter 3
and 5), that shifting cultivators market their products and develop cash crops (coffee,
ginger, bananas) just as other farmers do, as soon as they have investment capacity,
access to market and equal advantages with their competitors. When they do not have
“comparative advantage,” because of remoteness and lack of capital, they remain out
of the market, but this has nothing to do with their culture or traditions.
Dove concludes that these myths “have generally facilitated the extension of
and hence can perhaps best be explained as a reflection of the political economy of the
greater societies in which they dwell” (Dove 1983, 85). They support the domination
of an "urban and governing elite" (Dove 1983, 96) over a "politically vulnerable
exploitation of rural lands, especially forest lands" (Dove 1983, 95), for the
with the logic of the VMCRCC project analyzed in Chapter 6. We will see in Chapter
Dove’s (1983) outcomes may have received little attention at that time, as
and 19 (pages 451 and 453). It was important, however, to mention Dove’s work
because it anticipated some of the conclusions that the ASB Consortium will derive
twenty years later, when its strong rhetoric will eventually collapse.
This institutional and scientific background being set, I can now go back to the
work of the ASB Consortium and analyze the building of the strong ASB rhetoric.
456
5. The first phase of the ASB Consortium
In this section, I will summarize the main outcomes of the first phase of the
ASB Consortium. I will present first the main statements of the Consortium, then
recommendations.
The first synthesis of the ASB Consortium (Sanchez and Hailu 1996, 1) starts
areas with low population density by communities that acquired a deep knowledge of
their ecosystem, (2) slash-and-burn systems practiced under higher densities and in a
457
situation of crisis, due to reduced fallow period, and (3) slash-and-burn systems
practiced by migrant farmers who lack local knowledge and adopt irrelevant
techniques. In the first case, the system is regarded as sustainable. In the second and
the third, it is not. Demography and migration, by determining the shift from
Slash-and-burn systems would meet their limits sooner or later due to demographic
capacity and avoidance of this crisis, which leads the ASB Consortium to eventually
adopt the sustainable development discourse. This recalls the survivalism discourse
Juo and Manu (1996) and Palm et al. (1996) analyze the chemical and
biological dynamics of soil under slash-and-burn systems. They reinforce the nutrient
cycling model of Nye and Greenland (1960), proposed 35 years earlier, but “have not
components in the system” (Palm et al. 1996, 61). Alegre and Cassel (1996) compare
alternatives. They show that slash-and-burn degrades the soil less than tillage and that
the best results, in terms of erosion control, are obtained with agroforestry systems that
include cover crops and trees. But the alternatives they compare are mechanical
clearing and tillage using a bulldozer, enriched fallow using exotic species and alley-
cropping. They say nothing about the systems based on crop rotation and plowing
458
techniques, rather than working the land with a bulldozer, had been used as a control
burn agriculture. These authors propose a simplistic linear decision making model
where households set their objectives, assess their resources, consider external
resources and then repeat this cycle (Figure 20). They recognize that their model is a
simplification and that things may be less sequential and more “simultaneous, or
iterative” in the reality (Vosti and Witcover 1996, 26). They also assert that there can
be a trade-off between long-term and short-term objectives that their model fails to
account for. They cite the work of Rausser (1980), who showed that “an extremely
resources at hand, … can limit goals to survival goals, and the action time horizon to a
short one” (Vosti and Witcover 1996, 26). Using the terms of their model, they assert
that farmers
may place the highest value on maintaining or enhancing the human
resource base, perhaps at the expense of the natural resource base. Under
such survival conditions, a short-term action horizon is not myopic but
rational.… Natural resources mining may be the only way, not the short-
sighted way, to meet short-term goals. (Vosti and Witcover 1996, 26)
The case study in Beforona (Part III) confirms these limitations of Vosti and
Witcover’s (1996) model. I showed that the trade-off between long-term and short
the environmental aspect of the crisis calls for long term solutions while the economic
459
Figure 20: Grid for analysis of farmer’s strategies.
Source: Vosti and Witcover (1996, 25).
460
Another limitation of Vosti and Witcover’s model is that despite the fact that it
assumes that farmers make rationale choices, it says nothing about the strategies that
illustrate this rationality. We saw in Chapters 5 and 6 that these strategies are the
minimization of risks and the maximization of labor productivity, at least in the case
The last paper of the ASB’s first phase synthesis (Hardwood 1996, 78)
public support in the form of subsidies and incentives. Both the endogenous and
the diagram. Home gardens (a form of “mixed tree systems”) and paddy fields
(“intensive lowland rice” cultivation) were among the most promising alternatives to
tavy in Ambodilaingo (Chapter 5). “Plantation crops” was also a viable alternative
when coffee cultivation was profitable, until the early seventies. The development of
“mixed arable systems with animals,” was the strategy of the NGO Children of the
Forest (Chapter 7). It was translated into action by the organization of agricultural
this diagram and the realities I presented in Part III. New land uses in Beforona
usually do not result from the transformation of slash-and-burn systems. They rather
develop along side them. Bottom land and the lower parts of slopes are improved by
461
Figure 21: Development pathways from slash-and-burn systems.
Source: Hardwood (1996, 78).
462
building traditional dams, digging irrigation canals and planting fruit trees and banana
degraded land. In the farmers’ perspective, the two systems need to coexist and
complement each other until the new system achieves its full productive capacity. The
case of Bukeye in Burundi (Figure 17 pages 448 and 449) showed the same logic.
Hardwood’s (1996, 78) diagram, and the expression “development pathway toward
recommendations. The author calls for imperative technological changes but is not
explicit about the direction for this change. He advocates for policies that address the
not derive recommendations from the pathways he presents in his diagram. This
cropping, contour strips and improved fallows) are the alternatives that should be
supported, whatever can be concluded from the diagram. Hardwood’s (1996) article
Coming back to Vosti and Vitcover’s paper (1996), it remains similarly vague
technologies) but no pattern emerges clearly defining their specific objectives. The
poverty alleviation” (Vosti and Witcover 1996, 35), because an effect on “any one of
these three development goals “will likely have ripple effects on the other two” (Vosti
and Witcover 1996, 35). The authors propose to apply these objectives “at the level of
463
technologies and institutional arrangements” and call for more interdisciplinary
social scientists must share a common three-part goal”: sustainability, growth, and
poverty alleviation (Vosti and Witcover 1996, 36). In sum, they put a strong emphasis
on the need to carry out more research and provide a framework to guide this research,
but they do not propose and question strategies. As for Hardwood (1996), they push an
already defined agenda rather than question it in the light of their outcomes. The
controversy about the best pathway to change may have already been settled.
5.5. Conclusion
sciences led it to exclude domains of knowledge and impeded it from questioning its
paramount. The consequence is that the real causes of deforestation and slash-and-
burn cultivation are not analyzed while solutions are proposed on the basis of weak
the indigenous pathways for change, such as those represented in Hardwood’s (1996)
diagram. The consequence is that the Consortium developed strategies that were at
odd with the economic constraints and the strategies of slash-and-burn farmers, as we
saw in Chapter 6. We will see, however, that these forces of exclusion will be levered
In this section, I will present the outcomes of the second phase of research
conducted by the ASB Consortium. I will show that, despite the fact that this research
464
was based on the same initial statements and used similar methodologies, it led to a
the end of the second phase. A first series of articles concerns biophysical aspects such
as greenhouse gas fluxes (Murdiyaros et al. 2005), carbon losses and sequestration in
relation with land use change (Palm et al. 2005b) or below ground biodiversity
(Bignell et al. 2005). A second series of articles concerns the assessment, at a farming
systems’ level, of alternative land uses such as rubber agroforestry systems (Wibawa
et al. 2005), coffee and pasture systems (Carpentier et al. 2005) or improved Imperata
Kurniatur et al. (2005) (forest conversion dynamics), Cattanao and San (2005)
coffee price in the case of pasture and coffee plantations) and to a lesser extent by
researchers who worked at national scales (Valentin and Vosti 2005; Partohardjono et
al. 2005; Gockowski et al. 2005; White et al. 2005; Suraswadi et al. 2005). Overall,
the researchers concentrated their attention on biophysical aspects and local socio-
economic dynamics. Land uses and sites were compared using mostly quantitative
criteria (Tables 20 and 21) which were not instructive about social dynamics that
environmental and forest policies, conflicts over resources, the accumulation of assets,
465
Table 20: ASB consortium criteria for comparing land uses
466
biophysical criteria (see research framework in Figure 22). In short, political economy
issues are present but are not at the core of the research agenda of this second phase.
As in the first phase, the criteria used to assess farming systems and
alternatives are disputable. For example, Vosti et al. (2005) do not raise the question
of labor opportunity cost. The consequence is that cropping systems are assessed in
isolation, not in combination. This can be misleading because poor farmers do not
specialize in the most profitable system according to a simple criterion. They prefer to
combine cropping systems, which allows them to fill their working calendar, to avoid
Beforona (Chapters 5 and 6). In other words, the concept of “best bet alternative” may
(2005), for example, contend that swidden agriculture will disappear when it will
become unprofitable in terms of return to labor, and when markets provide more
profitable opportunities. But we saw, in the case of Beforona (Part III), that vulnerable
farmers who have access to markets often continue to grow food crops in low profit
economy level. Its researchers were involved in collaboration with policy makers
worldwide, which led them to address issues beyond their research framework. For
decree that recognized the property rights of the people managing the complex
agroforests on government lands in Sumatra (Fay et al. 1998).” (Palm et al. 2005a, 28)
468
Figure 22: The ASB research framework.
Source: Palm et al. (2005, 12).
469
“At the regional level ASB scientists have promoted enabling policies to support
community-based forest management plots with the government of the state of Acre in
Brazil” (Palm et al. 2005a, 28). These involvements led the Consortium to propose
model it formerly adopted and the distinction between equilibrium and nonequilibrium
systems that it suggested during the first phase. Slash-and-burn farmers were now
acknowledged that solutions for transforming this land use may not be only technical.
A foreword by Jeffrey Sachs reveals the Consortium’s commitment to push these new
470
This new interpretation clearly announces a paradigmatic change. The
profitability of land use conversion replaces demography as the main explanation for
privileged strategy to halt forest clearing. Several articles in the book confirm this
move.
explanations of deforestation. Based on the work of other scholars, they assert that
72% of the original cover of tropical forests was converted to other land uses (Myers
1991, FAO 1997, in Sanchez et al. 2005); that 96% of these forest losses result from
the activities of small-scale farmers (Amelung and Diehl 1992, in Sanchez et al.
2005); that an estimated 37 million of these farmers practice some form of shifting
cultivation (Dixon et al. 2001, in Sanchez et al. 2005); but that in spite of this, “no
has been found” (Sanchez et al. 2005, 4). Several studies would converge to this
conclusion:
Myers (1991) noted that whereas the population of forested tropical
countries increased by 15 to 35% in the 1980s, deforestation expanded by
90% during the same period. The recent analysis by Geist and Lambin
(2002) shows that in-migration to the forest margins is a much larger factor
of deforestation than high internal population growth. (Sanchez et al. 2005,
8)
In this new explanatory framework, Sanchez et al. (2005, 9) evoke the
471
These outcomes are consistent with the conclusion of Dove (1983), made
twenty years earlier (Section 4) and with the analysis of Jarosz (1993), who showed
that huge deforestation occurred in Madagascar in the first half of the twentieth
century although the population did not increase (Chapter 1). They are also consistent
with the situation in Beforona, where a rural elite supported by projects seizes market
opportunities and appropriate the land most suitable for intensification (Chapter 6).
The outcomes of the ASB Consortium, indeed, converged with narratives developed
which will be presented more in length in Chapter 13. This Chapter will confirm that
environmental impacts. They adopt a Boserupian model which confirms the departure
of the Consortium from simplistic Malthusian explanations. They show that soils, if
properly managed, can recover fertility when population increases (Figure 23). Based
on the works of Tiffen et al. (1994) and Sanchez et al. (1998), they assert that more
people and population growth can lead to less erosion and more trees. This means that
there can be a “natural” dynamic that leads societies out of the Malthusian trap, a
perspective which matches with the Boserupian model and with the outcomes of
now presented as a stage in land use history that just needs wise policies to evolve: “in
some cases, the policy environment does not provide incentives to rehabilitate …
degrading lands [line b in Figure 23].” Hence “the challenge is to find policy tools that
will provide those incentives” (Sanchez et al. 2005, 7). In sum, the second phase of the
472
Figure 23: Environmental degradation and recovery.
Source: Sanchez et al. (2005, 7).
473
ASB work eventually allowed a shift from an approach centered on techniques
policies (providing the right incentives for the adoption of existing alternatives).
Vosti et al. (2005) also propose conclusions that are typical of political
economy analyses. First, they contend that “traditional swidden agriculture systems
have or will soon disappear because of population pressure and low rates of return to
labor” (Vosti et al. 2005, 410). Second, and more importantly, they assert that as
“returns to forest conversion are high at all benchmark sites” (Vosti et al. 2005, 411),
the rain forests will continue to disappear. They recognize, so speaking, that macro-
economic factors, rather than efforts to develop new technologies, will determine the
economic factors driving land use system adoption [are] beyond the scope of local,
regional, and sometimes even national policy makers” (Vosti et al. 2005, 408).
The last paper of the book, by Tomich et al. (2005), confirms again the shift to
researchers had during their work when they realized that the key issues were at
another level than what they studied. The article expresses this by a desperate and
474
Deforestation continues because converting forest to other land uses is
almost always profitable for the individual, household, or firm that engages
in it. However, the society as a whole bears the cost of lost biodiversity,
global warming, smoke pollution and the degradation of water resources.
(Tomich et al. 2005, 416)
Clearly, the authors put into question the global economic system, which leads
them to reverse another received wisdom: markets may be the problem rather than the
solution, because they drive the deployment of capital and labor in ways that give no
consideration to social and ecological issues. Market opportunities may indeed just be
a source of hope, a temporary glimmer, as during the boom of oil, coffee and cocoa in
Cameroon in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Tomich et al. 2005). Markets also create
new needs and provide incentives to tap natural resources and convert forests into
to the Tomich et al.’s (2005) citation above. Polanyi identified what we call now
consequences:
[As] labor, land, and money are essential elements of industry, they also
must be organized in markets.… But labor, land and money are obviously
not commodities.… Labor is only another name for a human activity which
goes with life itself…. Land is another name for nature, which is not
produced by man.…The commodity description of labor, land and money
is entirely fictious…. [But it supplies] a vital organizing principle in regard
to the whole society, affecting almost all its institutions in the most varied
ways…. To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of
the human beings and their natural environment indeed … would result in
the demolition of the society…. In disposing of a man’s labor power the
system would, incidentally, dispose of the physical, psychological, and
moral entity “man” attached to that tag. Robbed of the protective covering
of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effect of social
exposure; they would die as the victims of acute social dislocation through
vice, perversion, crime, and starvation. Nature would be reduced to its
elements, neighborhoods and landscape defiled, rivers polluted, military
safety jeopardized, the power to produce food and raw material
destroyed.… No society could stand the effects of such a system of crude
fictions even for the shortest stretch of time unless its human and natural
475
substance as well as its business organization was protected against the
ravage of this satanic mill. (Polanyi 1944, 76-77)
Polanyi wrote his book during the second world war and interpreted the
collapse of Western civilisation at that time as a consequence of the development of
market driven industrial societies. Sixty years later, the tropical forests and its
inhabitants may be the last frontier that market economies are destroying. Areas
commoditization of land (nature) and labor (people) operates its destructive effects. In
other word, slash-and-burn farmers and tropical forests may pay together the same
market externalities, for the benefit of developed nations that can purchase products
harvested or grown on the forest frontier. This phenomenon is not new but as long as
the agricultural frontier was open, the forest played the role of absorbing the less
competitive people on the market’s verges. Now that the consequences of global
environmental impacts are felt, conservation programs close the frontier and deny
access to these last resources without providing alternatives, while the market
continues its exclusion process. This will lead to increasing starvation, poverty,
migration, urban violence and crime, to use the words of Karl Polanyi. Something
different from repression has to be done to stop this tradeoff between people and
biodiversity. If not, impoverished farmers will reopen the frontier to sustain their life,
until no forest will remain, and both nature and its people will be lost.
7. Conclusion
In conclusion, the work of the ASB Consortium was trapped by the fact that it
implicitly assumed that creating cropping systems that maximize positive soil-plant
476
interactions would lead to wise alternatives to slash-and-burn and solve the problem of
deforestation. This assumption was not a working hypothesis because the research
program was not designed to test it. It was rather the consequence of scientists’
preference for “hard” quantifiable facts. It was a sign of the excessive trust in
technologies and of the preference for biophysical sciences that characterize the
positivist reductionist paradigm. Agroforestry, which does not focus on the use of
machines and chemical inputs, gave the illusion of a departure from Western modes of
modernization. But the attention paid to yield and the design of perfect biophysical
systems under controlled conditions showed that the “high modernist” schemes
This trust in “technologies” may have provided an excuse for decision makers
to not address the problems politically. At the level of researchers, however, there was
Consortium was able to end the second phase of its work with strong advocacy for a
political economy of deforestation, despite the fact that this was not an explicit
objective of its mandate. It is true that the Consortium’s ultimate objective, according
to its research framework (Figure 22 page 469), was to propose policy instruments and
institutional mechanisms. But as we saw, the outcomes of the cross site comparison
recommendations beyond advice about how to favor the most profitable land uses. If
because the realities “jumped” into its face. The researchers fully experienced the
reality while they did their work. They faced social complexities and saw the limits of
the quantitative tools and methods they had designed, and of the questions they were
asking. They expressed their outcomes on the margin of their work, putting in their
477
words the same emotion they felt during their experience. They experienced a reality
which became accomplice of their knowledge and helped them to reject the
methodological choices.
This story justifies the methodology I employed to analyze the agrarian system
epistemological model I adopted in Chapter 9: the real world has a word to say on the
help us to distance ourselves from our misconceptions. We just have to give it more
opportunities to unfold its signs under our eyes. To accomplish this, we sometimes
have to take some distance from our methods and to listen to our emotions, as artists
Unfortunately, discourses also unfold their own signs under their own eyes
(Chapter 9), which is a strong factor of inertia. The ASB rhetoric will pervade through
the representations of development and conservation actors for a long time still,
retarding the translation into action of the last Consortium’s outcomes. Most operators
in Madagascar are not yet engaged in political economy analysis and will continue to
and conservation actors will soon follow the work of the Consortium and shift their
focus to political economy issues. The VMCRCC project (Chapter 6) could have been
an opportunity to implement this shift but failed to seize this opportunity. It is true that
used to be in Beforona. But unfortunately, zero tillage and cover crop technologies are
now replacing alley-cropping and improved fallows for providing the illusion that
478
deforestation and poverty can be fixed by technical solutions. 277 Based on these
concepts, a strong new rhetoric is appearing and could send development actors back
to ignorance.
277
This argument is not a point against zero tillage and cover crops. It is a point against the fashion that
surrounds these techniques, and the risk of hegemony this fashion could lead to.
479
CHAPTER 11
1. Introduction
policies implemented in Madagascar during the last ten years. Central to these policies
are the GELOSE 278 and GCF 279 approaches, supported by the GELOSE law
Madagascar 2000b). These approaches have not been implemented in Beforona, but
are a central component of the National Environmental Action Plan (Chapter 2). They
have been utilized by the LDI and PTE projects on other sites as a tool to control
slash-and-burn cultivation, as we will see. But this chapter will also contribute to
understanding the underlying logic that has lead the rural elite to capture most of the
communities and has been implemented in about 500 sites across the country. The
GCF approach relates specifically to forest resources and is framed within both the
GELOSE law and the Forest law (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1997). For more
convenience, I will use the terms Management Transfers (MT) to designate both the
The chapter starts with a critical analysis of the participatory discourses within
(Section 2). This analysis, mostly based on the scholarly work of Rahnema (1992),
278
Local Secure Management. In French: Gestion Locale Sécurisée.
279
Forest Management Contract. In French: Gestion Contractualisée des Forêts.
480
enables the formulation of the hypotheses that are utilized in the ensuing sections.
management approaches in a few sites I had the opportunity to visit during my stay in
Madagascar. It compensates for the fact that I did not present cases of management
transfer in Part III. 280 Section 4 presents the GELOSE legislation itself. It summarizes
the historical process that led to its creation and critically examines the GELOSE law
and its application decrees. Section 5 analyzes the way the GELOSE approach is
evaluation that was conducted in 2004. It uses the reports of this evaluation as
empirical material for analyzing the discourses associated with the GELOSE. In
the conclusion (Section 7), I propose solutions for a move toward a more genuine
I will not review here the abundant literature about participation. Such reviews
have already been conducted and I consider that it is not worth repeating this exercise.
Instead, I focus on an article by Majid Rahnema (1992) and a review of the subject by
Cooke and Khotari (2001). These works critically analyze what is actually going on in
the real world in the name of participation, as opposed to a large number of essays
which focus on the theoretical framework of the concept and on the tools and methods
“participation”:
280
No GELOSE or GCF was implemented in Beforona when I conducted my inquiries, in 2001.
481
for the Oxford English Dictionary, participation is “the action or act of
partaking, having or forming a part of.” In that sense, participation could be
either transitive or intransitive; either moral, amoral or immoral; either
forced or free; either manipulative or spontaneous. (Rahnema 1992, 116)
From this definition, Rahnema (1992) argues that a subject can participate in a
project’s activities to defend his interests (transitive meaning), or just to be there and
show his presence (intransitive meaning). Participation can also be decided by the
participation means nothing if we do not indicate participation in what, for what (if for
accepted and wished by all parties. During the 1980s, participation quickly became the
norm in development projects. The work of Robert Chambers (1985) was particularly
influential in its application in the field of rural development. Rapid Rural Appraisal
482
participatory ideal. The “ostensible aim” was “to make “people” central to
and over which they previously had limited control or influence” (Cooke and Khotari
2001, 5). Using Dryzek’s (2005) terminology, participation was expected to favor a
context, the concept was “no longer perceived as a threat” (Rahnema 1992, 117) by
state power but became politically and economically attractive. It displayed the image
of a democracy at work and was expected to lower the cost of development policies.
cultural roots which had always kept it alive” (Rahnema 1992, 120). It became
“perceived as one of the many “resources” needed to “keep the economy alive” ”
(Rahnema 1992, 120). Early criticisms tried to reframe the approach in its early ideal
and called for a “popular participation” (Rahnema 1992, 120) committed to a true
becoming a manipulative tool spreading a global culture and favoring the control of
local communities and minority groups by states and other powerful actors. The
483
tension between the activist root of the concept and the form it eventually took led to a
projects and activities that had already been designed for them. Chapter 6 provided an
example of this mechanism. Farmer associations (the Kolo Harena) were created to
favor a bottom-up process of agricultural innovation but the rules (no fire, yield
a Malagasy colleague, was at work while the fashionable and idealistic character of
participation, in the virtual and idealistic world of discourses, prevented the concept
from being criticized. This helped schizophrenic practices to become hegemonic and
Cooke and Kothari’s (2001) conclusions are of the same vein. These authors
distinguished two types of critics. The first “focus on the technical limitations of the
approach and stress the need for a re-examination of the methodological tools used,
for example in PRA” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 5). They are criticisms “within the
orthodoxy” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 5). The second “pay more attention to the
2001, 5). They are a critique of “the orthodoxy per se” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 7).
Cooke and Kothari (2001), as does Rahnema (1992), enter in the second category.
These authors get to the same conclusion that participation can be used as a subtle and
manipulative way to assert control over communities. They use the term “tyranny” to
shake the received wisdom that participation is democratic and identify three
particular sets of tyrannies. First is “the tyranny of decision making and control”
(Cooke and Kothari 2001, 7): participatory facilitators can “override existing
legitimate decision making processes” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 7). Second is the
484
“tyranny of the group” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 7): already powerful actors can
is the “tyranny of the method” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 8), which favors the
exclusion of groups who have advantages they cannot use in participatory methods
development actors and now serve as a tool to spread the dominant modernization
paradigm. They are used “like a Trojan horse” (Rahnema 1992, 125), sent to reshape
local knowledge and representation in order to make realities match with this
paradigm. They attempt to fill the interstices of local discourses with representations
elaborated outside, which can lead to robbing entire populations “of their possibilities
of relating to each other, in their own best interest” (Rahnema 1992, 126). They are, to
use the words of Foucault, a technology of power which acts by reshaping local
knowledge and practices. But fortunately, participation approaches can also fail to
serve these objectives, as we will see in the analysis of the GELOSE legislation.
This section presents the outcomes of short field visits to management transfer
sites I had the opportunity to make between 2002 and 2006. Map 14 shows the
location of these sites. I will first present the four sites located around the eastern rain
forest, and then present the two sites located in western Madagascar.
485
Miandrivazo
Ambondromamy
Beforona
Tsinjoarivo
Ambositra
(Zafimaniry)
Ikongo
486
3.1. Tsinjoarivo
rain forest corridor, about 80 kilometers southeast from Antananarivo. The PDFIV 281
project, implemented by the GTZ 282 agency and funded by the German government,
works in the area 283 and supported the creation of forest management associations. I
was invited to visit the PDFIV project in 2002 and spent one week in Tsinjoarivo,
Two ethnic groups live in this commune: the Betsimisaraka, who come from
the east and typically sustain their livelihood by doing slash-and-burn cultivation
(tavy), and the Merina, who come from the west (from the more populated highlands)
and already have a long experience of irrigated rice cultivation (Chapter 1). The
Betsimisaraka were the first settlers and for this reason, their traditional leaders
managed customary rights, controlling access to land and deciding which patch of
forest could be cleared for slash-and-burn cultivation. The Merina were more recent
migrants attracted by trading opportunities. They mostly came to buy sugar cane
alcohol produced by the Betsimisaraka, which they sold in the highlands. Tsinjoarivo
is an important center for sugar cane alcohol trading. But during their travel across the
region, the Merina had the opportunity to find land suitable for developing irrigated
281
Integrated Forest and Village Development Project. In French: Projet de Développement Forestier
Intégré Villageois.
282
German Agency for Technical Coopération. In German: Gessellschaft fyr Technische
Zusammenarbeit.
283
The PDFIV project works in several communes of the Ambatolampy district. The information in this
section only concerns the Tsinjoarivo commune.
284
Aubert (1999) also visited this site and expressed concerns similar to those evoked in this section.
My outcomes are not based on her work as I read it after I wrote this section.
487
and negotiated their installation through matrimonial alliances or by economic
transactions.
When the project started to work in the area, it created forest management
associations which were not ruled according to the GELOSE law but were intended to
be later adapted to this legislation. The Merina, due to their higher education level and
better knowledge of urban and foreign culture, were in a better position to take
legal power to control vegetation clearing, the control of access to land shifted from
management rules that matched with the conservation objectives of state and project
Betsimisaraka people. Many Betsimisaraka left the region and moved eastward, in the
search for other land to do slash-and-burn cultivation. Some just went across the river,
where the project does not intervene, and “waited for the foreign people to leave so
they could take their land back” (a farmer in Tsinjoarivo, 2001). Those who stayed in
the region often hire their labor force to the Merina people. Between the bottom land
occupied by migrants and the top hills protected by new management rules, they have
little room remaining to sustain their livelihood. The project proposes alternative
contour strips) supposed to compensate for this lack of land. But most interviewed
beneficiaries, including the Merina people, consider that these systems are not
applicable because they require excessive investment for their establishment and
excessive labor input for their maintenance. The views they expressed were similar to
those expressed by farmers in Beforona (Chapter 6). In sum, due to the creation of
488
forest management associations, pressure on land and forest was displaced in time and
associations. In the end, however, all this could just not work. The project will leave,
the Betsimisaraka people could come back and the traditional mode of regulation
The second site is the Zafimaniry area, located farther south in the Ambositra
district, still on the western edge of the rain forest corridor. I visited the area twice in
2005 to supervise the field work of a Malagasy student (Rabetsimamanga 2005) of the
Antananarivo forestry school. 285 I spent a total of six days in the area, visiting about
five villages with the student, her professor (during three days) and the president of the
In this area, migrants from the highland are not many. The people who occupy
the region belong to the Zafimaniry group, which has cultural affinities with both the
Betsileo, who live in the highlands, and the Tanala, who live farther southeast and
according to the GELOSE legislation were implemented in the area with support from
SAGE, 287 a line agency in charge of implementing the GELOSE component of NEAP
(Chapter 2). The main objective was to improve the management of valuable woods
285
Département des Forêts de l’Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques. Lending support to this
student was part of my job as a technical advisor at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forest,
from February 2004 to February 2006, for the FSP-GDRN project (note 5 page 23).
286
The type of association created by the GELOSE legislation. See Section 4.2.2.
287
Environmental Management Service. In French : Service d’Appui a la Gestion de l’Environnement.
489
utilized to fabricate sculptures sold in the district town of Ambositra, and sometimes
rendered the region famous and attractive for tourists (Rabetsimamanga 2005). The
associations in charge of managing the resources (the COBA) are administrated by the
Zafimaniry people. A federation of all COBAs was also created. It is headed by a local
leader who has both a high level of education (he has been a teacher and speaks
excellent French), a strong commitment to the well being of his community and a
strong legitimacy (he seems to belong to a royal lineage). To the contrary of the
preceding case, the conditions are very favorable for the implementation of a genuine
consider the management rules enforced by the COBA as something coming from
outside. Their main concerns are the restrictions on the practice of slash-and-burn
cultivation and on access to new land by forest clearing. They accept the rules but
explain that they will not be able to support this sacrifice much longer if no
alternatives are provided to compensate the restrictions. The leader of the federation
foreign visitors that he assumes his responsibilities, that no forest is cleared, but he
also agrees with the criticisms made by ordinary farmers. In sum, the COBA basically
designed outside. The main point in this agenda is that no more forest must be cleared,
whereas according to community management logic, forests are a reservoir land must
remain available for future agriculture expansion, except for sacred places that shelter
graves or are protected by taboos. The GELOSE approach creates the illusion that the
new rules are designed by the communities, as shown by the pride of COBA leaders
when GELOSE objectives are fulfilled. This creates a second illusion: that restriction
to forest clearing is socially accepted and does not need to be compensated. The
490
schizophrenic pattern of the GELOSE approach was sometimes very explicit. Once
maintained. Even the COBA leader agreed with these requests. It seemed that the
community considered that we, foreigner, were responsible for the ban on forest
3.3. Ikongo
The third site I visited is located in the Ikongo district, on the eastern side of
the forest corridor (Map 14 page 486). I stayed one week in the area, in 2002, in the
company of staff from the LDI project 288 which invited me for this visit. I only
conducted a few interviews but had long, intense and very interesting discussions with
the project’s team, which was at that time conducting an evaluation of the impact of its
The people living in this region belong mostly to the Tanala and Betsileo
groups and practice slash-and-burn cultivation (mostly the Tanala). The project
cultivation and the enforcement of the ban upon forest clearing were clearly the main
condition to receive support from LDI was to stop slash-and-burn cultivation. In order
to mitigate these restrictions, the project proposed alternatives to this land use similar
agreed that these alternatives did not compensate for the productivity loss that resulted
288
LDI intervened in the Toamasina and Fianarantsoa Provinces and had a regional office in each of
these provinces.
491
from the abandonment of slash-and-burn cultivation. The preliminary version of an
evaluation report even calculated that the loss in terms of agricultural production was
between 25% and 50%. 289 The situation is thus similar to that encountered in
defined political agenda whose main objective is to stop forest clearing and slash-and-
burn cultivation.
not contending that local communities should be allowed to manage their land
according to their own customary rules and continue to clear primary forests. My
position on this issue, which is more political than technical and raises ethical
concerns, will be developed in Chapter 15. What I am saying here is that the
forest clearing is an illusion, and that in cases where this objective is achieved, it is
because the COBA serves to channel repressive policies designed at the central level.
We will see later that empowering communities can help to slow deforestation, by
clearing. But the fact that forests are a reservoir land for future agricultural expansion
down deforestation, not to stop it. It is rather the productive base of the society that
289
I saw this document when I was in Ikongo but did not manage to purchase a copy and lost the
reference.
492
3.4. Beforona
which several Chapters have already been dedicated (Part III). The implementation of
Management Transfers was envisioned by the LDI project but was not yet realized
when I did my field enquiries, in 2001. Recently (in 2006), a local wood collector tried
(Chapter 5), to set up Management Transfers. This collector works for forest operators
who have difficulties buying wood legally, due to the ban that was put on the delivery
of forest permits until a new procedure would be applied. 290 Besides the few permits
that are still valid, Management Transfer is now the only way to harvest wood legally
in Madagascar, until the new regulation is operational. 291 Clearly, these new actors of
leaders were nevertheless ready to sign the Management Transfer documents prepared
by the wood collector, because wood extraction provides them with jobs and because
their low level of education makes them easy to manipulate (they were promised to be
supported for the creation of new paddy fields). Fortunately, the mayor was aware of
the manipulative character of the operation, did not share interests with the operator,
The last two sites I visited are located in Western Madagascar. As for the sites
in the Zafimanity region, I visited them when I worked for the FSP-GDRN project,
290
The adoption of a competitive and transparent procedure for the delivery of forest exploitation
permits was one of the conditions for the implementation of the National Environmental Action Plan.
291
In 2007, the new regulation was applied for the first time in a few sites.
493
One site is located in the Ambodronmamy (Mahajanga Province).
Management transfers were set up in this area with technical support from CIRAD, 292
for achieving sustainable charcoal production. I spent three days on the site and
associations (COBAs) in three villages. The COBAs had allowed charcoal makers to
legalize activities that were previously illegal and the operation was positively
perceived by the beneficiaries. The functioning of the COBA, however, was not
clearly understood by most people I interviewed. From their perspective, the main
change that occurred concerning charcoal production, after the creation of the COBA,
were the legalization of this activity, taxation, the attribution of production quota and a
more efficient control. It can be questioned whether the GELOSE approach was
authorization by Forest Services while they did not have to pay taxes. This created an
synthesizing the lessons learned from this experience was organized in Mahajanga, in
2004 (Anonymous 2004). 293 One of the main concerns expressed by participants was
the unequal concurrence between COBAs and private producers. In the end, I
concluded that the operation could lead to improved management if it was generalized
to the whole Mahajanga region but that it was questionable whether it was actually a
form of community based natural resource management. The next sections will
292
International Center for Agronomic and Development Research. In French : Centre International de
Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement.
293
This was an activity financed for the project within which I worked. I visited the field site as part of
my monitoring activities and attended the workshop.
494
The last site I visited in western Madagascar is located in the Miandrivazo
District, where several COBAs were set up to improve fishing management in order to
protect endemic fish species encountered in a series of small lakes. The visit I made
was typical of the kind of field work donors set up when they want to identify projects
to fund. We were many, moving in four wheel drive vehicles, attending meetings and
never staying more than a few hours at a site. It was almost impossible to collect
having cut the grasses that grew around the lake, in the vicinity of their village. They
explained that traditionally, they had always cut the grasses along the part of the lake
adjacent to the village, but that the COBA changed the rule and no longer allowed
them to do that. They violated the COBA rule because the grasses sheltered a
crocodile that ate a child and his mother just a few weeks earlier. One can hardly
3.6. Conclusion
such as deforestation. Madagascar still has a forest frontier and it cannot be expected
that communities will renounce clearing it, which is legitimate in the context of the
high poverty that prevails in this country. If we are to improve natural resource
last reservoir of biodiversity is also legitimate, the solution may reside in a negotiation
between restriction over access to resources on one hand, and support to the
development of new land uses that would reduce the dependence on resources on the
495
other hand. In other words, it would be a matter of compensation for restrictions that
improved governance alone can be the solution, lead to overlook the necessity to
The reason for this situation may be the oxymoronic character of the
which implies having access to resources and extending their agricultural land. From
their perspective, forests can be depleted of the various products they shelter because
they will be converted into agricultural land some day. For the international
development provides the illusion of a common agenda whereas local and global
there is no conflict between these two forms of sustainability, i.e., when primary
In this section, I will analyze the GELOSE legislation itself and the discourses
associated with it, as they are revealed by the GELOSE law and decrees and by the
story that led to issue them. I will start with a brief overview of the context within
which the approach originated. I will then present the law and its application decrees. I
will pay particular attention to the GELOSE contract itself, to the institution created
by the law to manage the resources (the COBA), to the community rules created by
this institution (the dina), and to two devices aimed at facilitating the negotiation and
tenure security.
496
4.1. Background and origin
governance during the whole history of Madagascar, due to the absence or weakness
of the state and to the autonomy of local polities that created their own customary
systems. The colonial administration itself was quite decentralized until the
publication of the 1930 forest decree and the strengthening of the forest administration
that followed (Lavauden 1934). From 1930 to the publication of the GELOSE law in
1996, forest management policies did not change significantly from the centralization
ideal of Lavauden and the governance of natural resources mostly depended on the
political and economic situation (Chapter 2). The move from coercive state policies to
approaches started in the early 1990s. The first initiative, labeled Participatory Forest
Management, 294 was implemented by the Swiss aid in the Menabe Region (Western
Madagascar). The debate that led to the creation of the GELOSE law was initiated a
few years later and matured during a series of workshops (Maldidier 2001), in
Mantasoa 295 (September 1994), Mahajunga 296 (November 1994), Antsirabe 297 (May
1995) and Antananarivo (June 1996 298 and October 1998 299 ).
ANGAP, 301 proposed solutions to the illicit occupation of protected areas. Weber’s
294
In French: Gestion Participative des Forêts.
295
This workshop was the conclusion of a study about customary rights and the local modes of
governance, financed by the KEPEM project of USAID.
296
International workshop about human occupation in protected areas.
297
National workshop about community based natural resource management, aimed at formulating
general recommendations for a decentralization policy.
298
International workshop about secure local management, which contributed to the design of the
GELOSE legislation.
299
See the proceedings in Programme POLFOR and Equipe MIRAY (1998).
300
National Office for Environment. See Chapter 2.
301
National Agency for Protected Areas Management. See Chapter 2.
497
strategy consisted in “granting exclusive use rights to local communities living around
the protected areas” (Weber 1994, 14). These use rights would be integrated into the
negotiated management plans of buffer zones and would put an end to a de facto free
access assumed to be the main cause of degradation. Granting management rights was,
however, not sufficient. To make this work, local communities needed to find a
material interest beyond the recognition of their authority to manage the resources.
CBNRM approaches would thus go hand in hand with economic development and
aspects, Weber (1994) anticipated the tradeoff between sustainable resource use and
2.
This new way to envision conservation was a significant departure from the
still widespread received wisdom that population growth and resource scarcity were
capital would be the solution rather than the problem, which justified the granting of
management 302 (Barthod and Ollagnon 1991), which assumes that facilitating rational
and free communication among stakeholders allows finding of a consensus that
from participatory methods and was intended to avoid the pitfalls analyzed by
Rahnema (1992) (Section 1). We will see later that this notion of rational and
302
In French: “gestion patrimoniale.”
498
A consulting team was later created, with support from the French cooperation,
(Montagne and Rakotondrainibe 2006). This led to the preparation of the GELOSE
law and its application decree, which provided a legal framework for community
The GELOSE law (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1996) 303 was voted on and
passed by the Malagasy National Assembly and promulgated on September 30, 1996.
It defines the conditions and the procedures for the signature of management transfer
contracts 304 that involve the community, the commune it belongs to and the
decentralized state services it depends on. 305 Local communities are granted rights and
official documents, i.e. the contracts and its appendixes (community rules or dinas,
(Section 4.2.4), and relative land tenure security is normally implemented to better
guarantee resource use rights (Section 4.2.5). Contracts are valid for three years and
303
Secure Local Management. In French: Gestion Locale Sécurisée. The term Secure relates to the fact
that the law implies a relative land tenure security, which I will explain later.
304
In French: Contrat de Transfert de Gestion.
305
This service can be a decentralized office of the ministry of environment, water and forest, of the
ministry of agriculture and livestock husbandry, or of the ministry of fisheries, according to the type of
resource.
499
Each management contract relates to one or several resources in a given
territory, but not to the territory itself, although the legislation is sometimes
ambiguous on this point. Marine or terrestrial resources, natural and plantation forests
can be the object of contract. Specific decrees were issued or are planned to be so to
define more precisely the modalities of transfer for each type of resource. The GCF
management. A second decree, which relates to pastoral resources, has been issued
recently and a third decree is in preparation to treat the case of marine resources. Most
In the case of GCF, contracts are signed between the communities and the
by the NGO and there is no relative land tenure security. These differences result from
the ambiguous status of the GCF decree, which, according to its first article, is an
rather than an application decree of the GELOSE. According to article 24 of the forest
law, “the state can delegate forest management to other persons, public or private.” 306
is unclear. The GELOSE law could indeed have been an application decree of this
article 24 to the case of communities but was issued before the forest law. Two
pathways that relate to two legal frameworks thus exist for implementing community
to the forest law and management transfer according to the GELOSE law. The GCF
decree used this ambiguity to take some liberty from the GELOSE law. On the
306
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “L’Etat peut déléguer la gestion de ses forêts a
d’autres personnes publiques ou privées.” (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1997 : article 24).
500
ground, however, both GCF and GELOSE contracts are regarded as management
transfers.
management rights to local communities. I will show in this section that this is not
what occurred eventually because the definition of the COBA matches with the
community is
(1) a group of people living together in one place; (2) the people of an area
or country considered collectively; (3) a group of people with a common
religion, race, or profession: the scientific community. (4) the holding of
certain attitudes and interests in common; (5) a group of interdependent
plants or animals growing or living together or occupying a specified
habitat.
The concept of association presents some similarities with that of community.
An associations is
(1) a group of people organized for a joint purpose; (2) a connection or link
between people or organizations; (3) a mental connection between ideas.
The third definition of community is quite similar to the first definition of
association but a distinction remains: people in a community are linked by their
purposes.
In Madagascar, the fokonolona is the concept that matches better with that of
community. Members of the same fokonolona share a common history and culture and
are dependent on the same territorial resources, at least in the case of rural fokonolona.
They usually come from the same ancestor and are buried in the same location. They
307
http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk.
501
have social and economic relationships and owe reciprocal duties to each other (the
fihavanana). They have a common leader or traditional chief and follow common rules
they formalize by issuing dinas. The rights of all members concerning access to
resources are not equal due to social stratification, but when they are not disrupted by
and are perceived as legitimate. Fokonolona are also in constant transformation. Due
to migratory movements, several fokonolona from different ethnic groups can share
the same territory until they fuse together. A fokonolona can also split when
The term fokonolona is linked with the term fokontany, which designates the
land occupied and utilized by the fokonolona. But for the state administration, the
can thus be several fokonolona in the traditional sense, usually living in different
hamlets, inside one single fokontany in the administrative sense, despite the fact that
fokonolona.
The status of the fokonolona has changed several times during the history of
Madagascar. Under the first republic, the smallest decentralized territorial collectivity
was the commune. The fokonolona was not legally recognized as a legal body and was
not granted legal rights. But the state defined duties that had to be ensured at the
responsibilities to the population (Aubert 1999). During the second republic, the
fokonolona was became a legal body (Aubert 1999). The general assembly of the
fokonolona was in charge of managing its territory (the fokontany) and enforcing
502
regulations. According to Aubert (1999), this allowed legalization of legitimate ways
changed again in the early 1990s, after President Zafy was elected. The commune
became again the basic administrative structure and the fokonolona lost its autonomy
(Aubert 1999). This situation still prevails today, the fokontany being administrated by
fokontany Presidents appointed by the mayor (Chapter 3). The constitution of 1997,
however, asserted that the fokonolona could take measures aimed at improving
resource management. But it remained unclear about what form these measures can
GELOSE should have been designed in a way to grant legal natural resource
management rights to the fokonolona. But in the political context of the mid-1990s,
this proved to be impossible. The fokonolona had just lost its autonomy and the
members of the National Assembly opposed the idea that management rights would be
transferred explicitly to the fokonolona (Aubert 1999). This led the GELOSE
application decree.
According to article 2 of the GELOSE law, the COBA “is composed of any
voluntary group of individuals united with the same interests and obeying the rules of
a common way of life. It groups, according to the cases, the 308 inhabitants of a hamlet,
a village or a group of villages” 309 (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1996: article 2).
This article reveals that the initial ideal of genuine community management was still
308
I highlighted.
309
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “La communauté de base est constituée par tout
groupement volontaire d’individus unis par les mêmes intérêts et obéissant a des règles de vie
commune. Elle regroupe selon les cas, les habitants d’un hameau, d’un village ou d’un groupe de
villages.”
503
present when experts designed the GELOSE legislation. Unfortunately, in the end, it
was not the inhabitants who would constitute the COBA but some inhabitants, which
completely changed its nature. As the GELOSE law mentions in later articles, “any
inhabitant residing within the limits of the territory of the basic community can be
submitted to the general assembly, which deliberates within the conditions fixed by
the statute” 310 (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1996: article 5). The possibility to
act and by individual choices, rather than by history, kinship or geography. Rather
than a community of people who share a common territory and identity, the COBA
was an association of people having a common objective and making the choice to
group together. A small fraction of the community can create a COBA and the
criterion for this creation. Theoretically, any group of people with common objectives
can constitute a COBA, decide who will be in and out and elaborate the rules that best
matches its interests. Clearly, the new institution so created is an association, not a
community. This opens the way to inequities and division at the community level if
the COBA gains significant power. It is not excluded, however, that communities use
the COBA statute to modernize themselves, but several factors will impede this from
confirms the fact that the COBA is an association. It states that the statute have to
indicate the purpose of the COBA, the territory it manages, its management organs, its
functioning, the list of its members and have to be deposited at the commune the
310
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Peut être accepté comme membre tout habitant
résident dans les limites du terroir de la communauté de base.” “La candidature pour devenir membre
est soumise à l’assemblée générale, qui délibère dans les conditions fixées par le statut.”
504
community depends on. The commune issues a certificate that is the legal validation
of the COBA’s creation. The decree also states that “all the decisions taken during
meetings have to be written and classified in a book. The President or one of the
Madagascar 2000b, articles 25 and 26). 311 In these conditions the rural elite, which
usually has better literacy than traditional leaders, has a significant advantage to take
control of the COBA. This elite can use the COBA to channel to itself most of the
profit that can be generated from natural resource extraction, in the same manner as
the Kolo Harena associations channeled to themselves most of the support and funding
where Merina people with better formal education took control over access to land
after they took control of forest management associations, illustrates this risk. The
associations created by the PDFIV project were not COBAs but one can wonder why
things would be different if they were. Urban people having interest in rural areas,
such as forest operators, can also learn very fast how to use the GELOSE to their own
advantage and to manipulate local communities and appropriate their resources. This
could have happened in Beforona as we saw in Section 2. The operator failed in this
case, but according to the syndicate of forest exploiters, Beforona would not be the
only case in which forest collectors have attempted to use the COBA statute to take
control over resources. GCF contracts, which do not imply environmental mediation,
may pave the way to the worst abuses. Andriambololona et al. (2004) give the
example of a GCF contract involving 7% of the population (35 persons), but allowing
311
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Toutes les décisions prises lors des réunions doivent
être rédigées par écrit et classées dans un livre réserve a cet effet.” “Le Président ou l’un des membres
de la structure de gestion se charge de toutes les rédactions écrites.”
505
(Anjojorobe district). One family controls the COBA and the rest of the community is
The GELOSE law designed two devices to reduce this risk. First, the
before validating the COBA creation. This enquiry must check the social adhesion of
the demand, verify the legality of member designation in the COBA’s managing
structure, and assess the natural resources and the COBA’s capacity to manage them
(Gouvernement de Madagascar 1996, article 12). But these assessments can easily be
traditional authorities or their mode of designation, were defined to guarantee the rigor
of this survey. Local political leaders often share common interests with the
second device is the environmental mediator, about whom more will be said later
(Section 4.2.4.).
again, that I do not reject the concept of COBA in itself, nor of course of community
association and associations are useful to improve the social fabric and strengthen the
civil society. But problems arise when their roles are confused with those of
communities. If associations are granted legal rights that were hitherto legitimately
can lead to conflicts between COBA members and nonmembers (between the
association and the rest of the community). Furthermore, the confusion created
between communities and private associations can result in unfair regulations. With
respect to fiscal aspects for instance, collectivities usually raise taxes whereas private
operators that extract resources pay these taxes. In the case of COBAs, it is not always
506
clear whether it should raise taxes (like any territorial collectivity) or pay taxes (like
Besides the mismatch between the concepts of COBA and local community,
the dinas provide another example of the confusion that can be provoked by the
GELOSE. The dina is a community rule designed at fokonolona level but requiring
approval by the commune to have a legal value. It existed prior to the GELOSE, but
was incorporated into it. According to the GELOSE law, “the relationships between
COBA members are regulated through the creation of dinas, [which are] approved by
the COBA members following the customary rules of the community” (Gouvernement
de Madagascar 1996: article 49). 312 Dinas are further validated by the commune
(Gouvernement de Madagascar1996: article 51), which gives them the status of a law
is that two entities (the fokonolona and the COBA) are now able to create legal rules
at the community level. The first one can do that in the name of its historical
legitimacy while the second one receives its legitimacy from the GELOSE legislation.
It is then questionable whether a dina created by the COBA applies to the whole
fokonolona or only to the COBA members. Important problems arise whatever answer
is given. If the dina applies to the whole fokonolona, it will lack legitimacy because
the institution that established it (the COBA) is not necessarily controlled by the
legitimate authorities at fokonolona level. If it applies to the COBA members only, the
members of the fokonolona will have the possibility to chose between being submitted
312
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Les rapports entre les membres de la communauté
de base sont réglés par voie de “Dina.” Les “Dina” sont approuvés par les membres de la communauté
de base selon les règles coutumières régissant la communauté.”
507
to it or not (by being member or not of the COBA). Such a dina could hardly be called
the previous sections and incorporated an actor aimed at mitigating them: the
issued to define the role and responsibilities of environmental mediators and the
between the community, the state, the commune and the other actors involved. In
addition, the mediator is involved in practical and strategic tasks such as the
the income will be used and the determination of fees and penalties in case of fraud
trained specifically for this task and who have received an agreement, delivered by a
313
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: La médiation environnementale a pour but de faciliter
les discussions et les négociations entre partenaires impliques dans la gestion locale de ces ressources,
en contribuant, par l’établissement d’un courant d’information entre les parties, a rapprocher les points
de vue et objectifs en présence et a faciliter ainsi l’émergence d’une vision commune et d’une stratégie
commune de la gestion a long terme de ces ressources et la définition consensuelle des procédures
permettant leur gestion effective.”
508
mediators is mandatory in the case of the first management transfer demands in a
given commune and when two or more communes or communities are concerned with
article 31). The training he receives is intended to prepare him for this neutrality.
However, mediators are in most cases urban people foreign to the regions where they
work and are financially and technically supported by the NGO or project that
tools and equipments, the assessment and mapping of resources, the design of
“modern” or “scientific” management plans, the search for market opportunities and
the communication of results. It can hardly be imagined how mediation work could
ambiguity of the mediator’s role. According to this author, the implementation of the
GELOSE could imply a “social restructuring" (Aubert 1999, no pagination), 314 and
one of the mediator’s role would be to legitimate this new social organization. This
reveals the existence of a social engineering project that implies much more that just
practice, the work of the mediator may serve to guide communities to “participate” in
this social engineering project, the architect of the whole process being the NGO or
project that supports the GELOSE. In which case, the mediator would mostly serve to
support social organization, as does any development agent specialized in this kind of
task. This confusion of roles may explain why the GCF decree eliminated the
314
No pagination because Html file.
509
necessity to utilize environmental mediators (as we will see later), allowing his duties
legislation. It consists of delineating the boundaries of the territory put under COBA’s
authority; in defining zones inside this territory according to the resources which are
encountered and according to the rules applied to these resources; and in some cases
(not mandatory), in the establishment of a cadastral map aimed at solving land tenure
conflicts locally (Gouvernement de Madagascar 1998). RLTS does not lead to land
title granting (which explains the term “relative”) but can serve as a base for title
granting in the future. In most management transfers, RLTS was not implemented
because it is costly, can slow the overall process by revealing land tenure conflicts and
is not perceived as being essential by the projects or NGOs that support the
RLTS. When several resources are encountered on the same land, it would not be
these resources. The zoning that accompanied management transfers for charcoal
charcoal production by COBA members. Five zones were defined and charcoal
producers have to follow a five year rotation in these five zones. When more pressure
occurs on the land, due to demographic increase, one may wonder what will be the
legitimacy of this zoning for farmers who do not produce charcoal, are not COBA
510
members but need to convert Zyzyphus savannahs into agricultural land to sustain their
sites of the region. He showed that trees cut to make charcoal are mostly cut in areas
dedicated to be later converted into agricultural land. Five year rotations would not
make sense in this case: once the trees are transformed into charcoal, the land is
cultivated and no tree is allowed to grow again. From the farmer’s perspective, this
logic is rational because agricultural land is more profitable than charcoal production,
the later being just a transition activity for recent migrants (Muttenzer 2006). If the
management plans and the five year rotations were successfully implemented, they
would compete with the customary modes of regulation which support this multiple
use logic. The land use would become fixed according to a pattern determined by the
(the COBA members). This would reduce the overall profit that can be obtained from
charcoal production allows maintaining trees in place, which matches with the
hand, farmers who need to clear land to extend their fields are disadvantaged, despite
the fact that their activity may produce more value per unit of land, allowing a higher
This scenario will not necessarily occur as communities will certainly find
their own mode of regulation when they will be confronted to these problems. They
will probably initiate negotiations between the COBA and the rest of the fokonolona.
511
In sum, the GELOSE legislation and the management plan, zoning, and tenure
schemes that do not address the complexity of the reality, to the detriment of
modernist project presented in Chapter 8 where the realities are reshaped according to
simplified management schemes. The GELOSE and its zoning and management plans
may favor a “social taxidermy” (Scott 1998) aimed at rendering communities more
RLTS would render the zoning less easily reversible, would strengthen the control
over access to land by resource users whose activities are more compatible with short-
sighted conservation agendas, and could impede future land use changes that would be
4.3. Conclusion
This analysis showed that the GELOSE legislation can easily be used by a
group of stakeholders for taking control over access to natural resources. This situation
results from the confusion created between the concepts of association (which the
of new modes implemented by legal associations whose objectives match better with
lead to transfer these rights from a community that was the de facto manager of the
resources, due to the absence or the weakness of the state, to a restricted group of
512
individuals which is willing to adopt management rules designed by the state and its
partners.
The interests of the five parties involved (the state, the commune, the COBA,
and the NGOs and the donors that support the process) can easily match together. The
management plans and zoning provide the state and the commune with an increased
legibility of the population and of the resource uses, which facilitates the
improved natural resource management are better achieved, at least in the short-term.
The rural elite, which is better prepared to manage modern associations such as
COBAs, increases its control over access to land and its local prestige. But it is
doubtful whether these interests match with those of the community (the fokonolona).
At the community level, resources are managed according to a much larger array of
implementation of the GELOSE legislation eight years after its vote by the National
contracts, the creation of a database about these contracts, the elaboration of the
evaluation methodology and the test of this methodology on eight sites. The second
315
RESOLVE is the name of the consulting firm that implemented the work.
513
The third phase concerns the set up of the monitoring system, a matter which I will not
whole work.
Two teams were involved in the evaluation: the PCP 316 team and the IRD 317
team. They worked separately and their results are presented in different sections of
this second phase report, which provides the most complete presentation of the
evaluation’s outcomes. The results of the two teams will be presented in two different
sub sections in order to show the difference in institutional logic that accompanied
their work.
5.1.1. Methodology
The PCP team consisted of a group of researchers from the CIRAD, 318 the
FOFIFA 319 and the ESSA. 320 It employed a semi qualitative rapid assessment method
and used a survey guide passed to stakeholders by small teams of two or three
researchers. It surveyed eight sites during the first phase (test of the methodology) plus
17 sites during the second phase. It focused on governance aspects and on the
2004b). Five survey guidelines were elaborated which targeted COBA members,
316
A research consortium comprised of CIRAD, FOFIFA and the University of Antananarivo. In
French : Pole de Compétence en Partenariat.
317
Development Research Institute. In French : Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. This
institute was formerly named ORSTOM.
318
French International Center for Agronomic and Development Research. In French: Centre
International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement.
319
The Malagasy national institute for agronomic research and rural development.
320
The main Agronomy School in Madagascar. In French : Ecole Supérieure des Sciences
Agronomiques.
514
operators, and representatives of NGOs or projects which provided technical support
(fokonolona representatives) was not planned but could have occurred in cases where
these leaders were COBA members as well. Interviews of non-COBA members was
not planned either. This fact was pointed out in the conclusions of phase 1, and the
the PCP team does not mention non-COBA members or fokonolona representatives
(RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b). The time spent on each site was only one or two days
on average. Given the sampling strategy and this limited time spent on the ground, it is
5.1.2. Results
I will present the outcomes of the PCP team according to four topics: (1) the
integration of management transfers into local, regional and national policies; (2) the
environmental impacts; (3) the social impacts; and (4) the economic impacts.
5.1.2.1. The integration of management transfers into local, regional and national
policies
The authors state that management transfers are far from being integrated into
515
income for the communes by taxing the flow of ligneous and nonligneous
products. 321 (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 8)
The mayors are
rarely aware of their role and duties concerning the GELOSE procedures.
Hence there cannot be any communal strategy able to structure and plan
management transfers 322 (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 8)
and it
appears difficult at this stage to envision a vertical integration of
management transfer into rural development policies at a larger scale.323
(RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 8)
These results show that the management transfer is like a graft that does not
take at the communal level. But instead of questioning the reasons and meaning of this
lack of integration (could it be a rejection?), the authors insist on the “good” reasons
priority. It could, however, be questioned whether the significance of the revenue that
communes could gain from MTs, the difficulties of collecting such taxes, in
comparison with taxes raised on trade, agriculture, land and natural resource extraction
in general, 325 would justify this priority. Given the limited resources of communes in
Madagascar, the many challenges they face for providing basic infrastructure and
services, 326 it is still questionable whether MTs are indeed a priority for them. It is
321
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “pêchent de ne pas considérer les risques
environnementaux comme des risques majeurs. Ils oublient également que ce secteur peut être
certainement une source de revenus des communes au travers de prélèvements sur les flux de produits
ligneux et non ligneux.”
322
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “le maire n’ayant que rarement conscience de son
rôle et de son devoir en particulier pour les procédures GELOSE. Il ne peut y avoir dès lors de
stratégies communales à même de structurer et de planifier les transferts de gestion et il paraît difficile à
ce stade d'imaginer des intégrations verticales du transfert de gestion dans des politiques de
développement à plus vaste échelle.”
323
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “il paraît difficile à ce stade d'imaginer des
intégrations verticales du transfert de gestion dans des politiques de développement à plus vaste
échelle.”
324
For more convenience, I employ the abbreviation MT for Management Transfer.
325
Management transfer is just one modality among others for natural resources extraction.
326
According to Republikan'I Madagasikara (2003), 33% of the Malagasy communes have no access to
a national road, 30% have no access to a provincial road and the average time required to access a bus
station is 10 hours. Security condition is a second important issue. It is perceived as bad or very bad in
39% of Malagasy communes.
516
hence not the importance of management transfers that should be questioned, but their
relative importance and the synergies and trade-off between sectors in a context of
limited funding and low institutional capacity. The main objective of the evaluation
may have been, even if this was not explicit, to push MTs in the local development
agenda, rather than to question their relative importance from a local standpoint.
The authors further propose to use the local zoning component of MTs as a
starting point to establish communal and regional zoning. But communities and
communes may have other forms of knowledge which allow them to identify
infrastructure and development priorities. Zoning and mapping, which would certainly
be done using external expertise, would not necessarily identify these needs any better
and could be as costly as creating some basic infrastructures. Local actors may be
aware of this, which may explain their lack of interest in mapping and formal
that zoning and mapping are a priority, it may mean that it is a priority for them,
mostly because they need this to be done in order to be delivered data that allows
them to monitor management transfers better. Consistent with this, the authors propose
luxury devices.
517
the sites that have been transferred: reduction of bush fires, effective
protection of the environment against excessive pressure on the
surroundings, organization of product collection that can be supported by
the environment. 327 (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 8-9)
The reason for this apparent success may be that MTs provide a framework
that encourages all members of the community to unite against intruders, and that it
gives opportunities to the state and other organizations to provide support for this
observation of a correlation (fewer fires after the implementation of MTs) that can be
spurious: it does not necessarily imply a relation of causality. The MT evaluation was
implemented in 2004, a short time after the repressive antifire campaigns initiated in
2002 (Chapter 6). It is not possible to distinguish the effects of this campaign from the
effects of MTs because sites with no MT were not studied. Furthermore, in a political
context where fires in all forms are seen as an evil, coercive logic can be present in
MTs as well, as I showed in the short case studies (Section 2). The frequent passage of
foreigners, NGO staff and state representatives is often a source of fear, including
when their presence is not justified by control. If there would be a causal relationship
unintentionally). The report does not provide arguments that would allow rejection of
this hypothesis. The next section, about social and economic impacts, will provide
insights that corroborate this hypothesis and help to envision the long term impacts of
327
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Mis à part les transferts de gestion qui ont échoué et
les transferts qui ne sont pas encore fonctionnels, on peut retenir que le TGRNR participe de façon
significative à l'amélioration de l'environnement sur les site transférés: réduction des feux de brousse,
protection effective contre des pressions excessives sur le milieu, organisation des prélèvements jugés
supportables par le milieu.”
518
Another observation showing that we cannot be conclusive yet about the
2004b). When these outside resources are depleted, the pressures may come back to
the transferred area. Such “leakages” may be more frequent than observed by the
RESOLVE team, as the evaluators just spent a few days on the ground and did not
The report also says very little about the motivation of communities to improve
future agriculture expansion. If this was the case, management transfers would reduce
insist on the necessity to produce baseline data, to establish a detailed diagnosis of the
unrealistic in the context of the low education and literacy of most communities. It
could also favor the empowerment of a rural elite with higher literacy, as we saw in
Section 3. These propositions match better, again, with the logic of Scott’s (1998) high
modernism than with the ideal of local empowerment and community based
In short, the assumption that MTs have had a positive impact on the
environment is based on very little evidence. The “impact” observed on the ground
cannot be contested but can be explained by other factors (coercive policies), can hide
519
a displacement of the problem and may be short-term if no alternatives are provided to
compensate the restriction on access to land and resources. Rather than questioning
these issues, the authors advocate for a strong monitoring of management transfers and
propose tools that could in the end be used to control local communities, rather than
favoring their empowerment and giving them more rights and responsibilities.
The main issue addressed by the PCP report with respect to social aspects is
the impact of MTs on social cohesion and the situation in terms of conflicts. The
authors explain that conflicts can occur inside the community (in the sense of the
fokonolona), sometimes inside the COBA (especially in cases where land tenure is not
clear), and between the COBA, the commune and the state services involved in the
observed that on the ground, the role of the mediator was often confused with social
organization and capacity building, which are tasks under the responsibility of the
NGO or project that provides support. They contend that this confusion results from
the fact that MTs are regarded as a way to transfer administrative tasks and duties
from state services to COBAs, which minimizes their political dimension (RESOLVE-
PCP-IRD 2004b). This argument is consistent with the analysis of Rahnema (Section
1), who asserted that participatory approaches can be used as a way to discharge states
services from costly responsibilities they are unable to assume. In the context of weak
states which prevails in Madagascar, it is logical that the mediator gets diverted from
520
In spite of this issue, the PCP report depicts a situation where social conflicts
are not very significant. They exist in some cases, 328 especially between members and
nonmembers, but communities find ways to solve them. For example, nonmembers
create alternative associations to challenge COBAs. The limited extent of conflicts can
also be explained by the fact that many COBAs are nonfunctional. According to the
authors, the reasons for this inefficiency can be a lack of interest, the refusal of new
of the fokonolona were not targeted by the interviewers and the time spent on each site
was quite short. The interviewees were mostly actors directly involved for whom
pointing out conflicts would not be the right strategy for guaranteeing future funding
and support. The overall picture can thus be biased. We will see in the next section
that the conclusions of the IRD consultants, who spent more time on the ground (but
The fact that social conflicts would be limited is, however, consistent with the
MTs in a way consistent with their interests. But even if this dynamic was the rule, it
can still be asked what would be the impacts of MTs in the case of more efficient
real intention of the GELOSE, which may exist in an implicit form hidden behind
explicit statements.
328
For example in Sadjaovato (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 49) and in Marosely (RESOLVE-PCP-
IRD 2004b, 50).
521
5.1.2.3.2. Potential impacts
and community, the question of whether or not the COBA represents the community,
the skills required for managing a COBA and the way the COBA articulates with
traditional leaders are central issues that have to be addressed. They reveal the implicit
intentions of the GELOSE and determine the potential impact it could have if COBAs
became more powerful. I must now see how the PCP team addressed these issues.
grant resource use rights to economic operators grouped into associations. But if the
objective was to implement community based natural resource management, then the
COBA should be the fokonolona as we saw in Section 4, because the Malagasy entity
that matches better with the concept of community is indeed the fokonolona.
groups of users organized into associations but these two aspects (community
management and private extraction) should not be confused. There can be associations
fishers or hunters, but these groups are not communities. Several types of institutions
constitute a functional social fabric, but have to play different roles that must not be
329
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “question de la représentativité des COBA ne doit pas
être un dogme. On ne peut pas demander à la COBA de représenter tout le fokonolona, comme on
attend des institutions élues qu’elles représentent les citoyens. Par contre, elle doit être représentative
des différentes catégories d’usagers des RN.
522
confused. Natural resources can be managed by small private groups (associations)
and this can even be preferable to community management, but the significance would
be different. For example, if only a few farmers are interested in harvesting trees in a
forest, there is no reason to grant extraction rights to the whole community. This small
having a COBA statute), could receive a permit or any sort of convention that would
define its rights and responsibilities on behalf of the state. Beside this, the community
could be involved in the creation of new rules which would be locally designed, could
raise local taxes paid by the logger association and could implement control. The
COBA (the group of loggers) could then render accounts to the community instead of
the state. But in order to achieve this, the community needs to be recognized as a legal
body able to establish contracts with the group of loggers. The GELOSE legislation
does not allow this to occur because the COBA is not the fokonolona, by definition.
arguments. It asserted that “the legitimacy, and hence the recognition of the COBA by
the fokonolona, should be translated into explicit obligations, in the contract and the
IRD 2004b, 9). By saying so it recognized that the COBA is not the fokonolona.
However, these conclusions did not solve the problem because the fokonolona is not a
legal body which can be legally accountable. The COBA was indeed the institution
aimed at giving the fokonolona this legal recognition but failed to achieve this. We
thus end in a complex situation where a virtual and externally designed community
(the COBA) should theoretically render accounts to the historical but still real
community (the fokonolona) whereas in practice the COBA, due to its recognition by
330
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: ” La légitimité, donc la reconnaissance de la COBA
par le fokonolona, devrait se traduire par des obligations explicites du contrat et du cahier des charges,
de la COBA envers le fokonolona.”
523
the state as a legal body, often considers itself to be the community, which reverses the
relationship just evoked. As the COBA renders account to the commune, to the
decentralized state services and to the NGO that provides technical and financial
support, it could marginalize the role of the fokonolona and substitute for it if it
expressed by the reluctance of the members of the National Assembly to give legal
status to the fokonolona, may indeed have been to disempower the fokonolona while
But all this just does not work. Local communities could just reshape the
system in their own way and continue their activities as usual, the COBA being just a
production and power relations and by the diversity of resource use strategies.
According to Muttenzer (2006), this would be the situation that prevails. The
GELOSE legislation would then be mostly hot air blowing across the Malagasy
countryside.
profitability of MTs. Some outcomes are nevertheless provided by the PCP report.
First, it appears that MTs lead to increased profits when a valuable resource is
2004b). However, it can be questioned whether the GELOSE was necessary to achieve
these results, as they could just be the consequence of the regulation and legalization
of illegal activities (see the case of Ambodromamy in Section 3). Second, MTs
dedicated to conservation, where only noncommercial use rights are authorized, are
524
Land is itself an asset and its protection from appropriation by outsiders can be
regarded as a profit. But from the perspective of farmers, this profitability may mostly
In this sub section, I will present the evaluation conducted by the IRD team. I
will start by presenting the methodology, followed by the results, before analyzing the
institutional forces that drove the evaluation, as they are revealed by the
5.2.1. Methodology
The IRD team involved researchers from the IRD and students and professors
from the University of Antananarivo. The students spent several weeks or months at
their sites and were visited by their professors and by IRD researchers. The IRD
investigated six sites in depth. It had already worked in these sites for about ten years,
structure (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b). We will see that the conclusions are quite
525
different from those of the PCP, which can be explained by the different
methodological choices.
5.2.2. Results
The main conclusions, according to the executive summary, are that the type of
resource, the social organization and the history of the community are the main
and summarizes most concerns brought up during the analysis of the legislation and of
The IRD team further provides guidelines about how to describe the forms of
powers and proposes a list of criteria to consider when establishing a COBA. It asserts
that the main feature of traditional power structures, valid for all ethnic groups in
Madagascar, is that legitimate powers typically belong to the first settlers in a given
location. When migrants are not many, they do not challenge this power and prefer to
331
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “est dès le départ voué à l’échec, mais bien plus grave
encore, il a toutes les chances de mettre à bas le système de gestion “ traditionnel ” des ressources
naturelles préexistant au contrat de transfert en occasionnant, au sein de la communauté, des conflits,
des fractures, des renversements de pouvoirs et des modifications structurelles souvent irréversibles qui
parfois entraînent l’exacerbation d’usages et de comportements en opposition totale avec les objectifs
d’un transfert de gestion”.
526
establish connections through matrimonial alliances, which provides them with
legitimate access to land and a certain political influence, especially if they marry the
daughters of traditional chiefs. Things are different when migrants are more numerous,
develop their own economic activities and social organizations, and designate their
own leaders. If they develop profitable activities and utilize resources that were not
paid attention by the first settlers, their economic power and political influence can
example when migrants improve bottom lands while historical settlers practice more
From this analysis of social dynamics, the authors propose to distinguish two
types of communities: those where the historical power is not yet challenged and
where migrants use marriage to access land and gain some influence (type 1), and
those where a redistribution of power and in-depth changes in the social organization
occur (type 2). In the first case, the main feature of social organization is a vertical
case, social organization reflects a variety of economic activities and the alliances (still
often matrimonial) passed between the groups that implement these activities
(RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b).
Once this distinction is made, the authors raise the question of COBA’s
representativeness, proposing a different answer to that of the PCP team. They assert
that despite initial plans to make the COBA match with the fokonolona, a drift in the
GELOSE approach led to creation of an entity that has little sociological value and can
332
Reference not found. Not in the list of work cited.
527
developed in Section 4. But the authors go further by questioning what it means to be
representative. Do the COBAs have to follow the canon of Western democratic culture
or do they rather have to represent the main groups that have authority over resource
management in the traditional system? They opt for the second version and, from
there, propose two options in order to address the two types of communities. In the
case of type 1 communities, they contend that the COBA should include legitimate
leaders of the foundation lineage in the key positions. The absence of representatives
representation of families that belong to the foundation lineage should not be regarded
structure should include a wider range of actors belonging to different lineages having
different economic activities and different origins, while the excessive representation
IRD 2004b).
The authors found that the actual composition of COBAs rarely follows this
logic. Leaders are members of marginal groups in most cases. Typically, they are
people under the age of 40 who spent a few years outside the village, where they
learned to read and had contacts with foreign people. They want the traditional system
of power and the land use practices to change, which leads them to criticize traditional
leaders and elders. Their skills and areas of interest allow them to seduce the agents of
foreign aid. They can assume bureaucratic tasks, participate actively in meetings,
presidency of these associations (not only COBAs), and channel financial support to
the village. Their interest is more or less individualistic according to the cases but they
often see involvement with aid actors as a way to elevate themselves in the power
structure (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b). The risk is that tension could appear between
528
them and traditional leaders, who still have a strong legitimacy and could block their
“foreign thing” and “do not see the interest to enter into a project that would allow
them to acquire a management and control power they already have” 333 (RESOLVE-
PCP-IRD 2004b, 114). They leave recent migrants, or other people that are more
“modern” or have a better understanding of this foreign process, the task to manage
These outcomes encourage a slightly more optimistic vision than the one I
proposed up until now. Societies and cultures are not frozen and are open to change.
Internal and contextual constraints make evolution necessary and the deployment of
new forms of power, in relation to the arrival of new actors, is a natural process that
can favor wise adaptations to a changing context. The COBA, being a colonial
invention, could in the end favor the creation of links between the modern world
inherited from colonization and the traditional world that Malagasy communities
inherited from their history. If this were true, it could still be questioned, however, in
what way the GELOSE would differ from other socio-organizational supports
optimistic or a pessimistic stance, only the future will tell us if local communities, in
the end, will be empowered by the creation of COBA and other social devices created
by projects.
333
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “le contrat de transfert est souvent perçu par eux
comme une “ chose étrangère ” et ils ne voient pas très bien l’intérêt de rentrer dans un projet qui leur
permettrait d’acquérir un pouvoir de gestion et de contrôle qu’ils ont déjà.”
529
5.2.3. The institutional driving of the IRD’s recommendations
The anthropological work of the IRD team helped in understanding the social
interventions. I will show, in this section that, beyond these insights, the
recommendations of the IRD team reveal, again, the pervasiveness of Scott’s (1998)
high modernist project in the institutional framework within which the consultants
One of the main goals of the RESOLVE evaluation, defined by the donors, was
transfers. This objective reveals two implicit assumptions. The first one is that MT is
regarded as a wise approach that just needs to be better implemented. The second is
that better monitoring is the solution for this improved implementation. In order to
satisfy this expectation, the IRD team proposed rules aimed at defining the COBA’s
Consistent with their outcomes, the consultants proposed indicators such as the
type of community, the presence of associations prior to the creation of the COBA, the
marginal groups and external influences (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b). Doing so, they
provided more precise rules aimed at better designing social organizations, pushing
530
monitoring indicators? Isn’t it contradictory to call for a finer and simpler
process all together? 334 (RESOLVE-PCP-IRD 2004b, 108)
In other words, the main question may be who has to address complexity,
rather than how to address it. Scott (1998) showed that externally designed social
schemes usually fail because they cannot totally account for the complexity of
realities. They are always strong simplifications whatever the sophistication of the
models they use. External designs that operate on realities may need to be simple,
precisely because the reality is complex. Only in this way can the local actors, who
concept of metis, which will be introduced in Chapter 15, will help to understand this
better.
leader with low literacy led a COBA in a type 1 community (in order to create a
COBA that satisfies the proposed indicators), he could lose his prestige by being
leadership to migrants, he would take the risk of being challenged by the COBA.
Facing this conundrum he would, however, be in better position than outside actors to
make this choice, because he knows exactly his skills, his position in the society and
the skills and position of his challengers. He owns a contextualized knowledge that
can hardly be translated into simple rules aimed at transforming his community.
an endeavor that started with the creation of the COBA and could be pushed farther if
the IRD team recommendations were to be translated into new formal rules. Rather,
communities should find their own way to change and learn from their own mistakes.
334
Translation by Pollini. Original citation in French: “comment mettre en place un contrat de gestion
“ sur mesure ” pour chaque communauté, tout en simplifiant et en diminuant le nombre d’indicateurs ?
N’est-il pas contradictoire de vouloir affiner le processus tout en le simplifiant ?”
531
Even if ill designed, the GELOSE should be left to the actors for whom it was
designed. These actors will decide how to use it and what to do with it. The stronger
the external designs will be, the less communities will be able to make their own
choice. The problem of the GELOSE may be in the approach itself (in the fact that it is
a social engineering project), rather than in the way the approach is implemented (in
the fact that it would be a badly implemented social engineering project). The solution,
rather than to define a finer and more precise procedure, may be to open the
framework and make the monitoring and implementation pathways more diversified,
more flexible and more fuzzy, a concept that unfortunately does not match the high
modernist project that most states and international organization want to implement.
that were conducted in Madagascar. Referring to these works now is a way to test my
strengthened.
showed that the GCF approach, which is simpler than the GELOSE, is insufficiently
good rate for COBA membership), sometimes leads to conflicts between members and
nonmembers, but can work well to protect forests from fast destruction by outsiders.
showed that management transfers are associated with a ban on forest clearing and
335
Randrianasolo’s (2000) evaluation only concerns the GCF approach, a modality of management
transfer which applies to the case of forest resources only, as we saw.
532
often with a ban on forest product commercialization. They effectively lead to less
forest clearing but villagers tend to consider them as a new form of control and ask for
alternatives to the restrictions on their land use. Maldidier (2001) also recognized the
According to him, the GELOSE was criticized for being “unrealistic,” “inapplicable,”
“complex,” costly, rigid, formal and “intellectual,” which led to the creation of the
GCF approach.
chapter. In the end, however, these authors drew conclusions more optimistic than the
the institutional framework within which these author worked (Randrianasolo worked
as a consultant, while Maldidier was technical advisor at ONE, the agency in charge of
implementing the GELOSE component of EP2), or by the fact that the GELOSE was
still in its early implementation stage when they conducted their work.
Kull 336 (2004) proposes less optimistic conclusions despite the empirical facts
he reports are still quite similar. For this author, the GELOSE may transfer
(Kull 2004, 262). It uses a “potentially troubling” new institution, the COBA, which
ignores “the potential for fractious intracommunity politics” (Kull 2004, 257) and can
have difficulty establishing its legitimacy. The consequences of ignoring the dynamics
power relations” (Kull 2004, 262). Kull argues that “for GELOSE to seriously change
336
The work of this author does not concern specifically management transfers and will be presented in
more details in Chapter 12.
533
fire policy and empower communities, the entire suite of fire and forestry laws must
Eventually, studies conducted in other parts of the world also present some
institutions, under tight central-government oversight” (Ribot 2002, 1). In many cases,
“local institutions do not represent and are not accountable to local communities”
(Ribot 2002, 1). Ribot (2002) argues that representation by institutions that are both
representation is dangerous” (Ribot 2002, 2). It “favors the most organized and
powerful groups, … [leading to] elite capture” (Ribot 2002, 1). Establishing
accountable institutions with no power, on the other hand, “is empty” (Ribot 2002, 2).
government” and mediation could play a significant role to achieve better results.
Ribot (2002) concludes that decentralization, in spite of these difficulties, is too young
Other analyses put into question the real principle of negotiating management
rules with arguments that are consistent with my criticism of environmental mediation.
534
The use of participatory methods as control devices for implementing the
community level have also been pointed out by Brosius et al. (1998), Belsky (1999),
optimism or pessimism. Only the future will say whether optimism or pessimism is
justified.
7. Conclusion
the service of what Rahnema (1992) called “manipulative participation,” despite the
fact that they were initially not intended to be so. This manipulative character results
one hand, the institutional framework within which the GELOSE and GCF approaches
were designed is the National Environmental Action Plan, whose main objective is to
stop forest clearing and fires. On the other hand, communities need to clear forests and
congruence between stakeholders’ objectives is the main factor that determines the
success or failure of management transfers. It seems that this congruence does not
exist and we may face, here, the fundamental problem that the GELOSE failed to
address.
methods that already proved their manipulative character, but is embedded in an ideal
535
such as the domination of nonnegotiable objectives defined by the global
environmental agenda. In the relationships between NGOs, state services and local
communities, the three forms of participatory tyranny identified by Cooke and Khotari
(2001) have more effect than this rational communication. The tyranny of decision
making and control is incarnated by the COBA, a new institution which favors
decisions that match with the global environmental agenda. Customary management
process” (Cooke and Kothari 2001, 7). The tyranny of the group is incarnated by an
opportunistic elite of more educated people who has a comparative advantage for
taking control over the COBA. The tyranny of the method, eventually, is the exclusion
from COBA’s leadership of those who cannot manage paperwork and other “modern”
administrative tasks. It is also the fact that all COBA must adopt the same structure,
implement the same RLTS, work with the same mediators, establish the same tripartite
contracts, implement the same mapping and zoning and provide the same monitoring
indicators. In other words, and referring to the concepts introduced in Chapter 9, the
GELOSE may favor the hegemony of global conservation discourses. The ideal of
rational and transparent communication has led to overlooking the issue of power. The
reality the expression of coercive powers. This was not intended but is a result of the
naïve hypotheses of the heritage management approach and of the political context of
tool for more thorough administration of the land. Using devices such as mapping and
Moreover, this lack of success may be a chance for the targeted communities.
536
Creating COBAs can thus be seen as a radical modernization project at work,
but a modernization that concerns the social and organizational sphere rather than the
technical one. The COBA, the DINA, the Mediator and the RLTS are the instruments
and in this sense can be regarded as a manifestation of what James Scott (1998) called
high modernism (Chapter 8). The GELOSE may just be more local, more ephemeral
and more dependant on short-term external financial resources than the more extreme
cases described by Scott (1998). Fortunately, this may provide a chance for its failure
author, management transfers would illustrate one more attempt of the state and
postcolonial power to take control of customary rights and to redesign realities. But
they would fail to do so as coercive approaches have failed before, due to their
ignorance of some key challenges faced by local communities (such as the need to
convert forest land), and to the fact that a complex and efficient system of negotiations
and interactions between the legal and the legitimate has always been in place but
remained ignored.
This more optimistic perspective, which was also apparent in the IRD team’s
outcomes, may be right if we consider the overall picture. Life in the Malagasy
countryside was not significantly changed by the successive forest policies. Farmers
their social organizations during these migrations. I would contend, however, that state
marginal land by the settlement of colonists or migrants, had their social organization
weakened by the creation of new legal powers that brought corruption, had their
537
access to resources restricted by the gazetting of protected areas, had their land taken
by urban people who managed to obtain legal title. Farmers submitted to these
pressures always managed to find a piece of forest to clear in order to resist, but the
weakest social groups were removed to the most marginal land (remote, less fertile,
with steep slopes). If Management Transfers are just a continuation of this logic, it
appears difficult to contest that they will have similar effects. Some social groups,
those whose interest matches better with those of external actors, may be empowered,
but others, those who depend on the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources,
may end in becoming more marginalized. In short, the COBA, like the Kolo Harena
association in Beforona (Chapter 6), may encourage resource capture by the local
elites.
All these critical analyses may be perceived as quite depressing for the many
approach work, to improve the well being of communities, and to preserve the
conservationists (Terborgh 1999; Oates 1999). The intention of this Chapter is clearly
to oppose this movement, as did Brechin et al. (2002), Wilshusen et al. (2002), and
Chapin (2004), by proposing new strategies for successful CBNRM. These new
strategies, and their articulation with other approaches, will be presented in Part V, but
First, I believe that we should abandon our attempts to design virtual perfect
societies and that our role should be limited to provide more information, more
opportunities, more capacities, and more means to all actors that want to engage in
change, without targeting a specific group. This can be achieved through an equal or
538
less unequal access to education, health, market, infrastructures and political power.
The GELOSE in its current form is not consistent with this logic of equal opportunity
due to the high level of skills required for being an active COBA member or leader.
Rather than defining criteria for a perfect COBA composition, we should reduce the
skills required to become COBA leaders. More potential candidates would then be
possible, and communities could choose the candidates according to their own criteria.
The price to pay would be to decrease our expectations in terms of perfect designing,
Second, the fokonolona must be recognized as a legal body with a legal statute,
as it was during the second republic, and its traditional institutions, such as the
fokonolona assemblies, must be granted some legal form of power. This may indeed
be the starting point for implementing genuine community based natural resource
decision. Once fokonolona are legally recognized, they could be granted management
rights like the communes, districts and regions, using article 24 of the forest law
GELOSE, this new type of contract could concern a territory and all its resources. Co-
another category of actor, could also be implemented under article 24. The GELOSE
legislation could still be utilized, but for granting single resource management rights to
associations that would be controlled by the fokonolona. Indeed, the fokonolona could
replace the commune in the tripartite contract, while the commune could play a role in
539
Third, the fundamental lack of congruence between local and global objectives
quite clear that the ban on forest clearing will remain in place. Even the strongest
end to this ban. On the other hand, closing the forest frontier is a luxury that most
Malagasy communities cannot afford. Once we would render these two points explicit,
we could stop being manipulative and we could take distance from our dreams of
character of closing the forest frontier could come into full light and the necessity to
put in place a system of compensation (I will come back on this issue in Chapter 15)
could be recognized. Only by doing so can we put an end to the lack of congruence
management.
Under such a clear combination of control and supports designed to make local
and global interests match together, communities could find their own way to develop.
Access to forest land would be controlled, but land uses and social organizations
would be freed from our design, not submitted to zoning, monitoring, planning,
reporting and else. The communities and their environment could match with each
other and evolve according to changing political, social, economic and physical
contexts. And if we would further provide better education, communities would move
toward a modernity they never rejected, entering into it at a pace dependant on their
540
CHAPTER 12
1. Introduction
I showed in Chapter 2 that the antifire legislation was initially designed to fight
against bush fires and uncontrolled fires and that slash-and-burn cultivation in
Madagascar is regulated, but not forbidden. This land use can be practiced without
practiced on dense ligneous vegetation and was usually tolerated on any type of
that fire repression sometimes went beyond what could reasonably be expected given
these regulations, revealing a demonization of fires (conclusion of Part III) which this
The antifire discourse has been analyzed in detail by Kull (2004). His
outcomes will be presented in this section, for not repeating his work, but a more
personal stance will also be proposed. Section 2 will present Kull’s (2004) vision of
the antifire received wisdom and will confront it to my own outcomes. I will show that
the antifire discourse pervades in all other environmental discourses and explains the
failure of the ASB and GELOSE approaches. Section 3 will present Kull’s
interpretation of the impact of fires on the Malagasy environment, while Section 4 will
present the attitude Kull (2004) recommends to have with regard to anthropogenic
fires. In the conclusion, I will propose a slight departure from Kull’s analysis. This
departure will be analyzed in more detail in Chapter 13, which concerns political
ecology, the academic discipline that Kull (2004) adopted as a research framework.
541
2. The antifire received wisdom according to Kull (2004)
Kull’s central thesis is that fires in Madagascar became a political problem that
rendered them more harmful than they used to be when they were a mere tool for land
management:
Madagascar is not just aflame, it has a fire problem, a century-long conflict
over natural resource use and protection. On the one side, a broad group of
actors and institutions believe that the island sees too much fire, that fires
should be stopped. They blame the fires for a variety of ills, including
deforestation, desertification, rangeland impoverishment, soil degradation
and accelerated erosion. Being powerful – the past colonial rulers, the
Forest Services, the postindependence leaders, the international
environmental agencies – they have used their power, including laws and
propaganda, to enforce their views. On the other side, the Malagasy
farmers and herders rely on fire as a tool of resource management, as a tool
to meet their own livelihood needs, and they are trapped in the antifire
laws. Being resourceful people who know and understand the intricacies of
fire and the weakness of the state, they keep on burning, taking care to be
out of sight, and letting fire do its work for them (Kull 2004, 4)
[Hence] the “fire problem” of Madagascar is not that there are too many
fires (though this is certainly true in certain places and moments); the real
problem is a century-long conflict over appropriate resource use (Kull
2004, 11)
An elite coalition … has criminalized burning through rhetoric and
repression. However, 100 years of antifire repression have only succeeded
in worsening the problem, polarizing the peasantry against the state, and
giving a meaning to fire itself as a tool of resistance. Farmers and herders
resent state interference with a practice they consider crucial for
environmental management and for their livelihoods. They take advantage
of fire’s complex character and of internal inconsistencies within the state
in order to continue burning, leading to today’s stalemate. (Kull 2004, 12)
The historical perspective I presented in Chapter 1, as well as my case study in
Part III, are consistent with these outcomes. Fires have occurred in Madagascar for as
long as people lived there (Chapter 1). We saw, based on the synthesis by Bertrand
and Sourdat (1998), that their negative impacts were over-dramatized, providing
arguments to justify colonial control over the peasantry. The tension between
conservationists’ concerns and farmers’ logic did not stop after independence. A
542
culminating point was the transition period between the second and third phase of
NEAP, in 2002, when the new regime of the Malagasy state, with support from donors
and development and conservation projects, launched the antifire campaign, and when
the Toamasina Province issued an order that forbid the use of fire in agriculture, in
2003 (Chapters 3, 5 and 6). A vicious circle of more repressive policies and stronger
resistance through the ignition of fires may still be at play, with negative impacts on
mulching and composting, where an excessive focus on yield and biomass production
introduced in Chapter 9, we can say that during one hundred years of “commentary”
about fires and their negative impacts, some “disciplines” (soil sciences and
that could challenge their outcomes (anthropology, political ecology). Soil sciences
in Chapter 10) which justified efforts to “educate” farmers and convince them to adopt
“machine” was built which “recruited” more and more people (policy makers, staff
from rural development and conservation projects and donor agencies, and young
Malagasy students trained to adopt this discourse) and increased its “authority”
through the building of a “strong rhetoric.” This machine even managed to spread the
543
of this rhetoric, through a new device: the COBA. The machine almost closed the
“controversy” until a new generation of researchers, coming from the fields of social
Christian Kull (2004), clearly, is an essential contributor to this reopening. But Kull’s
discourse may also suffer from some limitations, as I will now show.
Saying that fires are not demonic does not imply that they are not harmful to
the environment. Once he identified the excesses of the antifire discourse, Kull (2004)
thus had to take a position in the debate. In order to achieve this, he attempted to
separate the myth from the reality, by focusing on a few empirical case studies. He
showed for example, based on the analysis of aerial photographs and sketches drawn
by early travelers, that the area covered by tapia 337 forests in the highland did not
decrease during the last century, to the contrary of received wisdom that consider
West Africa using similar methods (Fairhead and Leach 1996; 1998). It appears clear,
in the light of these works, that environmental degradation during the past century was
assert power over them. In many cases, such degradation did not occur and vegetation
cover even increased (Fairhead and Leach1996; 1998). In spite of these outcomes,
But Kull’s (2004) and Fairhead and Leach’s (1996; 1998) analyses also have a
weakness that exposes them to the criticisms of conservation biologists. They are
337
Uapaca bojeri Baill. (euphorbiaceae), a fire resistant tree.
544
limited to the past century and cannot serve to argue about what happened on a larger
before the period covered by their analysis, over hundreds or thousands of years of
human presence. Kull does not reject this possibility but is sometimes ambiguous
about the position he takes. He makes for example the following assertion:
the antifire received wisdom sees the tapia woodlands as “degraded
remnants” of diverse prehuman forests, reduced by incessant burning to a
fire-tolerant species that coincidentally had economic value to the locals. In
contrast, I have argued … that fire is a key management tool used by rural
Malagasy in the management of these woodlands, specifically for their
livelihood goals tied to artisanal crafts in wild silk, trade in fruit, firewood
supply, and food supplements. (Kull 2004, 144)
It is not clear in this paragraph whether Kull rejects the “degraded remnant”
thesis. It is not clear whether he attributes the term “degradation” to the ecological or
authors that considered tapia forests as “a sign of previously grander forests” (Girod-
Genet 1898, in Kull 2004, 132) in a way that leads the reader to think that he is
challenging this view. Kull, however, never makes this rejection explicitly. In sum, he
presents environmental degradation as a myth but is not clear about where the myth
starts and ends. The same ambiguity is actually apparent in the work of Fairhead and
Leach (1996; 1998). The consequence is that these authors, as Kull, are often utilized
provide empirical evidence in favor of this thesis for the last century only. It is still
periods in the areas studied by Fairhead and Leach (1996; 1998) and by Kull (2004),
even if a relative environmental recovery occurred during the last century. This u-
agronomists (Figure 23 page 473). But if soils and biomass could partly recover in the
process, the same can hardly be said for biodiversity as we saw in Chapter 5.
545
Kull, however, is aware that his data concern only the last century. His
description of the historical transformation that led to the tapia forests is influenced by
would be “degraded remnants”; that they would be “the sign of previous grander
forests,” even if these forests did not cover the whole highlands as earlier botanists
believed. In spite of this, Kull (2004), however, is still reluctant to see tapia woodlands
reality says and what the established representations of the discipline say. Chapter 13
Second, Kull (2004) attributes a significant value to the economic and cultural
dimensions of ecosystems, whereas ecologists who defend the degradation thesis focus
on ecological values. Certainly, cultural, social and economical dimensions all deserve
attention. This entire dissertation is dedicated to showing the abuse and mistakes
toward which we are directed if we fail to consider social issues. But Kull (2004)
conflates together the natural and the cultural dimension of tapia woodlands. For this
546
(considering longer time span than the last century) rather show that they are degraded
ecosystems.
Chapters 13 and 14. But to say just a few words, it is clear, using the vocabulary of
Latour (1993), that tapia woodlands, like most ecosystems, are hybrids of human and
nonhuman objects. But precisely because of this hybrid character, a cultural and a
natural dimension exist in them and have to be distinguished (but not separated). If
not, ontological categories may disappear, the analytical framework may be weakened
and interpretations would lose accuracy and clarity. This lack of clarity concerns for
In this confusion, dialogue between ecologists and social scientists would be rendered
We will see in Chapter 13 that this may have already occurred and that this conflation
that led to the unrealistic and unethical policies and practices I described in Chapter 2
and 6, and to be more open to local answers to the problem. But policy makers at the
547
national level need to be more conclusive concerning the overall impact of fires, in
complexity of local realities. These impacts can concern the environment but also the
economy, the society, the politics. All these realms must be addressed distinctly for
being understood in their unity. Only by doing so can we, eventually, understand what
Madagascar gains and what it loses from wild fires, pasture fires and tavy fires ignited
every year. And only then could wise fire regulations and policies be designed.
5. Conclusion
wisdom and calling for more open-mindedness and flexibility. It shows that the fire
problem is much more complex than what analyses that focus on its biophysical
dimension could let us think, and that simplification favored a politicization of fires
that amplified their destructive effects. Kull (2004) still sees the negative impact of
fires on vegetation and soil as a reality supported by many empirical evidences, but
not as the only reality that matters. He showed that a degraded ecosystem, such as the
tapia woodland, can provide as much, or even more cultural and economical value
than the virgin ecosystem that preceded it. But once he has identified the economical,
cultural and natural dimensions of fires, he has a tendency to conflate them together.
constructed “natures”).
In sum, Kull’s analysis may have slightly fallen into the trap of relativism
(Chapter 9), which may not be the most appropriate answer to the antifire discourse
that positivist science favored. Chapter 13 will show that relativist epistemologies are
indeed quite influential in political ecology, the discipline to which Kull belongs.
548
CONCLUSION
envisions the future as a march to more technological societies. These discourses see
technological innovation. The people, and not only the physical world, have to be
analyzed by Scott (1998). This rational management pretends to solve the trade-off
sustainable development.
This perspective is consistent with the theory of Malthus (1798), which sees
population growth as the consequence, not the cause, of technological innovation. But
it is at odds with the observations reported in Part III, where changes emerge from
inside, rather than being designed from outside. In Beforona, technological innovation
between discourses and realities may explain the failure of rural development projects
(Chapter 6).
development discourses and their translation into practices. This method borrowed
concepts from Foucault (1970) and Latour (1987), in order to analyze the subjective
dimension of the social construction of discourses. It also departed from these authors
by contending that the real world, or the real nature, are accomplices of our
549
In Chapters 10, 11 and 12, I applied this method to three discourses that are
central to the received wisdoms identified in Part III. These three discourses are the
discourse. Doing this exercise, I attempted to separate discursive elements that match
with realities from those that match only with themselves. In Chapter 10, I compared
sense of Latour (1987), but showed that the real world was in the end stronger than
approaches, Foucault’s assertion that knowledge and power are intimately intertwined.
I showed that unequal power distribution impedes consensus from being achieved by
rational and transparent communication, which explains the failure of the GELOSE
approach. In Chapter 12, mostly derived from Kull’s (2004) work, I showed that the
because antifire rhetoric pervades both the ASB rhetoric and the implementation of
management transfers. I also showed, by critically analyzing Kull’s (2004) work, that
anti-theses of dominant discourses are now emerging, but that these anti-theses are
conservation and development discourses embedded in Western culture and by the use
stakeholders. The consequence is the filling of the remaining free interstices in local
550
inefficiency of both conservation and development programs and the disruption of
local practices. This conclusion is consistent with the outcomes of Part II (Chapter 2),
where I showed that the ideal of the Malagasy Environmental Charter, which consists
success.
illusions it created and the emerging alternative discourses. This will be the endeavor
of Part V, which will start by a larger review of political ecology, the discipline within
which these alternative discourses emerged and within which this present dissertation
may be located.
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PART V
SYNTHESIS:
TOWARD NEW DISCOURSES,
EPISTEMOLOGIES AND PRACTICES
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INTRODUCTION
The realities described in Part III and the discourses analyzed in Part IV told us
similar stories.
The parallel is clear between the efforts of the LDI project to develop
concluded Part III by saying that finding new alternatives is not what matters more.
The ASB Consortium made the same conclusion when it shifted toward a new
paradigm paying more attention to the political economy of deforestation. The case of
the VMCRCC project, in Chapter 6, showed that, unfortunately, received wisdoms are
pervasive and powerful and that this shift will not be easily translated into new
practices.
Chapters 5 an 6, and the antifire discourses analyzed in Chapter 12. Fire repression,
vegetation dynamics outside of their social and cultural contexts, hardens livelihoods
and may lead to political protests, which will be counterproductive in the end.
A parallel also exists between Chapter 6 and Chapter 11, which both described
“participatory top down” methods at work. Chapter 6 showed how Kolo Harena
11 showed that COBA associations play a similar role. They are used by projects as a
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more and is achieved by exploiting a succession of resources. When one is depleted,
In sum, the stories presented in Parts II and III revealed a mismatch between
representation and realities, but also between two systems of representations. On one
side, there is the representation of farmers, which is deeply anchored in reality because
if it did not match with it, there would not be sufficient rice to eat. On the other side,
there is the representation of projects, whose main function is not to maintain rice
production (the fate of projects does not depend on it). The consequence is that when
decreases. I verified this in the case of Beforona (Chapter 6) but also in Ikongo and
main cause of this mismatch. This concept provides the illusion that humans and their
Charter (Chapter 2). This opens the way to a schizophrenic world where an illusion of
approaches can continue to replace each other, but they will all fail as long as this
We can wonder why this mismatch persists. The reason may be that project
representations are aimed at matching with themselves rather than with the reality,
because their main function is to justify the future existence of projects. Consulting
funding from donors. As failure is the norm and success the exception, the winner will
be the institution that provides the best rhetoric and the most convincing illusions.
Both the donors and the organizations that receive the aid are satisfied by this state of
554
affairs. Organizations can create illusions that satisfy their donor while donors use
international relations. It even maintains the status-quo. For example, behind the need
to justify the eradication of slash-and-burn systems in Beforona, there is also the need
to decrease carbon release in the atmosphere with minimal political and economic cost
for developed countries. The main function of the ASB concept, in this context, is to
create the illusion that communities can reduce carbon release for their own benefit.
Carbon can even be sequestered (VMCRCC project in Chapter 6) and the profit
models (agroforestry technologies) create the illusion that communities can lose the
usufruct on part of their land without being losers overall. In the same manner, behind
the gazetting of protected areas, there may be the need to secure gene reservoirs for
information technologies have finished playing this role. From this perspective, the
unconfessed function of the GELOSE is to create the illusion that closing the forest
frontier can lead to a win-win situation. But, as international relations and the macro-
economic context are the real cause of the environmental stalemate, not
liberation from the hegemony of dominant discourses. But due to this political
commitment, they may have ended in being biased as well. They created their own
mismatch with realities. In the end, they will not help to impede the hegemony of
555
conservation discourses because they will not be taken seriously by biophysical
scientists, and even, as we will see in Chapter 13, by some social scientists.
To summarize, Parts III and IV showed that discourses are driven by politics
rather than by science. They are a technology of power, which justifies using tools and
concepts of poststructuralism and social constructionism to analyze them. But once the
political driving forces of discourses are delineated, something must remain. Behind
the representation, there is the reality which has to be found, even if, in an apparent
paradox, this can only be done by creating a new representation. This is, indeed, the
main departure that I took from the postmodernist stance. The objective of this fifth
part is to explain more in depth this departure and to show how it can lead us to new
strategies, new practices and new hopes for both the Malagasy ecosystems and the
Malagasy people, and for both our cultural and our natural world.
political ecology (Chapter 13), a discipline whose narratives are similar to the ones I
developed in this dissertation. The work of Kull (2004) belongs to this discipline and I
showed in Chapter 12 that I departed from Kull’s outcomes in certain aspects. This
from the methodology I elaborated for analyzing discourses (Chapter 9). This
It will confirm that I adopted a Popperian perspective, and I will use Poppers’ (1963)
Third, I will propose, in Chapter 15, a series of actions, based on the outcomes
of Parts III and IV and on my epistemological framework. This last chapter will show
that questioning and changing our world are two inseparable processes, the
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consequence being that science and politics need to be unified for achieving a single
endeavor.
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CHAPTER 13
BURN CULTIVATION
1. Introduction
see that the main narratives encountered in this dissertation (the marginalization of
poor farmers, the appropriation of resources by the most competitive groups) are
central in political ecology. Despite arriving at this discipline by accident, I was not
completely foreign to it. Comparative agriculture, whose tools and methods I used in
Part III, can be regarded as a school of political economy, a broader discipline that
Section 2 will present Blaikie and Brookfield’s (1987) book Land Degradation
and Society, a pioneer work in political ecology. It will be seen that this dissertation
parallels this book in many points. This was an unintended convergence, as I read the
book after the first draft of Parts I, II and III had already been written. Section 3 will
review more recent work in political ecology and will present the main narratives
developed by this discipline. It will confirm the affinities between political ecology
and this dissertation. Section 4 will review recent political ecology research conducted
discourses in Chapter 12. It will confirm that political ecology presents some
degradation. Section 5 will show that social constructions biased political ecologists’
558
depoliticize the debate, ecology and political ecology narratives need to be merged
together. It will also show that my criticisms are not isolated and that other scholars
outcomes. It will draw a transition to the two last chapters of this dissertation, where
practices.
2. A parallel with Land Degradation and Society (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987).
Land Degradation and Society, edited by Piers Blaikie and Harold Brookfield
and published in 1987, 338 is a key early text of political ecology, widely cited and
highly influential on later work. The issues addressed by these authors, the methods
they propose and their outcomes are very similar to those of this dissertation. This
section will summarize the outcomes of this book by a series of quotes, in order to
First, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) made a statement about the failure of
conservation policies:
It has been forty years since some of the first seminal works on
environmental degradation were written (for example, Jacks and Whyte
1939; Osborn 1948; Carson 1962; Commoner 1972).… Even now, the
volume of literature and proliferation of national and international
institutions flows unabated. In spite of this, whole United Nations agencies
and a worldwide environmentalist movement have been unable to make
more than a marginal impact upon the prevailing effects of the exploitation
of nature for short-term gain. (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, xvii)
It would be naive to assume that the root of this state of affairs lies in
intellectual failure alone. However, it is argued in this book that much of
the literature on land degradation is beset by a fundamental theoretical
confusion. (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, xvii)
338
Shortly after The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries, by Blaikie (1985),
which has similar content.
559
This statement of failure is similar to the one I made in my general
introduction and the explanation provided by the authors (the fundamental theoretical
Blaikie and Brookfield propose three causes to explain this failure and the
consistent with my attempts to go beyond disciplines. Despite the fact that twenty
years have passed since the publication of Land Degradation and Societies,
at the intersection of disciplines, rather than from their inclusion, and these new areas
may have become as narrow as their mother discipline. The a-disciplinarity ideal I
adopted for this dissertation is an attempt to remedy this. Concerning the second cause
(the diverging opinions among scientists from different disciplines), it reflects the
tension between positivist and relativist epistemologies and could be analyzed in the
which is, again, consistent with the methodological choices I made for this
dissertation.
560
Once they have listed these causes of failure, Blaikie and Brookfield propose
First, they propose to study realities and discourses over a chain of actors that
dedicated to the observation of local actors, analyzed through their practices, while
Second, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) point out the limits that quantitative
arguments are similar to those I used to justify my preference for qualitative methods
(Chapter 4):
Measurement … is not an isolated process. First, somebody has to decide
to do the measurement; set a working hypothesis for the measurement to
test; choose a set of techniques; arrange a sampling programme and people
to do the sampling; analyse the results and use judgement in the
interpretation of these results; and decide how those results should be
presented, and to whom. Then there is the recipient of the measurement
who puts the data into context (or rejects them entirely) and who has to
make value judgements as to the worth and applicability of the
information. Finally, there is the end-user of the measurement; the person
who makes the decisions, who bases a course of action on the results so
presented. All these people have their preconceptions, misconceptions and
ideologies, therefore, measurement is never neutral, never a pure service
for science or policy. To quote Weatherall: “Man, as a scientist, is
inescapably part of any experiment he conducts” (1968: 159). (Blaikie and
Brookfield 1987, 49)
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As an answer to this issue, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) propose the
acceptance of uncertainty and plurality, a stance that is also consistent with the
similar to those listed in the synthesis and conclusion of Chapter 6, such as the over-
traditional farmers:
For a long time it was the fashion to decry the “stupidity” or the
“conservatism” or the “uncaring idleness” of farmers [that resisted land
management changes], or to stress their “ignorance.” (Blaikie and
Brookfield 1987, 34)
An alternative explanation for conservatism of land managers is an
economic one, and rests on the often-observed risk-aversion behaviour of
peasant and other farmers. (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, 35)
Consistent with this, they call for more reflexivity and for a thorough analysis
562
the Universal Soil Loss Equation, the “T” factor and erodibility. (Blaikie
and Brookfield 1987, xix)
Data are not reliable, they are constructed, and considerable attention [has
to be] … devoted to their ideological nature, but this does not detract from
the necessity to improve techniques of measurement. (Blaikie and
Brookfield 1987, 16)
In sum, they introduce key concepts of social constructionism and science and
technology studies and construct a new method on this base. They call their new
the marginalization of the poorest by the state or other dominant groups. This narrative
was an essential outcome of this dissertation, for example in Chapters 1 and 2 (the
between recent migrants supported by projects and first settlers living in remote areas)
and in Chapter 11 (the empowerment of more educated and better off people whose
interests match better with those of external actors). Blaikie and Brookfield explain
563
keep up longer-term investments in soil and water conservation (e.g., repair
of terraces and cleaning of irrigation and drainage ditches). The land then
becomes economically marginal and the result is a decline in capability and
marginality of the agro-ecosystem. (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, 22-23)
This explanation leads them to identify the social dimension of the vicious
processes), another received wisdom is put into question, the beneficial effects of
cannot be avoided:
Already the market is an essential element in the reproduction of
peasantries throughout the developing world, the strains (Bernstein 1979).
Also, despite these strains, most of the world's peasantry would not wish to
withdraw from the market. (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, 244-245)
Eventually, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) propose pathways to remedy land
degradation. First, they put an emphasis on the necessity of investments to break the
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vicious circle of marginalization and land degradation, which is consistent with my
as subsidies in the form of food for work activities, which could divert farmers from
their own strategies and lead them to dead ends. I indeed applied food for work and
advocated for this approach (Chapter 7) but I evoked risks similar to those expressed
mismanagement can explain land degradation. They debate the classic Malthusian and
Boserupian hypotheses:
We adopt an open approach to the relation of population pressure to land
degradation. Degradation can occur under rising PPR, 339 under declining
PPR, and without PPR. We do not accept that population pressure leads
inevitably to land degradation, even though it may almost inevitably lead to
extreme poverty when it occurs in underdeveloped, mainly rural,
countries.… PPR is something that can operate on both sides, contributing
to degradation, and aiding management and repair. (Blaikie and Brookfield
1987, 34)
339
Population pressure on resources.
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In the end, they conclude that land degradation is a complex process which has
argument which I use to justify compensation (Chapter 11, and soon, Chapter 15):
Coercion of the kind which limits or denies access to resources is the most
delicate aspect of intervention, though it has often been handled so crudely
as to be wholly counter-productive, or has failed because of lack of will to
enforce regulations.… Yet coercion may be necessary in cases where
failure to protect remaining resources would lead to rapid overuse and
degradation. There are no instant cornucopias awaiting even the most
egalitarian reforms in such matters. Undue inequalities in access to
resources lead to poaching and expensive protection, and simply diverts
pressure on to resources elsewhere. Draconian measures by the state may
be necessary but seldom work to the advantage of the poorer local people.
(Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, 245-246)
In conclusion, there are many similarities between my work and that of Blaikie
are similar to their introductory statement (the failure of land conservation programs)
and their explanation for this failure (the lack of comprehensiveness and
the nonirreversibility of land degradation, the nonrejection of coercion) are also found
summary of their work. As their research was implemented twenty years ago, one can
wonder what progress has been made from that time. Did I produce a knowledge that
566
just leads us twenty years backward? The analysis of more recent work in political
The books from Blaikie and Brookfield are not the only fundamental texts of
political ecology. This field has its foundations in a wide range of disciplines such as:
processes is not sufficient to address environment issues, because social, cultural and
political forces determine the way humans shape their environment. Taking this
statement as its starting point, political ecology was designed to apprehend the
social systems.
The term political ecology was used for the first time by Eric R. Wolf (1972)
“to signify the study of how power relations mediate human-environment relations”
(Biersack 2006, 3). Neo-marxism and the dependency theory (Frank 1969;
(Biersack 2006). They orientated seminal work such as Nietschmann’s (1973) study of
the subsistence ecology of the Miskito Indians of eastern Nicaragua; Watt’s (1983)
analysis of the relationships between famine and the penetration of market economy in
Nigeria; the Blaikie and Brookfield books (Blaikie 1985; Blaikie and Brookfield
1987); Little and Horowitz’s (1987) edited book Lands at Risk in the Third World:
Local Perspectives; and Schmink and Wood’s (1984; 1992) Political Ecology of
567
Amazonia, which described how indigenous Amazonian production systems were
These case studies focused on the links between unsustainable extraction of natural
resources and relations of production. They all contributed to the development of the
marginalization narrative.
another cause of inequity in access to resources: the unequal distribution of power and
the use of knowledge as a form of power. The influence of postmodernism has been a
determinant of this new stance. The postmodern critique attacked “theories that read
within which Marxism was embedded. Postmodernism also rejected the “dualistic
view that nature existed outside the human realm” (Biersack 1987, 4).
practices of various sorts” (Biersack 2006, 4). The focus is put “upon the reciprocal
impacts of nature and culture, using such terms as second, social, or humanized nature
regulations – a nature, as it were, that is after nature (Escobar 1999)” (Biersack 2006,
4). Their view is consistent with Latour’s (1987) assertion that nature is the
consequence of the settlement of controversies, not the cause (Chapter 9). The writing
of Michel Foucault and Bruno Latour’s early work are highly influential on these
schools. Stott and Sullivan’s (2000) political ecology is one of the most radical forms
568
Others reject the relativist epistemologies which result from postmodernism
and social constructionism. They see the environment “as having an ontological base
and a dynamic role as an agent in its own right” (Zimmerer and Basset 2003b, 3).
Basset 2003b, 3). Rather than on the deconstruction of discourses, the emphasis is put
on the necessity to integrate various temporal and spatial scales as a way to favor
“linkages and fusion of social and environmental analysis (Brunckhorst and Rollings
1999; Fry 2001)” (Zimmerer and Basset 2003, 18). These schools are influenced by a
second period of Latour’s writing, where nature is given agency in order to escape
from the relativist trap of postmodernism, as I will show in Chapter 14. This affiliation
is, however, not always clear. In some writing, political ecologists rather seem to
adopt a form of critical realism similar to the model I proposed in Chapter 9 and
that I belong to a trend influenced by critical realism, rejecting the radical forms of
nature by granting agency to it. I will come back to these issues in Chapter 14.
The existence of these two poles and the ambiguity of the second pole
concerning its epistemological frame show that political ecology is still in a process of
maturation. The main challenge of the discipline may be “to integrate realist
biophysical prediction with social and political construction” (Forsyth 2003, 2). Two
fundamental questions are indeed raised by the confrontation between the two schools:
what is nature and what value can be given to it? I will elaborate more on this issue in
Chapter 14.
discourses are populated by false assertions, or received wisdom, which Kull (2004,
569
An environmental received wisdom is an idea that is held as correct by the
politically powerful establishment, despite potential flaws and weaknesses,
and which shapes the discursive field within which discussions of
environmental change and resource management occur (Leach and Mearn
1996). Received wisdoms have also been termed “dominant narratives”
(Roe 1991) or “Environmental orthodoxies” (Batterbury et al. 1997).…
[They] often persist despite inconclusive evidence (Beinart 1996; Swift
1996, Head 2000), [because] they are persuasive, simple stories (Roe 1991)
that serve the purposes of powerful groups (Bergeret 1993, Leach and
Mearns 1996; Batterbury et al. 1997; Blaikie 1999), and because they are
institutionalized into state bureaucracies (Espeland 1998). They serve to
frame problems such that the answer justifies the actions of the interested
parties (Ferguson 1994; Escobar 1995) and such have become a key
element of neo-liberal development discourse (Basset and Koli Bi 2000).
The concept of received wisdom matches quite well with what I called a strong
statement or a taboo using the language of Foucault (1970), or a strong rhetoric using
the words of Latour (1987) (Chapter 9). Having this concept at its core, political
ecology led the environmental debate far beyond mainstream environmentalism. The
question that remains to ask, now, is until what point the debate must go. Where does
the deconstruction have to stop, what must remain after this deconstruction and who
can decide what will remain. These questions force political ecology to solve the
epistemological problem which determined the divergence of its schools. Chapter 14,
which will push farther the epistemological model proposed in Chapter 9, will attempt
In this section, I will present more at length the key narratives developed by
political ecologists, which were already apparent in the work of Blaikie and
Brookfield (1987). In order to reflect the present state of the discipline, I will utilize a
Robbins (2004) presents four narratives. The first one is the marginalization
thesis, which was central in this dissertation and was already evoked in Section 1. The
570
second narrative is the control thesis, with which the reader of this dissertation is also
familiar but which will be now more precisely formulated. These two narratives are
intimately intertwined and their interactions determine two other narratives: the
environmental conflict thesis and the environmental identity and social movement
thesis.
between poverty and natural resources degradation. It adds a social mechanism: the
weakest social groups are moved toward the margins by the most powerful ones. For
this reason, the primary accumulation that could break the vicious circle, leading to
more intensive systems through a Boserupian dynamic, does not occur. Rather than a
this social dynamic. Classic case studies of the marginalization thesis are, according to
Robbins (2004), the analysis of deforestation in the Amazon by Hecht and Cockburn
(1989) and the study of contract agriculture in the Caribbean by Grossman (1998).
social differentiation and stronger groups dominate weaker ones. It could not be
otherwise. But what matters for political ecologists is the extent to which
marginalization happens, the way this issue is addressed by policy makers and the
environmental and social consequences. These can differ widely from one place to the
other. For example, the majority of farmers lost in the competition for intensification
571
and abandoned their land throughout the history of agrarian systems in Europe. They
moved to cities and provided a labor force for the industrial revolution. For this
reason, social and environmental problems were mostly urban. In Madagascar, cities
are already overwhelmed by poverty and cannot provide sufficient job opportunities.
The farmers’ remaining option is to move to areas where there is less competition, i.e.,
to the forests, where land is perceived as being in free access or where this access is
for environmental degradation. It can be used for the advocacy of human rights, but
the fact that marginalized people can only survive by tapping into natural resources.
When such a situation occurs, states pay attention to the degradation of resources
while the social dynamic of marginalization remains overlooked. The groups who are
the cause of this marginalization are not ostracized whereas those who suffer from
reason, they are targeted by control and repression. This is done by closing the frontier
and by repressing practices that affect the environment, with negative consequences
on their livelihoods. This occurred, for example, to the Tanala people of Ranomafana,
when the national park was created (Chapter 2), and to the people of Ambodilaingo,
when the state put a ban on tavy in 2002 (Chapter 5). In sum:
“Control of resources and landscapes has been wrested from local
producers or producer groups (by class, gender, or ethnicity) through the
implementation of efforts to preserve “sustainability,” “community,” or
“nature.” In the process, officials and global interests seeking to preserve
the “environment” have disabled local systems of livelihood, production,
and socio-political organization.” (Robbins 2004, 149-150)
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Classic works about the control thesis, according to Robbins (2004), are St
The mechanisms to achieve control are more subtle than the simple state
coercion paradigm inherited from the Yellowstone National Park, where militaries
managed the land until a park service was created, in 1916 (Robbins 2004, 150).
“Rather, efforts center on extending the discretionary conservation power of the state
by causing individuals and social groups to “internalize” the coercive missions of the
(2002) showed, in the case of the Philippines, how NGOs who claim to represent
marginal communities extended the power of the state and “served to make certain
state goals, like territorialization of protected areas and control of tribal groups, the
internal goal of local opposition” (Robbins 2004, 150-151). The implementation of the
“forestry field officers, observing and struggling with local practice, soon came into
conflict with ecological experts in distant offices.” Finally, “local and state knowledge
(Sivaramakrishnan 1996; 2000)” (Robbins 2004, 164). This analysis is consistent with
Muttenzer’s (2006) optimism about the social impact of the GELOSE legislation in
Madagascar (Chapter 11). Other authors (Agrawal 1995; Rangan 1997; Dove 2000)
criticized the control thesis for its “normative distrust … of state science and expertise
and its artificial conceptual separation from local knowledge and practice” (Robbins
2004, 164), which improved “neither the equity of environmental management nor its
573
ecological effectiveness” (Robbins 2004, 164). These diverging opinions probably
reflect a variety of contexts, rendering necessary to consider both the control thesis
maker circles (Hartman 2001; Peluso and Watts 2001). For this author,
the depletion and degradation of a resource are a function of the physical
vulnerability of the resource, the size of the resource consuming
population, and the technologies and practices this population uses in its
consumption behavior. (Homer-Dixon 1998, 14)
[They produce] a decrease in total resource supply or, in other words, a
decrease in the size of the total resource “pie.” But population growth and
changes in consumption behavior can also cause greater scarcity by
boosting the demand for a resource.… In many countries, resource
availability is being squeezed by both these supply and demand pressures.”
(Homer-Dixon 1998, 15)
This model is mostly influenced by the Malthusian survivalist discourse
between resource supply and demand, itself due to population increase. A pie whose
size is fixed once for all is cut into smaller and smaller pieces until those who need the
574
resources use military force to appropriate more than their fair share. Homer-Dixon,
however, recognizes that the unequal distribution of resources can also be a cause of
conflict:
Scarcity is often caused by a severe imbalance in the distribution of wealth
and power that results in some groups in a society getting
disproportionately large slices of the resource pie, whereas, other get slices
that are too small to sustain their livelihood. Such unequal distribution – or
what I call structural scarcity – is a key factor of virtually every case of
scarcity contributing to conflict. (Homer-Dixon 1998, 15)
In order to better explain these conflicts, Homer-Dixon develops the concepts
of “ecological marginalization” (1998, 16) and “resource capture” (1998, 15), which
present some similarities with the marginalization thesis and the control thesis of
But this does not divert his model from an excessive focus on biophysical aspects (the
metaphor of the pie size and pie shares) and simple economic mechanisms (the supply
political economy issues. In the end, he claims that the maximization of social and
and social problems” (Homer-Dixon 1998, 109), is the key to solve environmental
changes and more technology is expected to lead to better resource management, and
growth is the dependant variable, to the contrary of the Boserupian model where the
relation is reversed. Ingenuity invokes the idea that something new has to be imagined
575
(Chapter 6). In the end, the political economy of environmental degradation is not
addressed and resources capture and ecological marginalization are seen as the
social ingenuity to account for political economy issues. But he uses this concept only
marginally.
Peluso and Watts (2001), Hartmann (2001) and Fairhead (2001) formulated
strong criticisms of Homer-Dixon’s work and of the “green warfare” discourse which
these concepts] that are interesting to pull apart and explore” (Fairhead 2001, 219). 340
scarcity end in being regarded as synonyms, whereas the reality is different and more
al. (1994) and Lindblade et al. (1998, in Fairhead 2001, 218). Environmental
recovery, a concept already evoked in this dissertation and which challenges simplistic
Malthusian analysis (see the Boserupian hypothesis in Chapter 5), illustrates cases
where resource scarcity leads to improving the state of the environment. A second
issues (as I already mentioned above) and strengthens the received wisdom that land
340
Fairhead (2001) points out that even those who developed the green warfare discourse (for example,
Benner 1991) recognize the importance of nonenvironmental factors such as “competition for resources,
… government partiality in resource allocation, … differential political voices, and availability of arms”
(Fairhead 2001, 217), to explain conflicts over resources.
576
Deploying environmental arguments, whether fortuitously or strategically,
can play to the advantage of certain protagonists in … conflicts on the
international stage because it deflects analysis away from international
commercial concerns and national politics toward those who are
environmentally marginalized. Environmental arguments can thus be
wielded as political weapons on behalf on one side or another. (Fairhead
2002, 235)
In short, “ “greenwar” and “environmental scarcity” approaches have a
tendency to confuse, not clarify, the origins of conflicts. [They] put conservation on
the peace agenda and on an equal footing with allocation issues” (Fairhead 2001, 220).
Environmental mitigation becomes a central issue for national security, while the
deeper causes of conflicts are overlooked and depoliticized. This may explain why
Homer-Dixon’s thesis has been so influential in policy maker circles in the United
States.
political ecology of environmental conflicts, such as the one elaborated by Peluso and
and social relations yet connected to larger processes of material transformation and
power relations” (Peluso and Watts 2001, 5). In this new frame, scarcity is no longer
the core concept. Conflicts would be “less generated by resource poverty and
bankruptcy than by resource value and wealth” (Fairhead 2001, 214). What matters is
possess or gain access to resources within a structured political economy” (Peluso and
Watts 2001, 5). It is then necessary “to understand the changing contexts of nature
transformation, who performs the labor, who bears the burdens, and how its benefits
are claimed, distributed, and contested” (Peluso and Watts 2001, 5). All forms of
power described by Foucault (1975), whose purpose is “to regulate, normalize, and
577
discipline – to forge docile bodies and subjects” (Peluso and Watts 2001, 6) are
political economy. First are “the social relations of production,” which comprehend
“the patterns and regimes of accumulation,” “the forms of access to and control over
resources,” and “the actors (firms, workers, peasant, state operatives)” (Peluso and
Watts 2001, 29). Second are “the social fields of power,” which can encompass “both
physical and symbolic, organized and disorganized, state sponsored and “civil,” and
highly mixed forms of violence” (Peluso and Watts 2001, 29). The articulation of this
model with the marginalization and the control theses is clear. We recognize also
accumulation. They clear forest land, dig canals, terrace bottom lands and search for
favorable spots to plant banana trees, with the fear that more competitive groups will
achieve this accumulation faster and take their land, for example if a road is built. The
violence is also symbolic. It takes the form of messages broadcast on radios for
discouraging farmers from the practice of tavy and for informing them of the arrests of
those who violated the ban on this land use. This symbolic violence is a violence on
their body as the abandonment of their tavy will reduce their caloric intake and have
The case of Madagascar further showed that environmental violence may enter
in a new phase. An unprecedented event may have occurred recently that is changing
the global situation with regard to access to natural resources: the closing of the
have always existed, for as long as humans have occupied the earth. But in the past,
578
the weakest groups always had the possibility to move to the forest frontier, where
they found resources in “free access” that could sustain their livelihood. This is no
conservation policies has closed access to these last available resources. The pieces of
the pie are not smaller, but they have all been taken.
control favor the emergence of an “ecological ethnicity” (Robbins 2004, 190), which
gathers people for resistance. According to Robbins (2001), important research that
illustrates this thesis are the study of agricultural modernization in the Andean
highlands by Bebbington (1993; 1996), the analysis of the social consequences of the
green revolution in India by Shiva (1991), the study of the Chipko movements in India
by Guha (1990) and its criticism by Rangan (2000), the study of wetland agriculture in
Robbins (1998).
Some political ecology work dealing with Madagascar has already been cited
in this dissertation. Lucy Jarosz (1993), cited in Chapter 1, belongs to that field, as
well as Kull (2004), whose work provided the base of Chapter 12 about fire
discourses. The works of Ghimire (1994), Hanson (1996), Peters (1998; 1999) and
579
Harper (2002), cited in Chapter 2, also present some affinities with political ecology.
In this section, I will review the recent works of Simsik (2002) and Klein (2004),
which explicitly affiliate to this discipline and illustrate a new trend of environmental
Ambohitantely reserve, which protects one the last forest patches in the Malagasy
(mostly the work of Bryant and Bailey 1997) and science and technology studies
(Latour 1993; 1999). His outcomes are similar to those of this dissertation: tensions
between local and external actors, the unequal distribution and forms of power, and
the influence of conventional wisdoms are the main causes of conservation failure:
Local actors are frustrated by state sponsored conservation programs that
unfairly and simultaneously victimize them, while criminalizing their
traditional livelihood activities. These local actors are blamed for
deforestation and then penalized by having their traditional lands taken
away from them. These lands are given “protected area” status by the state
yet made accessible to exploitation by powerful interests with the
collaboration of state and IENGO resource managers. As one villager
explained, “We work hard to collaborate with the park service on the
protection of this reserve, yet we notice illegal cutting in the reserve, and
the park officials turn a blind eye to it and instead, (state officials) end up
turning a more critical eye on us (the local community.”(Simsik 2002,
237)
Igniting fire is then viewed as the only way to resist, an argument also
341
This forest is one of the last forest patches of the highland forest. It is located close to Ankazobe,
northwest from Antananarivo. See Langrand (2003), and Ratsirarson et al. (2003) for more details about
this reserve.
580
colonialists before them) as the precursor to loss of natural resource access.
Thus “local people cut and burned the forest to show land occupation, and
as a consequence, appropriation” (Rakotondravony and Goodman 1998,
99). (Simsik 2002, 238)
Simsik identified a series of conventional wisdoms that would explain these
unsuccessful policies. They are quite similar to those identified in the end of Part III,
in the case of Beforona. They are, for example, the stigmatization of tavy, the vicious
circle between land degradation and poverty, the supposed ignorance of farmers, the
belief that humans act against nature, and the belief that decentralization, privatization
and individual land entitling would encourage better stewardship. Simsik (2002),
10 and 11. My objection to the work of Simsik (2002) are indeed similar to those I
formulated with regard to the work of Kull (2004) in Chapter 12, and I apologize for
this redundancy. I agree with Simsik (2002) that the history of the Malagasy
environment has been over-dramaticized, that Malagasy farmers have been blamed for
behaviors that are legitimate and that deforestation has to be addressed in a wider
political economy frame. But I contend that the “perpetual conflict against biodiversity
conservation” that Simsik (2002) seems to challenge is a reality and that this fact is
342
Reference not found. Not in bibliography.
581
even trivial. Malagasy customs clearly show a respect for the forests that shelter
biodiversity. This is expressed by the rituals conducted by traditional chiefs when new
tracts of forest are cleared: forgiveness is asked for from the spirits of the ancestors
and from the animals and plants that live in the forest, before the vegetation is cleared.
But the conflict exists, however, in terms of contradictory interests. The fact that
communities ask for forgiveness from the forest is even a revelator of this conflict.
about deforestation. Like Simsik, he argues that the deforestation rate has been
the consequences of deforestation,” with its “red soils and erosion gullies” (Klein
2002, 191), and that the country would have been “totally forested by the time of
human arrival” (Klein 2002, 191). He contends that these exaggerations serve to
expertise and Western ideas about the conservation of nature” (Klein 2002, 191). He
also evokes “informational indolence” (Klein 2002, 196) to explain the slow transfer
of new scientific outcomes and concepts which could debunk these received wisdoms.
deconstructs a narrative that is still present in decision making arenas, but which is no
longer accepted by conservation biologists. The myth of an original forest cover has
now been abandoned in the light of the latest archeology and palynology results
(Burney 1987a; Burney 1997; Burney 2003; Wright and Rakotoarisoa 2003). These
works show that the Malagasy highlands used to be a mosaic of dense forests,
woodlands, savannahs and grasslands maintained in this state by a natural fire regime
343
Klein (2002) provides the following examples from the aid literature: the part of the land that would
have been deforested would be 80% according to USAID (1998), 60-85% according to the World
Conservation Monitoring Center (1994), 70-75% according to Jenkins (1987) and IUCN and 80%
according to the Madagascar Environmental Action Plan (World Bank 1988).
582
and by the presence of large herbivores. The figure of an 80% deforestation rate was
ecosystems, which puts an end to the myth of a completely forested island but does
not refute the fact that the environmental impact of this conversion was huge. The “red
soils and erosion gullies” that Klein (2002) refers to may be the consequence of this
Klein further minimizes the importance of changes with arguments that lack
rigor and may reveal a political bias in his discourse. He argues that as the groups of
animals found in Madagascar differ largely from those found on the mainland, the
same could occur for plant groups and one should not see as abnormal the low species
animals, it is the absence of certain taxonomic groups that is pointed out, whereas in
the case of plants, it is the absence of certain ecotypes. Herbaceous species can belong
to a wide range of plant families and the fact that this ecotype dominates the landscape
Klein further argues that the increase of grass pollen and charcoal sediments
observed by Burney (1987a; 1987b) in the highland, in the seventh and eighth century,
could not be explained by human presence, because no archeological traces are found
before the twelfth century. This argument is also quite disputable, as a 500 year
(2003, 116) “if the burning was the work of transhumant foragers and herders, such
sites would be ephemeral, and their discovery will require an intensive and inspired
search.” We saw in Chapter 1 that archeology and the study of charcoal sediments and
pollens show, indeed, a clear correlation between human settlements, the frequency of
583
In short, Klein’s (2002) discourse does not stand up to the facts and may be as
socially constructed as the received wisdoms he challenges. Klein argues that social
constructionism must be applied to his own outcomes but contends that his counter-
narrative” (Klein 2002, 198). He may be right if the traditional narrative he refers to
was the one developed by Perrier de la Bathie (1921; 1936) and Humbert (1927;
1949). But this narrative has been already debunked in a more rigorous manner by
Burney (1987a; 1987b; 1988; 1996; 1997a; 1997b; 1999; 2003). It may now be the
wrong target if we are to improve our knowledge about the interaction between
our knowledge but is not the only accomplice. The two principles that shape
knowledge (the “natural” asymptote, or match with the real, and the “cultural”
asymptotes, or match with the self) must be identified. Their area of influence must be
delineated and their effects must be distinguished if we are to produce more accurate
wisdoms some positive knowledge upon which they were built. This symmetrical
deconstruction may help to produce, ultimately, a more inclusive and less politicized
theory. Objective knowledge from both sides will be brought back to the surface while
Mainstream ecology could then be rearticulated within a larger theory that would also
584
For not going beyond the scope of the subject of this dissertation, I will limit
complements it, in the sense that these theories are not exclusive and that equilibrium
than those that are impeded by frequent disturbance regimes, such as those
585
5.1.1. The complementary character of equilibrium and nonequilibrium ecologies
new and still remains open. The "Autogenic model" of Clements (1916) was the first
“believed that the community was literally a “superorganism,” that species were its
organs and succession its ontogeny.… He argued that each species had an essential
role to play in preparing the way for the next seral stage in the succession toward the
equilibrium or “climax” plant community” (Hubbell 2001, 21). Clement (1916) was
according to which random assemblages made in the early stages are more
determinant of the succession than affinities between species. It is true that Gleason’s
(1926) model was paid significant attention only in the 1950s, but the confrontation
between these two perspectives has remained a central issue in ecology since that
time. The models have been criticized and refined by many authors (Tansley 1935;
Whittaker 1951, 1956, 1965, 1975; Egler 1954; Odum 1969; Horn 1974; Connel and
Slatyer 1977; Shugart 1984). Presently, there is a relative consensus to say that they
each focus on one side of a continuum of situations and have to be unified into a single
theory that would render account of all these situations. The works of Hubbell (2001)
and Chase and Leibold (2003) are recent attempts for this unification, despite the fact
that they still emphasize one or the other side of the continuum.
confirms that the two approaches do not exclude each other. Hubbell’s neutral theory
biogeography theory. These authors argued that the number of species present on an
island is dependant on the size of the island (which determines an extinction rate) and
586
of the distance between the island and the continent (which determines an immigration
theory where all individuals in a given community would have equal probability to
give birth, to die, to migrate and to speciate. When an individual would die, it would
create a gap that would be colonized by another individual. All potential colonizers
would have the same chance to fill the gap, leading to stochastic changes in the
equilibrium. Hubbell calls the plant community modification that results from this
mechanism “ecological drift.” He does not deny the effect of biotic interactions
MacArthur (1970), one of the authors of the island biogeography theory, was
also a pioneer of the niche theory, which is the base of determinist equilibrium models
that Hubbell challenges. Some authors (Schoener 1989; Loreau and Mouquet 1999)
consider this a paradox. But the niche theory, according to which affinities between
species contribute to determine assemblages, does not, indeed, lead to refute the island
biogeography model. Among the species that migrate on an island, some may succeed
to establish because they would find appropriate niches. Others, to the contrary, may
fail because they would not fit with the available niches. The term of the mathematical
migration rate and successful establishment rate. If the second term were constant, no
587
trace would remain of the species that failed to establish. In the same manner, the
extinction rate can be influenced by the strength of the ties between species in island
communities. Some links can be stronger than others but at the scale of the island, the
strength of the average link can be a constant, rendering the niche effect invisible.
Rather than contradicting it, the niche theory may even improve the island
biogeography model. It explains for example why less specialized species, such as
(which explain equilibrium states) and random assemblage theories (which explain
nonequilibrium states) did not occur. For Chase and Leibold (2003, 180)
ecologists are increasingly becoming specialists, not only within the
subdisciplines of evolutionary, population, community, and ecosystems
ecology, but also on the tools they use and the type of systems they study.
A synthetic framework is critically needed to hold all this together.
Chase and Leibold (2003) note that population genetics already unified genetic
drift and natural selection into a single theory. They contend that ecological drift and
the niche theory are the reflection of these population genetic concepts in the field of
As Latour (1987) showed (Chapter 9), science works by the building of “machines”
networks often compete, strengthening a discipline or doctrine against the others can
channel more support. The ego of researchers can also play an essential role. No one
588
control over knowledge, and hence authority. Researchers prefer to choose the
dimension of the object they can comprehend, one that makes them feel secure given
their knowledge, skills and background. Once this choice has been made, they hide the
their discipline and of the resulting outcomes. Moreover, the choice for a certain
discipline or doctrine can be subjective. Researchers prefer to adopt the theory that
matches better with their personal political engagement. As political ecologists are
conservation, it is logical that they adopt the less determinist conception of how
ecosystems function.
The lesson that can be derived from these insights is that the first step for doing
apolitical science would be to stop the battles between schools of thinking and work
and check, in a given reality, which of these theories has the highest explanatory
value.
Chapter 8, change is the most basic concept that can be used to describe system
dynamics. It can occur in any direction. Development, to the contrary, implies the
properties in the initial stage, the seed bank content, and the seed rain are elements of
589
this program. In sum, nonequilibrium models may have more explanatory value with
respect to the fluctuations of mature ecosystems while equilibrium models may still
have significant explanatory value for describing the early stages of vegetation
development, although stochastic events also matter. For this reason, an excessive
whether this mature stage is stable or not. For anyone who empirically observed the
there is no doubt that they represent something qualitatively different from a mature
forest and that biodiversity and biomass are significantly lower. For this reason, the
Disturbance is not “good” or “bad,” even for ecologists. What matters is the
undisturbed and disturbed vegetation has a very high biodiversity because different
under very low population density, hunting and gathering of forest products, or pasture
590
fires limited in extension and frequency, could increase biodiversity. The calculation
several centuries is necessary to lead tropical rain forests from juvenile to mature
stages (Hallé et al. 1978), whereas disturbances occur every few years in most
(2001) neutral theory that the future assemblages of species, in the Malagasy
in adjacent communities. But among the species that will be drawn, some may
establish and some may not. The rate of success in this establishment is positively
disturbance frequency and more uniformity, which reduces the diversity of available
niches. This explains why they have less biodiversity. These facts, which are trivial for
are what has to remain if we are not to fall into the relativist trap and the revisionist
The criticisms I formulated about political ecology are not isolated. They
illustrate a recent trend in the literature that has already been applied to the case of
344
Except in case of low frequency disturbance regimes.
591
Madagascar. Kaufmann (2006), following the arguments of Harper (2002) illustrates
work. This discipline mostly deals with humans but has a branch specialized in the
study of lemurs in the Beza Mahafaly special reserve in southwest Madagascar, and
herders” (Kaufmann 2006, 180). Kaufmann (2006, 180) considers his experience as
positioning Malagasy people first; and local people, who face enormous economic
hardships, putting their children first.” As shown by Harper (2002) in the case of
(1996) that 10% of the initial primary vegetation cover remains on the island. He
agrees that this figure led to excessively view humans as the enemies of nature (the
Cartesian view that nature would have to be protected from culture) and to unwisely
harden environmental policies. But he also criticizes the answer to this mainstream
In Madagascar for example, Allain (1997) and Bertrand and Lemalade (2003b, 135)
distinguish “clearing tavy” 345 and “cultivating tavy,” 346 which implicitly suggests that
345
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “tavy défricheur”.
346
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “tavy cultivateur”.
592
some tavy farmers do not clear the forest. These authors, however, are very explicit
about the fact that “cultivating tavy” also leads to forest clearing, although at a slower
pace. They argue that in the areas they investigated, cultivating tavy is “an agrarian
system in equilibrium with the natural environment (less than 30%” of the land cleared
in one century).” 347 It is true that the situation can be regarded as at equilibrium, in the
sense that the pressure on the land is constant and deforestation proportional to
population increase. But this type of equilibrium leads inexorably to clearing all forest
statement, by conflating together two types of equilibrium (at an agrarian system level
and at an ecosystem level) opens the way to revisionist interpretation of human impact
statement further shows that the revisionist attitude is rather a political act which can
hardly be sustained by the facts. For this reason, it is rarely made explicitly. It just
Its influence is, however, already significant. Babin (2004, xxxv), for example, by
asserting that “the global trend seems 348 to be toward the shrinking and degradation of
tropical forests,” expresses a doubt which may have a strong impact upon those who
do not directly experience tropical deforestation. Babin’s (2004) edited book reveals,
works of Klein (2002) and Simsik (2002). The concepts of primary ecosystems,
equivalent, or close to equivalent, and the distinction between nature and culture, and
between economic value and ecological functions, is blurred. The same tendency can
347
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “C’est un système agraire en équilibre avec le milieu
naturel (moins de 30% du terroir défriché en un siècle).”
348
Highlighted by Pollini.
593
overlooks the fact that concerns about deforestation are more provoked by the risk of
huge and irreversible biodiversity loss that can result from it than by the reversible
destruction of forest cover. The laudable intention of Babin (2004) and Horta (2000) is
to put an end to the hegemony of conservation discourses and practices that are
even in this endeavor, if they cast doubt on or are ambiguous about realities strongly
supported by empirical facts, such as the fast pace of primary ecosystem clearing and
In contrast to these positions, Kaufmann refers to Kottak and Costa (1993) and
Bloch (1995) to show that “culture may as easily abuse nature as not” (Kaufmann
good stewards of the land” (Kaufmann 2006, 187). He defends eventually a “middle
ground position” where “culture and nature are best understood as a synergism and not
as a dichotomy (Whitehead 1998), [and] … are not discrete terms but interactive ones,
(Scoones 1999)” (Kaufmann 2006, 188). This middle ground position would “avoid
the tendency to treat Malagasy people living in local environments as either external to
(Kaufmann 2006, 188). This methodological shift would lead to “listen[ing] to all
sides.” and would “introduce us to Malagasy voices who accept their responsibility in
degrading their environments but who lack the means to do otherwise (Feeley-Harnik
1995; Bloch 1995; Walsh 2005)” (Kaufmann 2006, 189). This perspective rather
matches with the one defended in this dissertation, whereas the preference for
594
6. Conclusion
number of received wisdoms that are still dominant in political circles and in the aid
system. It demonstrated that farmers and herders are not to blame for environmental
degradation; that blaming them diverts from addressing political economy issues that
may explain the fast pace of deforestation during the last decades; and that the
development and conservation impacts. For all these points, the outcomes of political
But beyond these outcomes, the discipline may still need to mature concerning
the way it addresses ecological realities. There may be three narratives of the
Malagasy environment challenging each other now. First is the myth of the green
forested paradise, which is unfortunately still used to justify political decisions but is
and archeology. The original Malagasy environment, before human settlement, would
fires and the conversion of forest to agricultural land would have transformed it into
in areas not yet permanently occupied by humans. Third is a nascent myth of equal-
landscapes where human actions are seen as just one factor among others causing
environmental changes that should not be a cause of great concern. At present, some
political ecologists adopt a quite schizophrenic position between the second and third
narrative. Empirical facts tend to attract them to the second narrative but political
debates may bias them toward the third. Following the arguments of Kauffman (2006)
and Muttenzer (2006), I qualify the third narrative of revisionist and contend that
595
future research concerned with the fate of Malagasy societies and their environments
This tendency was not apparent in Blaikie and Brookfield’s (1987) early work
Land Degradation and Society. This is why I attached much importance to the
presentation of this book in the beginning of this chapter. But political ecology later
created its own domains of exclusion, like all disciplines do. Now that the myth of the
first narrative and the received wisdoms derived from it have been broken, it may be
deforestation, such as market booms and resource capture. But the fact that farmers
actually clear primary forests, at least at the pace of demographic growth, and that
denied.
A new landscape, less natural and more cultural, may emerge, leading to the recovery
invasive trees of the genera Ziziphus, Acacia, Grevillea, Eucalyptus, and Pinus tend to
partially replace the forests that have been cleared. In short, an environmental
recovery may occur in the future. But this recovery has some limits. In these new
landscapes that human societies will reconstruct, the original biodiversity may be lost
forever unless it is conserved in some places. For this reason, protected areas are
essential.
Eventually, the biophysical environment is not the only aspect that will have to
be balanced for designing future policies. For this reason, ecologists, in their turn,
596
have to open themselves and make a genuine move toward the social sciences. The
transformation of landscapes produces some economic and cultural values that have to
be put in balance with biophysical degradation, which raises the issue of nature’s and
balance them in the most appropriate way, for our future and for the future of the
597
CHAPTER 14
1. Introduction
ecology. It showed that the key narratives I developed (the marginalization of poor
farmers and the appropriation of their land and resources by more powerful groups)
narratives more precisely and to show that the dynamics I analyzed are far from being
specific to Madagascar.
framework that will help to adopt a more inclusive stance and to go beyond opposed
social constructions.
9. It will give special attention to Latour (1993) (Section 2.1), who influenced my
methodology and is seen in the filigree of much political ecology work. But it will
confirm the departure I took from Latour’s epistemology, showing the dead-end
toward which it can lead. Actor-network theory, a method of inquiry elaborated with
much input from Latour, will illustrate this dead-end (Section 2.2). Popper (1963) is
another author to whom I will pay much attention. The model I proposed in Chapter 9
may be indeed quite close to his epistemology. Popper will allow me to refine this
model and to give a more formal explanation of the mismatch between representation
and realities (Section 2.3 and 2.4). Section 2.5 will introduce the work of Feyerabend
598
(1975; 1994; 2003), whose anarchist theory of science compensates for the limitation
that an exclusively Popperian method could lead to. Eventually, Morin’s (1990)
concerning the value of nature and culture and the articulation of these two ontological
categories. In the conclusion (Section 4), I will summarize these outcomes and apply
them to the subject of this dissertation. It will reframe the questions I treated in Part III
and Part IV, as well as the discourses associated with them, in a table structured
according to the key concepts of Popper’s epistemology. This table will be the last
step before Chapter 15, aimed at proposing new practices for solving the issue of
deforestation in Madagascar.
Latour’s work was highly influential in the social sciences, including political
ecology. I used his concepts and tools in my analysis of discourses but showed that a
radical interpretation of his early epistemology can lead to a cultural relativism which
creates an ontological vacuum. Latour (2006) himself noticed the danger that resulted
his more recent work, where he departs from social constructionism and proposes a
In We Have Never Been Modern, Latour (1993) shows that we live surrounded
by hybrid objects that associate elements of the social and the physical world, that
enmesh nature and culture. Our civilization would create an increasing number of such
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hybrids but would at the same time separate nature from culture in the representations
it produces. It would proceed by creating “two entirely distinct ontological zones: that
of human beings on the one hand; that of nonhuman on the other” (Latour 1993, 10-
11). In the first zone, there would be “a parliament of mutes, the laboratory, where
scientists, mere intermediary, spoke all by themselves in the name of things” (Latour
1993, 142). In the second zone, there would be “naked citizens, unable to speak all at
once, arranged to have themselves represented by one of their number, the sovereign,
the other hand, would have avoided the proliferation of hybrids by integrating the
Latour (1993) then questions the reasons for the separation of these two rooms.
His answer is that separation offers several guarantees. First, as the scientific room
“allows mute objects to speak through the intermediary of loyal and disciplined
scientific spokespersons” (Latour 1993, 30), it let us think that humans do not make
nature, that “nature always existed and was always already there” (Latour 1993, 30).
We would just be “discovering its secrets” (Latour 1993, 30). The second guarantee is
that the political room gives a voice to all citizens, whose words are computerized and
translated into the decisions of the “sovereign.” In consequence, we have the illusion
that “human beings, and only human beings, are the ones who construct society and
Latour (1993) then explains that this double separation did not work in practice
and that hybrid human/nonhuman objects proliferated. A third guarantee then had to
be provided to maintain this constitution: blocking the relationships between the two
rooms. With this blocking, the hybrid objects or quasi-objects would be banished.
They would continue to exist and proliferate but their hybrid aspect or “hybridity”
would not be considered by the two rooms, which would instead “purify” them,
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extracting either their social or their natural content to render them more legible. As a
consequence of this purification, the scientific room can pretend to have more
legitimacy to speak for “natural” objects, to know their transcendence and to impose
modes of ruling based on these supposed truths. Latour (1999) compares this
mechanism with the role played by Plato’s philosopher, who travels from the world of
ideas to the cavern of ignorance in order to design perfect ruling and offer happiness to
citizens. He rejects this model and contends that as our world is made of hybrid
objects, it is necessary to break the separation between the scientific room (the
laboratory), which focuses on natural objects, and the political room (the sovereign),
representations and realities, which is the central hypothesis of this dissertation. Real
objects (for example a landscape) are hybrids, but the representations produced about
these objects are either social (a political system) or natural (an ecosystem), leading to
inefficient action. Latour’s (1987) toolkit was useful in this dissertation because it
Latour’s (1993) answer to the separation of the two rooms is to create a new
constitution that would associate human and nonhuman objects in the same collective.
the nonhuman and the discursive dimensions of our world. It would give a
representation to the hybrid or quasi objects that were banished. In this manner, nature
represented in the parliament, together with humans. These nonhuman objects would
be “actants” of the social process. The third guarantee of the ancient constitution (the
purification) would be cancelled and nature and society would not be separated
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anymore. A mediation would be necessary to link the natural and the social. This
mediation would be “the very center of the double power, natural and social” (Latour
1993, 139).
This move would, however, not imply returning to a premodern state. For
Latour (1993), we need to “keep the moderns’ major innovation: the separability of a
nature that no one has constructed – transcendence – and the freedom of manoeuvre of
a society that is of our own making – immanence” (Latour 1993, 140). In this way,
Latour (1993) pretends to escape from the relativist trap. As he puts it, we can still
(Chapter 9) but were unofficial. These networks are given a power of agency that the
production of knowledge emerges from this agency. But the new parliament will not
need to be physically created. It will just result from the fact that what we always did
will be brought back to the surface, into the light, visible (Latour 1993).
We have arrived here at a point where I take a different stance from that of
Latour (1993), as I did already in Chapter 9. I prefer to contend that what needs to be
clarified is the role of the two rooms in the networks. One must be dedicated to the
production of knowledge, and we can call it the scientific room, while the other one
must be dedicated to the taking of decision, and we can call it the political room.
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Latour (1993) suggests this idea when he says that scientists speak in the name of
nature in the parliament of things, but he remains unclear about the type of
relationships that would link scientists to other humans in the parliament. I agree with
Latour that the purification process is a paramount problem but think that in spite of
this, both the natural and the social dimensions of objects are addressed by the two
rooms even in the present situation. Both the “laboratory” and the “sovereign” address
the social and the natural dimensions of our world and both are engaged in
purification. The challenge, then, rather than bringing the networks back to the
surface, would be to clarify the roles of the “laboratory” and the “sovereign” and to
transform the cognitive modes they utilize, for a better articulation of the social and
the natural on one hand, and of the production of knowledge and decision making on
the other hand. Popper’s epistemology, in Sections 2.3 and 2.4, will help to design a
to the mediator, further raises several insolvable questions: who is going to be the
else? How can the mediator lead to the transcendence of nature, to objectivity?
Nonhumans have a form of agency but this agency is not of the same kind as in the
case of humans. Nonliving objects do not make choices whereas humans and other
forms of organisms do make choices, which are the expression of their intentions.
Because humans make choices, they can defend particular interests instead of
collective interests, and they can make mistakes. The physical world, on the other
hand, does not make choices, nor mistakes. It just follows its laws. The consequence is
that nature can “speak” objectively by itself while humans remain subjective. As
choices, in the end, are always made by humans, the objectivity of nature is always
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group of humans, the scientists, committed to read the signs of nature and speak for it
without having to compromise. Latour (1993) is not clear about whether independence
It is true that scientists, being humans, will still make choices and mistakes, but
they will make fewer mistakes if they are well prepared and genuinely committed to
what is expected from them. The problem, today, may be that these humans (the
scientists) use inappropriate methods, confuse their role with that of politicians, 349 are
asked to compromise, which is a totally nonscientific act.350 Hence they fail to speak
about the real “nature” of things. The purification, which I recognize as being an
essential problem, would be the consequence of these wrong cognitive methods and of
this corruption.
of these practices? What are these practices? The work of the collective? Of the
Chapter 9, the consequence of social practices are representations. The real world, or
nature, is one of the causes of representations because it can influence social practices
(I symbolized this by the right magnet in Figure 15, page 435). It is true that
representations can, in turn, change the real world, because the physical actions of
humans are motivated by their representations. But this is a second step. The
349
They can play the two roles but must distinguish them (which does not mean to separate them).
350
When a scientist changes his mind, this is not the result of a compromise. He changes his mind only
because new facts changed his representation. Other-wise, he would be engaging in politics.
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representations themselves do not directly modify the world out there. If they did, the
world could not be one, mistakes would not exist and knowledge would have no
meaning.
and scientific facts should always remain disputable. Nonhuman objects are involved
why they cannot have their own agency or, if we call agency the fact that nonhumans
interact with the world, it is a different sort of agency from that of humans. It is the
representations. The nonhuman “agency” is totally objective and does not permit
mistakes, because the physical world does not make choices. It is hence a neutral form
nonhuman agency, in the concept of mediator. Nonhumans can only “speak” through
the voices of humans who subjectively produce representations by observing them 351 .
representation of nature can be), mediation or other social practices cannot define the
transcendence of nature. Assuming that they could may just lead to the same radical
forms of cultural relativism as social constructionism did before. Several truth could
be established about the same reality, a process which I called cultural positivism in
Chapter 9.
(Chapter 5) are absent of the networks that decide their fate in the working groups of
351
Agency may, however, be shared with other conscious organisms, such as apes.
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EP3 (Chapter 8). They resist this by igniting fires that enter into the networks. But
controversies about who they are, how they think and how they behave are closed in
their absence, the outcomes of these closures being received wisdom. In this
dissertation, I used Latour’s (1987) concepts to debunk received wisdoms that result
from political, social and cultural biases introduced by these networks. Latour’s
parliament of things, by considering that the truth results from the settlement of
representations.
Taking a different stance from Latour (1993), I contended that the mistake of
the moderns was rather in their cognitive modes. More precisely, I think that this
mistake was to pretend that certainty was attainable, which gave excessive power to
became isolated from democratic control and produced hegemonic doctrines. This was
the case of Marxism and Liberalism and certain forms of environmentalisms may be
the next hegemony to come. The case of the anti-tavy campaign of 2002 (Chapters 5
and 6) showed that this new hegemony is already present in Madagascar. Latour
(1993) displaced the deliberation about truth from the scientific room to a larger
network that involves not only science, but also other social actors. But Latour still
accepts the principle of certainty. He gives to the new constitution the same power that
the scientific room had before: to deliberate about the truth; to objectify nature; to
close controversies. I contended that this may be indeed a form of return to positivism
where the positivity would be constructed by a larger social group instead of being
under the control of the scientists alone. This positivity could be as detrimental as the
former one because it is not sure whether these social networks would be more
objective than science to “establish” truth. Unless nonhumans would have an agency
similar to that of humans? It would not be only our epistemology which would be
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reversed in this case. It would be the whole understanding of the physical and
metaphysical dimensions of our world, because physical objects could then make
choices.
Latour, associated with sociologists Michel Callon and John Law (Callon et al.
theory (ANT). This method “intended to guide thinking and research about human-
nature relations” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 211) and was widely used to study our
relations with the environment. I present it briefly here in order to help to understand
the impact of Latour’s epistemology when it is put into practice. This section may
have some redundancy with the previous one, but this will help to clarify a complex
As social constructionism did before it, ANT challenged “the belief that the
natural and the social were ontologically different and distinct” (Castree and
MacMillan 2001, 208). But it also claimed that social constructivist, in the end, had
and MacMillan 2001, 210), because “bringing nature within the domain of the social
simply shifts the causal and ontological arrows from one “side” of the social-natural
dichotomy to the other” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 210). This assertion is
consistent with the idea, developed in Chapter 9, that social constructionism led to the
remedy this problem by encouraging “to imagine the unimaginable by doing away
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The core concepts of ANT clearly match with Latour’s epistemology and
Second is the concept of network, also central in Latour’s (1993) work. ANT
asserts that only after the analysis of networks can an explanation emerge, whereas the
Latour (1993): the causal relations can go in both directions and all objects, human
and nonhuman, are qualified as “actants.” This leads to minimizing the ontological
distinction between humans and nonhumans: ANT “levels up” nonhumans to the
status of humans and “levels down” humans to the status of nonhumans (Laurier and
Philo 1999, 1060; in Castree and MacMillan 2001, 213). The social and the natural are
“co-constitutive” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 213) of the reality within complex
components whose activity is constituted in the network” 352 (Whatmore 1999a, 28),”
and it is argued that action “does not necessarily require speech or intentionality”
actants as much as social ones” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 214). The three forms
352
As we saw in Chapter 13, this type of assertion is frequent in political ecology, showing the
influence of Latour’s epistemology on this discipline.
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of power which I evoked in this dissertation (coercive power, knowledge as power,
and power of acting) are conflated into a single form located in the network nodes.
First, it is not clear whether the natural and the social are regarded as
ontologically distinct. ANT wants to put an end to “dualistic categorical thinking,” but
the concept of hybridity implies duality. If the natural and the social can be subject to
hybridization, they must be ontologically distinct. ANT does not deny this but makes
principle. It may be that ANT confuses the concepts of duality (the fact that two things
are distinct or different) and dichotomy (the fact that they are separated). I would
contend, instead, that nature and culture are not separated but that they are distinct. As
they are distinct, they are ontologically different and as they are ontologically
different, their relations to each other cannot be of the same kind. If their relations are
not of the same kind, ANT’s principle of symmetry cannot be valid. By defining
agency as “a relational effect” between human and nonhuman, ANT avoids facing
these contradictions and fails to address the differences between the cultural
presents an ANT case study (the restoration of the River Cole) which illustrates this.
He asserts that
the identity of the river Cole as “social” or “natural” is established as an
outcome of the restoration process, so there can be no question of
predetermining whether the restored Cole would be one or other in the
manner of the environmental realists or social constructionists. (Castree
and MacMillan 2001, 216)
ANT is not doing a social construction itself. It remains neutral. But according
to the statement in the paragraph above, it considers that the qualities “natural” and
“social” are the outcome of the process that it studies. This conception matches with
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Latour’s (1987) statement that nature is the outcome of the settlement of controversies
(Chapter 9). If humans and nonhumans had the same form of agency, then we could
agree with ANT and say that the outcome would not be a social construction, or at
least that it would not be totally a social construction. But if we considered that this is
not the case (which is the position I defend), then there would be no difference
speech, intentions and tools while nonhumans do not. Both humans and nonhumans
have power but these powers are not of the same kind. Nature can have a strong word
to “say” in some cases. For example, the Mississippi River never “accepted” the
management constraints imposed by humans. But trees do not have the power to
refuse to be cut; species cannot refuse extinction if they are physically eliminated. By
conflating together different forms of power and agency, ANT may legitimize the
objects that are not present in our representations or are just marginally paid attention.
It is not only the marginal nature and the unknown nature of things that would be at
peril. It is also the humans whose presence in the networks would be only marginal,
such as the people of Ambodilaingo and all those rejected at the margin of our global
Castree and MacMillan identified this problem, but consider that it just
concerns social constructionism. As they put it, “in the constructivist argument,
political programs designed to protect or exploit nature can only be ever justified in
human term” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 220). “Consequently, natural entities have
no voice: they are erased from the political landscape or, at best, spoken for by social
actors” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 220). We can hardly see why the situation
would be different in ANT. Nonhuman objects have no voice anyway. They need
someone to speak for them, to integrate them into representations which they cannot
610
produce themselves. The conflation of two forms of agency under the concept of
“relational” agency may have led to the overlooking of these trivial facts.
limitations of ANT which I mentioned. They refer to the work of Laurier and Philo
(1999, 1016, in Castree and MacMillan 2001, 221), who expressed concern about
ANT’s tendency to conflate things. For these authors there is, ontologically, “the
which arises when they end up being portrayed as potentially all the same.” ANT thus
becomes a “flattening process” that obscures the differences between “noun chunks”
of realities (Laurier and Philo 1999, 1014; in Castree and MacMillan 2001, 221).
Castree also refers to Murdoch’s work (1997a, 750, in Castree and MacMillan 2001,
222), which contends that ANT may not be doing anything more than “describe[ing],
in prosaic fashion, the dangerous imbroglios that enmesh us.” In consequence, ANT
would “remain strangely agnostic about the actor-networks it seeks to describe and
explain” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222). This would cause a political problem:
“advocates of a strong ANT agenda risk ignoring the possibility that some actants
“marshal” the power of many others and, in so doing, limit the latter’s agency and
circumscribe their existence” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222). In sum, ANT does
not provide any answer to the interference between power and knowledge, an issue
(Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222), but would recognize that the processes that drives
actors are not similar; that the social relations “are often disproportionately directive”
(Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222); that agents “vary greatly in their powers to
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influence others” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222); and that “a politics of nature
attuned to the needs and rights of both human and natural entities must ultimately be
orchestrated through a putatively “social” actor” (Castree and MacMillan 2001, 222-
223). These recommendations are consistent with the criticisms I formulated above,
but it seems that the authors refuse to face the full consequences of their findings.
Recognizing “the needs and rights of both human and natural entities” (Castree and
MacMillan 2001, 222-223) raises the question of their specific ontological nature, of
their distinction, which puts into question the symmetry of their relations. One can
In conclusion to this section, Latour attempted to find a way to escape from the
relativist trap into which his strong rhetoric led him. But actor-network theory, a
method which claims having its roots in the most recent versions of Latour’s
epistemology of Popper, already evoked in the filigree of this dissertation (Chapter 9),
which proposes another way to escape from positivism without falling into the
relativist trap.
Latour’s epistemology and the methods derived from ANT may have failed to
solve the problem of how to allow nature to be heard without giving hegemonic power
to those who speak or pretend to speak for it. Another strategy may be necessary to
achieve this goal. Rather than displacing to a larger collective the production of
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A simple way to achieve this is to accept uncertainty, i.e., to reject what
Bernstein (1983) calls the “Cartesian anxiety”. According to this author, Descartes’
madness, with intellectual and moral chaos” (Bernstein 1983, 18). Accepting to live
with uncertainty, to the contrary, implies acceptance that controversies can never be
closed, that all facts remain disputable. Latour’s epistemology contradicts this
principle, which may explain why this author eventually developed a new form of
positivism. As Bernstein (1983, 18) puts it, the Cartesian anxiety “still haunts us and
would not weaken science because knowledge would have the guarantee of remaining
uncertainty imply a return to relativism, because relativism occurs when there is 50%
uncertainty.
Uncertainty further enables proposing a new way to articulate the work of the
simultaneously in the domain of knowledge (by scientists) and in the domain of ruling
(by politicians). This would prevent the “laboratory” and the “sovereign” from
becoming hegemonic. The two rooms would work hand in hand and in this
collaboration, they could control each other. Uncertainty is the condition for this
613
I will show, now, that the acceptance of uncertainty is central in Karl Popper’s
epistemology. Interestingly, Popper (1966) had the same concern as Latour with
(1999) and The Open Society and its Enemies, by Popper (1966) both start with a
critical analysis of Plato’s myth of the cavern. But Popper (1963) proposed a different
a position that avoids the traps of both relativism and positivism, and because it can be
representations, but was also consistent with the idea that progress in knowledge is
try, now, to demonstrate this apparent paradox by introducing the central concepts of
Popper’s epistemology.
scientific if it can be falsified, i.e., if facts can provide evidence that it is wrong. To the
Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice” (Popper
1963, 48).
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With this falsification principle, Popper departed from the verificationist
Popper did not reject verification. His intention was rather to put falsification in the
first position, whereas verification, which is usually put in the first place by positivist
science, would come second. Popper justifies this reversal in the following way:
It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory –
if we look for confirmations. (Popper 1963, 47)
Confirming evidence should not count except when it is the result of a
genuine test of the theory; and this means that it can be presented as a
serious but unsuccessful attempt to falsify the theory. (I now speak in such
cases of “corroborating evidence”). (Popper 1963, 48)
In sum, knowledge mostly advances by refutation. Verification can render a
theory more secure, or less uncertain (it corroborates it) but it does not increase its
consists in identifying false statements and in replacing them by new statements that
Popper, however, accepts the idea that a theory can be saved from refutation by
“introducing ad hoc some auxiliary assumption” (Popper 1963, 48). But he considers
that this is done at the price of destroying, or at least lowering the theory’s scientific
status.
behavior which could contradict them” (Popper 1963, 49). Popper was often criticized
for this narrow definition of science where scientific progress would be inseparable of
scientific, Popper did not mean that it was not meaningful. The problem that Popper
tried to solve by proposing the criterion of falsifiability was neither a
problem of meaningfulness or significance, nor a problem of truth or
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acceptability. It was the problem of drawing a line (as well as this can be
done) between the statements, or systems of statements, of empirical
science, and all other statements. (Popper 1963, 51)
Popper called this problem the “problem of demarcation” (Popper 1963, 51).
He complained that he was misunderstood and that his detractors interpreted his work
as being a theory of meaning. Aside from the realm of science as he defined it using
falsification as the main criterion, Popper still recognized the possibility to develop
The main argument that led Popper to develop the falsification principle is his
Popper followed Hume’s (1882) argument that induction is not the central process in
But Popper goes further than Hume. He considers that induction is not working
through the repeated observation of similar facts (which Hume thought it was), but
616
Without waiting, passively, for repetitions to impress or impose regularities
upon us, we actively try to impose regularities on the world. We try to
discover similarities in it, and to interpret it in terms of laws invented by
us. Without waiting for premises we jump to conclusions. (Popper 1963,
60)
There is something Foucaldian in this declaration. This imposition of
regularities on the world can be compared to the myth of the “universal mediation”
(Chapter 9), according to which “the discourse is not much more than the reflection of
a truth that is revealed under its own eyes” 353 (Foucault 1970, 51).
simple correspondence of theories with facts is impossible; that there is always, and
Science can thus only advance by conjectures, which implies engaging in subjective
and speculative processes which are necessarily social. At this point, Popper’s
Latour (1986). But Popper sees the social construction as a bias, as a potential cause of
353
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “le discours n’est guère plus que le miroitement
d’une vérité en train de naître a ses propres yeux.”
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2.4.3. Dogmatism, critical attitude and uncertainty
modify its tenets, which admits doubts and demands tests” (Popper 1963, 65), while
them even where there are none” (Popper 1963, 64). For Poper (1963), dogmatic
thinking would have been the characteristic of premodern societies, where myths
provided the architecture of knowledge and where all observations were explained in
the light of these myths. The verificationist attitude, which excessively trusts the
outcomes of induction, would proceed exactly in the same way. For this reason,
verificationism does not create a clear demarcation between science and mythology.
The critical attitude, to the contrary, renders possible this distinction (Popper 1963).
The critical attitude would have become a strong tradition in Hellenic cultures,
where myths provided the basic material to expose to critics. The production of
scientific knowledge, hence, did not start by repeated observation of facts (by
induction) but by the critical analysis of myths (Popper 1963). Unfortunately, the
repetition of observations, but does not impede putting empiricism at the core of the
scientific method. The critical attitude of conjecture and refutations, which Popper
(1963) also calls the trial and error method, implies both uncertainty and empiricism:
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Assume that we have deliberately made our task to live in this unknown
world of ours; to adjust ourselves to it as well as we can; to take advantage
of the opportunities we can find in it; and to explain it, if possible (we need
to assume that it is), and as far as possible, with the help of laws and
explanatory theories. If we have made this our task, then there is no more
rational procedure than the method of trial and error – of conjecture and
refutation: of boldly proposing theories; of trying our best to show that
these are erroneous; and of accepting them tentatively if our critical efforts
are unsuccessful. (Popper 1963, 68)
In this passage, Popper’s epistemology appears indeed to be common sense.
Beyond the science war and the battle between positivist and relativist epistemologies,
it may be that everybody is Popperian in the way he conducts his life. The reason may
be that we all experience that dogmatism and relativism are both misleading if we
Once he established his method, Popper (1963) questioned how progress could
satisfactory ones” (Popper 1963, 293). He considers that this principle is applicable to
all forms of knowledge, not only to scientific knowledge. In the light of these
619
The second criterion is the probability that a theory is true, or degree of
corroboration. It increases when the theory resists successive tests. For any given
theory, a higher probability to be true (an ability to resist to more tests) is preferable.
The key problem that Popper (1963) pointed out is that there is a tradeoff
between these two criteria: the theories with higher content are also those that have a
lower probability to be true. The reason is that trivial theories, made for example of a
single statement “a,” can be easily tested and can resist a large number of tests. They
have a high probability of being true, which results from their low informative content.
Theories with more informative content, resulting from the articulation of several
statements a, b, etc., will resist tests less, to the contrary, because all the statements
they include will have to be verified by these tests. The more numerous the statements,
the larger the content of the theory will be and the lower its probability to be true.
The consequence of this model is that only by keeping the same level of
content can the probability that a theory is true be increased. As Popper (1963, 295)
puts it:
if growth of knowledge means that we operate with theories of increasing
content, it must also mean that we operate with theories of decreasing
probability.… Thus if our aim is the advancement or growth of knowledge,
then a high probability.… cannot possibly be our aim as well: these two
aims are incompatible.
If we accept this idea that knowledge progresses by creating theories that have
a lower probability to be true, then we must see the scientific activity as progressing to
“problems of increasing depth” (Popper 1963, 301). The problem is that scientists
620
want to increase the certainty of their theories, rather than their content. They are
An article has more chances to be accepted in a journal if it has a low content and a
high level of certainty than if it has a high content and a low level of certainty. The
consequence is that science remains stuck on trivial problems such as the impact of
maximization in agroforestry systems, while it does not treat the deep problems our
future depends on, such as the causes of slash-and-burn cultivation and deforestation.
The idea of progress raises the issue of knowing what truth is. The answer I
gave in this dissertation, in the general introduction (Part I) and in Chapter 9, is that
truth is the perfect match between representation and realities. It exists as the reality
does and is unique as the reality is. But despite the fact that the truth exists, only
perfect spirits, which humans are not, can know it. This apparent paradox may explain
why epistemologists are divided between those that contend that the reality can be
known (the positivists) and those that contend that it cannot be known and that what
matters is the representation we can made out of it (the relativists). But the fact that
there is an absolute truth does not necessarily imply the possibility to know this truth,
indeed. In order to avoid falling into the positivist and relativist traps, I took a position
contending that it is worth trying get closer to the truth, even “knowing” that we
cannot know it completely and cannot even know how far we know it (Figure 15 page
435).
621
the facts, a concept similar to my model of a match between representations and
realities. He actually considers that truth and correspondence with the facts are
synonymous. But he raises the issue of the translation of a fact into a statement using a
language. In this translation, the fact is never accurately translated, so the truth is
never properly formalized in the form of statements. This is, however, not
characterized, for example, by its history or by its relation to other beliefs” (Popper
1963, 305). These subjective theories of truth lead to consider that the truth is
subject) it might be attainable by these same subjects and some criterion could be
622
terms of the quality of our subjective convictions. They all say, more or
less, that truth is what we are justified in believing or in accepting, in
accordance with certain rules or criteria, of origins or sources of our
knowledge, or of reliability, or stability, or success, or strength of
conviction, or inability to think otherwise. (Popper 1963, 305)
In this passage, Popper provides an explanation to the dead-end toward which
truth. Nature, according to Latour (1987), may be a truth that, using the words of
Popper (1963, 305) “we are justified in believing or in accepting, in accordance with
certain rules or criteria.” “Science in the making” (Chapter 9), would provide this set
of rules or criteria, leading to Latour’s (1987) assertion that nature is the consequence
Once he rejected the possibility that the truth can be known, Popper proposed
an alternate concept that would play the same function as the truth used to play in
character and the same ideal or regulative character as the idea of objective or absolute
truth” (Popper 1963, 317). It combines the two criterion of scientific progress that
Popper proposed: the maximization of contents and the probability that these contents
are true. The verisimilitude would be the difference between the “truth-content” and
statement.
comprehensive theories, even if this is at the cost of decreasing the probability that the
overall theory is true. In other words, scientists must abandon their objective of
623
maximizing the probability that their theories are true (the quest for certainty), in favor
of the maximization of both the content and the trueness of their theories (the quest for
Once he has put his model in place, Popper (1963) summarizes his analysis by
observation are at the core of the scientific method; (2) the falsificationists, like
himself, who put refutation at the core of the scientific method; and (3) the
irrationalists or skeptics (the relativists), who adopt the subjective theory of truth.
demand that
we should accept a belief only if it can be justified by positive evidence;
that is to say, shown to be true, or, at least, to be highly probable. In other
words, they demand that we should accept a belief only if it can be verified,
or probabilistically confirmed. (Popper 1963, 309)
Popper rejects the epistemology of this group.
Concerning the third group (relativists), Popper considers that its adoption of
the subjective theory of truth is based on a logical mistake: For Popper, “the very idea
of error or of doubt (in its normal straight forward sense) implies the idea of an
objective truth which we may fail to reach” (Popper 1963, 307). As I argued in
Sections 2.1 and 2.2, the opposite may be true as well. Social constructionism, by
assuming that the “reality” that matters is the one that is represented (the one that
results from the settlement of controversies), leads to the logical impossibility that
errors exist and to the general equivalence of all representations, i.e., to relativism.
ANT inherited this same logical mistake because it conflates the agency of humans
and nonhumans into a single concept (the agency of the relation between humans and
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nonhumans) whereas a fundamental distinction between humans and nonhuman
objects (or, at least, between thinking and not thinking objects) is that the first can
make errors whereas the second cannot. By consequence of this logical mistake, the
epistemology:
[Falsificationists] discovered logical arguments [Hume’s criticism of
induction] which show that the program of the first group cannot be carried
out: that we can never give positive reasons which justify the belief that a
theory is true…. The rationality of science lies not in its habit of appealing
to empirical evidence in support of its dogmas …, but solely in the critical
approach…. Science has nothing to do with the quest for certainty or
probability or reliability. [Falsificationists] are not interested in establishing
scientific theories as secure, or certain, or probable. Conscious of [their]
fallibility [they] are only interested in criticizing them and testing them,
hoping to find out where [they] are mistaken. (Popper 1963, 310)
I must now come back to the subject of this dissertation, whose central
in Madagascar.
theories:
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Theories A and B are trivial. They have a low informative content and a high
probability to be true. In Figure 15 (page 435), they would be located close to the
bottom line and almost on the right asymptote. Theory A is corroborated by the
repeated observation that farmers that practice tavy clear primary forests. We cannot
conceive a way to falsify it. To do so, we would need to find cases where the primary
forests reconstitute after tavy, but empirical observation always showed that the
vegetation that develops between two tavy cycles is a juvenile stage of secondary
succession, with very significantly lower biomass and biodiversity. In the same
vegetation and expose soils to more erosion. We can say, without taking significant
risks, that the probability that theories A and B are true tends to be equal to one.
Theories C and D are not trivial. They have a much more informative content
but also a lower probability to be true. In Figure 15 (page 435), they would be located
in the upper part of the diagram and somewhere between the two asymptotes. If theory
C was true, it would mean that deforestation would stop if tavy stopped. We saw that
this would not necessarily occur, because the marginalization of poor farmers can lead
them to be hungry for land, even if tavy was not their land use, and because farmers
who practice other land uses are hungry for land as well. They take the land that was
cleared by tavy farmers, but might find other ways to acquire new land to the
detriment of forests if there were no tavy farmers. We can say, however, that tavy is
the main proximal cause of deforestation, but this brings us back to statement A.
degradation, but the distinction between proximal and distant causes must be done as
in the case of statement C. Otherwise, the theory would have low content and would
focus on the proximal causes and use fire repression to solve environmental problems,
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whereas fires have up-side causes which need to be addressed as well. In other words,
causes of degradation.
Unfortunately, because theories C and D are not trivial, and because they
cannot be efficiently addressed by science (it would not be easy to obtain a high
probability that they are true), they have not been tested. Chapter 10, about the
theories with lower content led them to prefer trivial problems such as the biophysical
the political economy of deforestation. But as the problem that mattered was indeed
deforestation, theories A and C were conflated together and it was assumed, implicitly,
that testing theory A would be equal to testing theory C. The consequence was the
sufficient to solve the problems posed by the theory C. To give an example, once it
was stated that the solution to deforestation was agroforestry and other high yielding
extension efforts. This is how received wisdoms are created. This creation is a totally
subjective process but the subjectivity is hidden behind the irrefutable objectivity of
We must now see how these theories about the impact of tavy and fires were
scientists, such as political ecologists (Chapters 12 and 13) centered their analysis on
theories C and D. This allowed them to debunk received wisdoms and to make
significant progress. But these authors may also have fallen into the same trap of
conflating theories A and C, and B and D. So, when they concluded that C and D were
627
wrong, they also had the tendency to reject theories A and B, whereas they did not
provide empirical facts that allowed this rejection. This explains the revisionist
tendency of these authors (Chapter 13). They were encouraged in this rejection by the
objective truth and that we can consider representations produced from different
standpoints as being equal. Political ecologists, however, were never explicit about the
rejection of theories A and B, probably because they perceived that facts were against
them. Beyond the influence of relativism, they also carried with them a positivist
western culture and failed to solve the tension between these two epistemologies. They
indeed adopted a verificationist attitude, searching for case studies which would
Consequently, once they debunked the key received wisdoms that dominate the first
myth (the fact that although tavy farmers are only the proximal cause of deforestation,
they are regarded as the main cause and are blamed for that), they started to build a
new myth: the belief that a second nature with equal value and ontological
signification will be constructed and will replace the previous one. I will provide more
arguments for debunking this second myth in Section 3, where I will propose
comprehensive theories, that is to say, using the words of Popper, theories with more
verisimilitude. The price to pay is accepting theories that have a lower probability to
be true. If they adopted this perspective, researchers would be able to work in a more
inclusive way. They would unify theories that were heretofore regarded as challenging
each other, which would allow them to create theories with more content and to
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The problem is that subjectivity, which results from our history, our specific
interests and our personal affects, could use the high uncertainty of these theories to
bias the construction of representation. But we saw in this dissertation that subjectivity
inquiry and our action to trivial issues that can be translated into simple mathematical
equations. The challenge, then, consists of controlling the biases created by these
emotions. More than that, facing the complex, the global or, simply put, the real, the
challenge may even be to use emotions and intuition in a positive way, as I contended
2003), in articulation with Popper’s model, will help us envision pathways to achieve
this.
for more anarchy in the scientific method and his idea that art and science should not
be regarded as different. In this section, I will show that Feyerabend’s (1975; 2003)
Popper before, the dominance of induction, the verificationist methods and the claim
that these methods could provide proofs (Feyerabend 2003). He rejected the positivist
epistemologies inherited from Plato’s myth of the cavern, as both Popper (1966) and
Latour (1999) did. He asserts, for example, that “nature is an artifact, constructed by
This last statement is very similar to Latour’s (1987) assertion that nature is the
629
explicitly that this constructed nature is just “nature as described by our scientists”
(Feyerabend 1994, 97) and is distinct from “Nature as She Is In and For Herself 354 ”
(Feyerabend 1994, 98). He holds that the different ways humans interact with their
world, and the different ways they represent nature to themselves, according to their
specific culture, must be given consideration for their empirical significance, but that
their philosophical significance is still another issue. In other words, he does not
assimilate the equal value of representations to an equal value of the real objects
which are reflected by these representations. This renders possible to consider that
some ecosystems have more value than others in absolute terms, and that some values
are universal, even if these universal values are useful in just a few contexts and
present in certain representations only. This also renders possible making mistakes,
avoiding the trap of relativism. Some cultures can be wrong and, for this reason, “not
all of them survive attempts at stabilization” (Feyerabend 1994, 98) when they face
major problems. It then becomes legitimate, for example, to question whether we will
survive deforestation even if, in the representation of most cultures directly facing this
issue, there is no doubt that deforestation is, to the contrary, the condition of
immediate survival.
This assertion that the value of empirical knowledge is mostly local, coupled
with a recognition of the unfathomable character of our world, led Feyerabend (1994)
to advocate breaking the frontiers between sciences and art and to put an end to the
354
Capitalized by Feyerabend.
355
Italicized by Feyerabend.
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enormous and largely unfathomable powers that surround us. (Feyerabend
1994, 99)
At this point, a connection can be made with Popper’s epistemology. Art may
be an appropriate mode of enquiry to address complex objects of our real world and to
produce theories with higher content and lower probability to be true, i.e., theories
with higher verisimilitude. If we were just rational beings, some dimensions of our
reality may never enter into our representations. We may, in the end, reshape our
world as the image of these incomplete, mutilated representations, and let disappear all
that is not rationally understandable and utilizable. Our world could end up having no
beauty, in being unnatural and inhuman. By creating representation based on all that
our world tells us, on all that we can perceive by our reason as well as by our emotions
and intuitions, we may, on the other hand, allow the complete unfolding of our world
into our representations. We may then respect it better, and thereby guarantee better its
To illustrate this issue, we can ask whether beauty, a concept which cannot be
easily translated into rational equations, needs to be addressed and integrated into our
representation. The statement “this painting is beautiful” has a very elevated content
and a very low probability to be true, which may explain why positivist science was
facts that depend on the whole identity, culture, and history of the painter, expressed in
an infinite number of choices regarding the colors, the shapes, the objects, the
geometry, the composition of the painting. The interaction between this infinite
number of features and the observer determines the statement this observer makes.
Due to the complexity of this interaction, all observers have a different appreciation.
For this reason, it would be practically useless, and could even be dangerous to try to
subjective concept.
631
But this does not mean, philosophically, that beauty does not exist objectively,
more or less present in different paintings, but its perception would depend on the
observer. What would be subjective would be the perception of beauty, not beauty
itself. But as the real beauty cannot be perceived objectively (it can just be perceived
exist however, in which case not all paintings would be equivalent even in absolute
terms. The fact that no society associates excrement to the concept of beauty is an
(Fleming 1974), it has even been shown that apes spontaneously associate excrement
to ugliness.
real. Beauty is abstract but its perception depends on the existence of a body of flesh
and on the interaction of this body with its environment. The objective beauty could be
a property emerging from the complex combination of these interactions. As we are all
born in the same world and have all seen the sun, rocks, animals, flowers, people,
water and fires, there might be a universal principle of beauty which links us together.
Madagascar, as any individual, can experience the beauty of nature, the beauty of
people, the beauty of cultures. It may be that these different experiences result in
different representations, different policies, and in the end in different worlds. If none
of these beauties would be experienced, one could wonder what kind of representation
would be produced and what kind of world would be created. If they would be
experienced in an imbalanced way, the way we understand our world may be biased
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The challenge of science, in order to favor knowledge growth, would then not
would be to use these skills positively in attempts to produce the most comprehensive
theories. This dissertation, by showing the types of bias that constrain the growth of
scientific knowledge and the resulting failure to solve crucial issues such as
Chapter 11, for example, showed how the researchers from the ASB Consortium
created relevant outcomes by confronting emotionally with their world, which helped
them to free themselves from the methods within which their work was framed.
experimental method. It would just need to be extended to larger and more complex
objects. We do that already indeed. In every day life, we advance by a series of trials
and errors. Policy making can also be regarded as a form of experimentation. This fact
should just be recognized, as it should be recognized that the VMCRCC and the
experiments, with just one replication in the first case and more than 500 in the second
case. Once this was recognized, we could set up more cautious monitoring tools and
does not lead to the rejection of its key principles. Karl Popper understood that science
needs to advance to less probable theories with more content, but he did not propose a
on issues that can be addressed by the ordinary tools of empirical research, by making
complexity of the objects it studies, science needs distance itself from these methods,
633
by being more anarchic (Feyerabend 1975) and by blurring its frontiers with art
(Feyerabend 2003). His work enables us to realize that the problem of “demarcation”
and the problem of “meaning” (Section 2.4) may indeed be the same problem.
In other words, disorder may be necessary to let the door open to revolutions,
representations. Popper did not deny that a-methodic production of knowledge could
rigorous method and other modes of enquiry that free themselves from this method.
Feyerabend, on the other hand, rejected this demarcation. But since Popper addressed
the other side of this demarcation in his political philosophy work, as I will show in
Chapter 15, the difference between the epistemologies of these authors may indeed not
be significant. I will now introduce Edgard Morin’s epistemology, which will show
that order and disorder are inseparable, as may be Popper’s and Feyerabend’s
epistemologies.
Madagascar; the huge quantity of knowledge available concerning one single issue
such as deforestation; the complex structure of this dissertation, which is just one
complementary attempt to address this issue; the difficult articulation of the social and
the natural, of the local and the global, of the traditional and the modern; the fast pace
of change and the globalization of our world; all these elements argue for saying that
our world is becoming increasingly complex and that science has to provide
appropriate tools to address this complexity. Popper allowed the scientific method to
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against methods. Edgard Morin (1973; 1990), whose work I will briefly present now,
France, in the early 1960s, when French agriculture was entering into “modernity.”
recognizes that he was “never able to isolate a studied object from its context, its
were in fact “complementary, without ceasing to be antagonists” 358 (Morin 1990, 12).
influenced by this method. I will briefly present, here, the main principles that sustain
this method.
First, Morin contends that the modes of knowledge acquisition that currently
predominate “mutilate rather than express the realities and phenomenon which they
are accounting for” 359 (Morin 1990, 9). They “produce more blindness than
elucidation” 360 (Morin 1990, 9). This is due to the dominance of a “simplification
361
paradigm,” formulated by Descartes, according to which truth has to be found in
“clear and distinct ideas.” 362 Morin (1990, 18) points out, here, the consequences of
the Cartesian anxiety. He explains that this simplification paradigm provoked the
356
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “jamais pu isoler un objet d’études de son contexte,
de ses antécédents, de son devenir.”
357
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “pensée multidimensionnelle.”
358
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “complémentaires, sans cesser d’être antagonistes.”
359
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “mutilent plus qu’ils n’expriment les réalités ou les
phénomènes dont ils rendent comptent.”
360
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Ils produisent plus d’aveuglement que
d’élucidations.”
361
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “paradigme de simplification.”
362
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “idées “ claires et distinctes” .”
635
disjunction of science and philosophy, of arts and humanities, and led to reductionism.
Science is now unable “to know itself, to reflect on itself, and even to understand itself
scientifically” 363 (Morin 1990, 18). Hyperspecialization leads to “tear apart the
complex fabric of realities and to believe that this arbitrary cutting up is the reality
itself” 364 (Morin 1990, 19). Consistent with this, science operates “through the
“unites,” “creates hierarchies,” and “centralizes,” 366 using logical principles which are
These paradigms “govern our vision of things and of the world without our being
consequences started to be revealed in the twentieth century” 369 (Morin 1990, 18),
when societal problems were addressed by “obtuse doctrines that try to monopolize
scientificness” 370 (Morin 1990, 20). These doctrines caused “supreme tragedies” 371
(Morin 1990, 21) when political powers used them to establish truths that help them to
achieve their goals. Marxism, fascism, and the neo-classic model of free market may
be the main doctrines that have created such tragedies. Chapter 6 showed us that the
363
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “de se connaître, de se réfléchir, et même de se
concevoir scientifiquement elle-même.”
364
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “déchirer et morceler le tissu complexe des réalités, et
donner a croire que le découpage arbitraire opéré sur le réel était le réel lui-même.”
365
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “sélection de données significatives et rejet de
données non significatives.”
366
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “sépare,” “unit,” “hiérarchise,” “centralise.”
367
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “commandées par des principes “ supra-logiques”
d’organisation de la pensée ou paradigmes.”
368
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “gouvernent notre vision des choses et du monde sans
que nous en ayons conscience.”
369
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Ses conséquences nocives ultimes ne commencent a
se révéler qu’au vingtième siècle.”
370
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “doctrines obtuses qui prétendent monopoliser la
scientificité.”
371
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Tragédie suprêmes.”
636
most radical forms of conservation discourse may be the next strong doctrine to come
For Morin, political strategies need, to the contrary, to work “with and against
the uncertain, the unexpected, the game of interaction and retroactions.” This can be
provided by what he calls “complex thinking,” 372 a scientific method whose ultimate
goal would be to be “adequate to the objects” 373 (Morin 1990, 72), rather than to
A first principle of this method is the dialogic. It claims that we must overtake
Concepts that used to be separated then become complementary inside a wider vision,
while remaining antagonist and contradictory (Morin 1990). For example, unity and
diversity, simplicity and complexity, stability and instability, order and disorder,
entropy, nature and culture are inseparable pairs of qualities. They must exist together
A second principle is the “recursive loop” 374 (Morin 1990, 99), a process
where “effects are at the same time causes and producers of that which they
produce” 375 (Morin 1990, 99-100). Reproduction is an example because each living
organism is at the same time the cause and the product of it. In the same manner,
individuals shape societies which shape individuals (Morin 1990). The principle of
recursive loop departs from the idea of linear relations between causes and effects
372
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Pensée complexe.”
373
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Adéquat a l’objet.”
374
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Boucle récursive.”
375
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “Les effets sont en même temps causes et producteurs
de ce qui les produit.”
637
The third principle is the hologram. According to it, the whole is in the part. It
complements the classical notions of system which emphasize that the whole is more
than the sum of the parts but lacks insights about the relations from the whole to the
parts.
The three principles are linked. The recursive loop is an emerging property of
the dialogy while the hologram may be produced by the recursive loop.
A last key principle for this paradigmatic change, which results from the
others, is the open system. As remarked by Maruyama (1974, in Morin 1990, 33), “to
conceive all objects and entities as being closed lead to a vision of the world that is
classificatory, analytical, reductionist, a linear causality.” 376 With the open system, to
the contrary, larger chunks of the reality can be revealed by a never ending process of
Popper, for whom open systems of knowledge and open societies are necessities, as
376
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “concevoir tout objet et entité comme clos entraîne
une vision du monde classificationelle, analytique, réductionniste, une causalité unilinéaire.”
377
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “la rationalité c’est le jeu, c’est le dialogue incessant
entre notre esprit qui crée des structures logiques, qui les applique sur le monde et qui dialogue avec ce
monde réel. Quand ce monde n’est pas d’accord avec notre système logique, il faut admettre que notre
système logique est insuffisant, qu’il ne rencontre qu’une partie du réel. La rationalité, en quelque sorte,
n’a jamais la prétention d’épuiser dans un système logique la totalité du réel, mais elle a la volonté de
dialoguer avec ce qui lui résiste.”
638
consists of a will to enclose reality in a coherent system. And all that
which, in reality, contradicts this consistent system is discarded, forgotten,
put aside, seen as an illusion or appearance. Here, we realize that
rationality and rationalization have exactly the same source, but that while
they develop they become enemies one to the other. 378 (Morin 1990, 94)
This analysis is also consistent with Popper’s epistemology and with his
Rationalization, on the other hand, would be the enemy (Popper 1966) of uncertainty
new tools to address specifically complex systems. Central in this new conceptual
apparatus is the dialogical principle, which appears to be much more powerful than the
hybridity principle developed by Latour (1993) as I will show in the next section about
nature and culture. Morin (1990), furthermore, does not propose to abandon the
principles of order, separability and logic that dominated conventional science. Instead
he integrates these concepts into a wider framework that includes their opposites,
creating dialogical relationship between these opposites. This allows the production of
discourses that are “multidimensional but not totalitarian, theoretical but not doctrinal”
(Morin 1990, 67). The production of knowledge, from a battle between challenging
visions, precisely because they seem to oppose, need each other to become
meaningful. It appears clear that the dialogical principle was largely applied in this
dissertation.
For a smooth transition from these epistemologies to new practices, I will now
378
Translation by Pollini. Original text in French: “consiste a vouloir enfermer la réalité dans un
système cohérent. E tout ce qui, dans la réalité, contredit ce système cohérent est écarté, oublié, mis de
coté, vu comme illusion ou apparence. Ici nous nous rendons compte que rationalité et rationalisation
ont exactement la même source, mais qu’en se développant elles deviennent ennemies l’une de l’autre.”
639
two concepts that were central during this dissertation and that need to be clarified
3.1. Introduction
Nature was present in several chapters of this dissertation but took many
forms. The concept seemed to have unclear boundaries. For example, the distinction
between what we call the environment and what we call nature was unclear. In order
to avoid this confusion, I sometimes employed an elusive expression – “this thing that
designate what is commonly called nature. Before proposing new pathways and
that are often opposed or associated with it: culture and the environment.
For the Oxford English Dictionary, 379 nature is “the physical world, including
or thing.”
refer to “inherent qualities,” are consistent with the expression I used in this
dissertation. Nature would be “all those things whose existence is not dependent on
our intentions.” This is the definition I will adopt, which I will now justify.
379
From the Oxford Dictionary On Line: http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk.
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First, I contend that it is necessary to designate these “things whose existence
is not dependent on our intentions,” whether we use the word nature or not for this
designation. Humans are an entity different from all others. They are self-reflexive,
aware of themselves and of their world. They can make choices and errors, as we saw
in Section 2.1 and 2.2. They have intentions and create and use tools that extend their
power and serve their intentions. They can project themselves into the future and
remember their past. They have rational thinking, not just instinct. All these
characteristics allow them to produce something distinct from what other organisms
But the process which leads to it is different. To give just an example, the evolution of
species in nature is the consequence of mainly two phenomenon: stochastic events that
modify the genes and the selection of the most appropriate genes by the environment.
This natural selection leads to increasing diversity and complexity. The recovery of
biodiversity after each massive extinction in the past provides evidence of this
rules are different. Only the genes that match better with some precise expectation are
conserved, which can lead to simplification and less diversity, as occurred with
cultivated crops. If we would use the word nature to designate cultural objects that are
vacuum. The particular outcome of processes that are not intended by humans would
not be designated.
impact. For example, earthquakes, meteorites and other cataclysms can have more
impact than human activities. But in this case, the impact is not intentional, which is
641
why it is qualified as natural. On the other hand, apes can fabricate tools (Whiten et
al. 1999) and may be motivated to do this by intentions. For this reason, we can
consider that apes have a culture, and that their environment is rendered less natural by
this culture. The environmental impact of apes’ activities, however, is low, and for this
reason, the concept of apes’ culture does not have much practical use. But
It is true also that many societies did not create a distinction between nature
and culture. But this does not mean that this distinction does not exist. The absence of
a distinction in certain societies can be explained by the fact that when there is still a
certain balance between nature and culture, this distinction would be of little practical
use, as it is in the case of apes. Remembering the arguments of Feyerabend (1994), the
fact that different representations exist has a different meaning from a practical
standpoint than from a philosophical standpoint. When the basic constituents of nature
are not at peril, there is no need to distinguish them from cultural productions.
dimension of things, rather than a thing. The exact same plant or animal could be more
or less natural, more or less cultural, if its genome is the consequence of natural
for all things. The lumber used to build a house still contains some nature, but less
than the tree that has been cut to make it. A frozen fish stick contains some nature, but
less than the fish caught to make it. Even a highway or a nuclear power plant contains
some nature, in the structure of the sand and rocks that have been used to build them.
As soon as humans remove some nature from objects, they put some culture in them.
The destruction of nature, thus, is not necessarily the physical suppression of natural
objects. It can be the diminution of their natural content in favor of cultural content. In
642
other words, the corollary of the destruction of nature is the production of culture.
There is a tradeoff between the two. Or, as culture itself is a production of nature, we
could say that nature has the capacity to destroy itself by the creation of more culture.
according to their higher or lower natural and cultural content. Higher natural content
and increasing culture, primary forests, secondary forests, forest gardens, fallow
Until now, I addressed the problem of the quality of nature and culture, which
must not be confused with the problem of the value of nature and culture. Maybe this
confusion is frequent and is the cause of the excessive politicization of the debate. But
the fact that nature is destroyed by human does not imply that the objects that replace
it have less value. Some culture is produced in these objects and culture has value as
well. I will try now to address this issue of the value of nature and culture. In other
words, I will try to answer the question of whether we will win or lose from the
First, we can ask why we would call this process that leads to less nature and
more culture “destruction,” rather than just calling it “change.” The reason is that
cultural and natural objects are created following different rules, as I explained earlier.
For this reason, they cannot be regarded as equivalent. One is destroyed while the
other one is produced. A world designed by culture would have qualities different
from a world designed only by nature. I evoked, concerning the diversity of living
forms, the fact that nature increases their diversity while culture can decreases it. This
643
is certainly not the only difference. What would be the overall difference between a
more cultural and a more natural world? We do not know, because not everything is
keeping some nature in our world. Humans have intentions that are mostly determined
world where only culture mattered, unknown objects and functions would be at peril.
In this world, humans would have an excessive arrogance. They could make
everything revolve around their culture and their knowledge. They would transform
their utility and by their valuation by markets. Social constructionism could then lead
know but that may have more significance. Social constructionists, however, are often
the stronger detractors of the free market doctrine and of the commoditization of
nature out there and the necessity to conserve it may be the only way to avoid the
grant to nature a value which is not just that of a commodity, we have to recognize an
intrinsic value to it, beyond the empirical and contextual value given to it by the
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societies that utilize it, each of them in their own way. This value may be the value of
Conserving nature would be meaningful not only for our world, but for us as
well. If nature would not be there, or if it would be significantly reduced, then it may
be that part of our identity would be at peril as well. According to Terasson (2002), the
natural world is mirrored in our unconsciousness. Maybe this is why nature remains
fascinating and valuable to most people. It speaks to us because we are part of it and it
is part of us. In traditional societies, nature is the domain of the spirits, the ancestors,
the unknown. For modern people, it is a realm of esthetic and a cause of fear. Nature
never leaves those who confront with it indifferent, except when it is controlled,
I must now introduce a last concept: the environment. First, this concept must
not be confused with nature. As we saw, nature is a force, a quality, a principle more
than a thing. The environment, on the other hand, has a physical reality. We can say
We just can say that it is “environmentally friendly,” which means that its relationship
So, what is it then that we call the environment? The etymology of the word is
meaningful. The environment is just what surrounds us. In French, “il nous
natural environment but also of the cultural environment, the social environment, the
urban environment and so on. When we simply speak about the environment, we
speak about something that can have all these dimensions in it. The environment, then,
can be socially constructed because the society makes it, in contrast to nature which is,
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by definition, not socially constructed. Only the representations of nature are social
construction. What social constructionists call the produced nature may indeed be the
of nature and environment and this semantic mistake may explain the confusion that
exists today in the debate about nature. If we used the term nature to designate the
environment, we may end in having no word to designate that thing “whose existence
constructionism. These narratives were very useful for showing that nature is not the
only thing that matters, and that nature should not be seen as separated from culture.
But the problem is that these narratives may not be dealing with nature. Instead, they
may be dealing with the environment. By doing so, they do not answer to the question
Political ecologists, however, are not enemies of nature. We can guess while
reading their work that the physical world and the natural objects in it (the forests, the
living organisms) matter to them as do culture. But they overlooked nature because
they put into question the fact that nature and culture are distinct ontological
categories. They conflated the two categories in reaction to the separation that
It is time, now, to call Edgard Morin to the rescue. The dialogy principle
provides the solution to this issue. The relation between culture and nature may be
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dialogical. If there is a culture, then there is something that is not a culture. So why not
to call it nature? Nature and culture are, together, the identity of hybrid objects. They
create unity in the duality. If there would be no nature, there could be no culture. The
produced, and cannot even be social. It can just be associated with the social, with
4. Conclusion
of symmetry did not allow an escape from the relativist trap of social constructionism.
They led to the conflation of human and nonhuman “agencies,” forming a unique
principle which emerges from the relationships between humans and nonhumans. Due
to this conflation, the ontological distinction of the natural and the cultural world are
overlooked. This may explain why certain schools of political ecology, influenced by
postmodernism, social constructionism and the concept of hybridity, had the tendency
I showed in Section 3 that the distinction between nature and culture, between
our world that are not part of our representations or that have no utility would be
overlooked. They could even be denied the right to existence. But this distinction must
not lead to the separation, by purification, of nature and culture, or of the physical and
the social world. This explains why Latour’s (1987) concepts have been so useful to
conduct this research (Chapter 9). In order to render possible ontological distinction
without falling into the trap of separation or purification, we can use Morin’s (1990)
concept of dialogy (Section 2.6). According to this principle, nature and culture have
specific properties which make them distinct but this distinction is also the cause of
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their unity. In this perspective, the specificities of each pole must be understood first,
to the contrary, led to a focus on the relations between the two poles and to conflation
But the most important outcome of this chapter was Popper’s (1963) concept
of verisimilitude and the principles that sustain it (Section 2.4). Popper showed that
induction does not allow theories to be improved: it just allows existing theories to be
rendered more probable. Popper then proposed a paradigmatic shift where refutation
(or falsification), rather than verification, would be at the core of the scientific method.
We saw in this dissertation that verification is still the dominant mode of scientific
inquiry. The reason may be that it allows increasing certainty for a given theory,
which gives the illusion that truth can be known. It favors the accumulation of facts
which are compatible with existing theories, which allows an escape from what
Berstein (1983) called the Cartesian anxiety. Even research influenced by relativist
existing theories. With falsification, to the contrary, criticism is the condition for
improving the representation of our world and the researcher is committed to find
what is wrong in existing theories. Knowledge, then, grows by the addition of new
representations of our world that have higher verisimilitude. When science addresses
objects with very high content (when representations reach the upper part of the
diagram in Figure 15, page 435), scientific methods are not sufficient for achieving
progress, and a blurring of the frontier between sciences, philosophy and art becomes
necessary, as shown by the insights of Feyerabend (2003). Even physics faces this
necessity.
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Unfortunately, there is a tradeoff between the content of theories and their
more challenging to provide evidence for all their content. This is why researchers
usually favor theories with low content and a high probability of being true and
high content are also those that matter more, we consequently fail to understand the
world we live in and to take the right decisions for our future. Decision makers,
however, need to address the whole world, not only pieces of it. As they depend on the
outcomes of work by scientists, they are often using the outcomes of theories with low
content to give answers to problems with high content. In the process, additional
content is injected subjectively in order to create an artificial match between the low
content theory and the high content problem. Received wisdoms are created or are
In order to visualize this problem, I will now synthesize the main outcomes of
(Table 22). Column A poses a series of question that relate to the issue treated in this
dissertation. Column B shows the theory with low content and a high probability of
being true that is commonly used to answer these questions. Column C shows the
theory with high content and a low probability of being true that is usually derived
from the theory in Column B. Column D shows the received wisdoms that are created,
or supported in the process of moving from the theories in column B to the theories in
new interpretations made in the light of the outcomes of this dissertation. They are
conjectures that need to be exposed to facts and falsified by future research work.
This table, compared with the summary of Blaikie and Brookfield’s (1987)
book Land Degradation and Society in Chapter 13, allows one to visualize the specific
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Table 22: Comparison of theories in relation to their verisimilitude
A. Question B. Theories with low C. Theories D. Received E. Theory with high verisimilitude
content and high with high wisdoms
probability to be true content and low created during
probability to the derivation
be true, derived from B to C
from B
In most regions of the Deforestation is Human societies
world where primary very significant fight against
ecosystems remain, at a global scale nature
satellite imagery shows
a fast reduction of their
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When primary forests Slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn farmers are only the
Are slash-and- are cleared, it is by farmers are the farmers must be proximal cause of deforestation.
burn farmers the slash-and-burn main cause of educated and Marginalization and the search for new
main cause of farmers deforestation repressed if we land for agriculture are the real causes,
deforestation? are to stop the ones that need to be addressed.
deforestation
Many communities Population People are the People can be the problem or the
face the limit of the control is problem solution, depending on the effect of other
carrying capacity of necessary if we factors. A general rule may be that
their system, as shown are to avoid a pressure on land is the cause of land-use
Does the by decreases in yield Malthusian crisis change (Boserupian hypothesis) but that
Malthusian and increasing in Madagascar land-use change can further be
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those developed by political ecologists and that they were already apparent in early
political ecology works such as Blaikie and Brookfield’s (1987) Land Degradation
and Society. But it also shows that the construction of myths operates in political
fact, I did not propose any new explanation. The explanation was already provided
seventy years ago by Popper (1959, 380 1963). But due to the influence of radical
hope that this chapter will contribute to moving beyond both the positivist and
relativist traps and will result in more attention being given to Popper’s
falsificationism. I will now try, in the next and final Chapter of this dissertation, to
develop these theoretical outcomes into a program of action aimed at conserving both
380
First published in 1934.
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CHAPTER 15
1. Introduction
aimed at favoring more inclusive theories (Chapter 14). These chapters made it
possible to respond to the first and second research questions: why do slash-and-burn
farmers still clear the Malagasy rain forests and why do policies and programs fail to
The answer I gave to the first question, in Chapter 13, is that social and
economic dynamics marginalize the weakest social groups, while the forest frontier is
the location where these groups can find a way to sustain their livelihood. The failure
of environmental programs and policies (second question) results from the fact that
They create new ways to generate profit from natural resources (ecotourism, scientific
the more powerful groups appropriate, and they closed the frontier and put a ban on
farmers who depend on the forest and on tavy. When the frontier is effectively closed,
like in protected areas, the ecosystems are conserved but the weakest social groups
pay the price for it. They become increasingly dependent on the unsustainable use of
natural resources (the soil if not the biomass) which leads conservation discourses to
blame them for degradation. This may provoke social conflicts which will threaten
protected areas in the future. When the closing is not effective, the situation can still
worsen because the efforts to close the frontier may encourage a faster land
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appropriation by forest clearing. Ecosystems whose utilization and conversion was
In Chapter 14, I explained that these unwise strategies result from the unequal
attention given to biophysical and social challenges. This imbalance results itself from
a reluctance of science to address complex social objects (to address the social would
imply favoring theories with more content and lower probability to be true) and from
the advantage policy makers can take from this reluctance (they can orient science to
the study of the parts of the reality that matter in their shortsighted view). I also
showed that political ecology analyses, which focus on more comprehensive objects,
improve knowledge about the social causes of environmental degradation but overlook
third research question: how to stop or reduce deforestation without requiring the
marginalized groups to pay the price for it. Section 2 will present a concept which will
be central in my arguments: metis, which is the answer Scott (1998) gave to the high
modernist project (Chapter 8). Section 3 will propose a series of measures which could
propose, based on Popper’s political philosophy, a new institutional approach for the
making will be unified into a single process while still conserving their distinct role.
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2. Metis
(Chapter 8) was manifest in both the realities (Chapter 6) and the discourses (Chapters
10 and 11) analyzed in this dissertation. High modernism was manifest in Beforona, as
shown by the preference given to techniques that maximize yields whereas this
criterion is not adequate for most farmers. It was also manifest in the forms of social
organization and land management that were favored by the GELOSE legislation
(Chapter 11). Scott’s (1998) reply to high modernism is the concept of metis,
borrowed from Aristotle. For Scott, “metis represents a vast array of practical skills
“broadly similar but never precisely identical situations requiring a quick and
practiced adaptation that becomes almost a second nature to the practitioner” (Scott
first European settlers in North America were wondering when and how to plant new
world cultivars, such as maize” (Scott 1998, 311), they were told by their native
American neighbors “to plant corn when the oak leaves were the size of a squirrel’s
ear” (Scott 1998, 311). This type of knowledge is metis because it is adapted to each
locality and is based on experience. The date can change even if the rule remains the
same, a fact which is rendered possible by a deep knowledge about local ecosystems,
not only about the physiology of maize. A farmer’s almanac, to the contrary, “may
suggest planting corn after the first full moon in May or after a specified date, such as
May 20” (Scott 1998, 312). In this case, knowledge is not metis because a general rule
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is claimed to be applicable to a local situation whereas not much is known about this
local situation. The rule, which is based on logical deduction from simple principles
(Scott 1998), belongs to a form of knowledge which contrasts with metis and is called
techne. In sum, metis may be the type of knowledge which allows passing from the
1998, 318). It results from the conjunction of a local problem with a necessity to solve
this problem, by those who are directly concerned by it. The holder of metis
knowledge is “the immediate consumer of its own conclusion” (Scott 1998, 324). He
“has a passionate interest in a particular outcome” (Scott 1998, 318). Due to this
necessity, metis does not have the right to be wrong, which minimizes the risk of
mismatch between representations and realities. Otherwise, the real existence of those
who utilize metis would be at peril. A farmer, for example, uses metis because
otherwise he would starve. The extension staff of rural development projects, to the
contrary, do not need to use metis when dealing with agricultural intensification. They
prefer to use techne, even if they accumulated metis knowledge, because they can still
survive if the recommendations they make to farmers are wrong. Interestingly, the
extension farmer, who is a hybrid of ordinary farmers and extension staff, applies
techne on the land that serves to “demonstrate” new techniques to other farmers
(supposedly) and metis on the land that will provide his food and income (Chapter 6).
Due to its partisan character, metis is also highly flexible. It can adapt to a
changing environment. It even has to. It may lack capacity to anticipate changes but is
able to react quickly to change. “The big mistake of the rationalist –though it is not
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fluid” (Oakeshott 1962, 31, in Scott 1998, 332). The case of Ambodilaingo, in Part III,
during the last decades (Chapter 5) and that farmers quickly adopted new practices as
soon as they experienced that these practices were profitable and suitable to them
(Chapter 7).
Metis further leads to point out a new limit of Latour’s (1987; 1993)
what nature is because different forms of knowledge can exist in parallel, resulting in
settling the same controversies simultaneously and in different ways. In the global
networks that link scientists and decision makers, techne is the favored mode of
knowledge, while the networks that directly link agro-ecosystems and farmers favor
metis. These two networks each close in their own way the controversy about what
Farmers opted for extending banana plantations, irrigating paddy fields, intensifying
bottom land and maximizing labor productivity. Projects opted for fireless
true that at the interface between the two groups, the controversies can be reopened
like they are in this dissertation. Other points of contacts also exist like the extension
(proposed by projects) and land uses designed according to metis (which they
developed themselves). But overall, techne and metis coexist with limited links and it
can be questioned whether the future nature (which will depend on the future land use)
will be the consequence of the settlement of controversies relating to the first or the
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the parts, which favors comprehensive representations where the world is a hologram
(Morin 1990, see Chapter 14). Metis further requires open systems of knowledge and
puts it, “techne is settled knowledge” whereas metis remains open, calling for
refutation by successive trials and errors. Metis is “the mode of reasoning most
appropriate to complex material and social tasks where the uncertainties are so
daunting that we must trust our (experienced) intuition and feel our way” (Scott 1998,
327). Scott (1998) postulates that ignorance is the starting point for designing human
affairs, that development actors should employ flexible plans that “allow the largest
accommodation to the unforeseen” (Scott 1998, 345) and the expression of human
scientific knowledge. The answer may be that positivist science, based on techne, was
the tailoring of industrial processes and the extension of this tailored logic to all
spheres of our life (the high modernist project, Chapter 8). But now that this
materialistic success has been achieved, human societies face other issues which
techne may not be able to solve. Our social lives and our global environment must
urgently be “fixed.” As long as decisions regarding social issues were local, they were
able to escape from the technosphere and were taken by those directly concerned,
using metis knowledge. But now, this escaping is no longer possible. Decisions are
taken by actors that favor techne and are located further and further from the localities
they impact. Paris and Washington, D.C. have significant weight to decide how
Malagasy communities must organize (Chapter 11) and what land use slash-and-burn
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farmers must implement (Chapters 6 and 10). Remote decision makers have tools that
render them very efficient to study simple problems (the impact of fires and tavy on
soils and vegetation), but not to address comprehensive realities (to understand the
causes of land degradation and deforestation). As we saw in Chapter 14, they conflate
simple problems solved by techne with nonsimple ones that techne is unable to solve.
This leads us to a last aspect: metis must not be confused with traditional or
local knowledge. Metis refers to a way to apprehend the world and can be applied
from the local to the global. It is a way to produce knowledge where the reality comes
first to the method and matters more than the form of the outcome. Objects are not
split into their parts. They are, to the contrary, contextualized. With metis, intuition
plays a role in the apprehension of this context. Rationality is also used but the world
Chapter 14. For all these reasons, science needs metis if it is to address deep problems
and there is absolutely no reason to limit the use of metis to local issues.
Metis also has some weaknesses. Details of the object can be overlooked and
a precise context. Being contextualized both in time and space, metis knowledge may
not enable anticipating the impact of contextual changes, nor the discovery of general
laws. Metis is knowledge about what happens, not so much knowledge about why it
happens. This is why the advocacy of metis must not be radical and techne still has to
play its role. The two forms of knowledge may have a dialogical relationship (Chapter
14), each one depending on the other one. The world we live in created an imbalance
between techne and metis but our attempts to reestablish an appropriate balance must
not lead to the creation of an inverse imbalance. We will see, in the next sections, how
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metis can be applied to new development and conservation policies and practices and
groups to pay the price for it. First (Section 3.1.), I will clarify the link between
(Section 3.2.), I will give my answer to the ethical question whether it is worth it or
not to stop deforestation, as the controversy on this question is on the verge of being
reopened (Chapter 13). Third (Section 3.3.), I will propose an ethical framework
Fourth (Section 3.4.), I will describe the measures I propose. These measures concern
three aspects which have to be articulated together: (1) the legislation (Section 3.4.1.),
already briefly addressed in the conclusion of Chapter 11; (2) the supports to
compensation for restriction of access to forest land and resources (Section 3.4.3.),
slash-and-burn farmers are those that practice this clearing, except maybe in a few
particular cases.
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But as we saw in Chapters 1 and 10, this does not mean that they are the most
significant cause of deforestation. The real cause of deforestation is the search for new
land to be used for agricultural production. Whatever the land use, land is necessary to
increase agricultural production, when population grows, when soil degrades and
when markets provide new opportunities. Tavy farmers, because they are located on
the first line of the forest frontier, are those that actually clear the forest,381 but they
clear it for the benefit of all types of farmers coming behind them and pushing them to
more remote lands. They are only the proximal cause of deforestation while the real
cause is the global macro-economic system. For this reason, tavy farmers must not be
When I chose the subject of this dissertation, I did not question whether
accepted these facts as they are presented by the scientific community. I contended in
Chapters 9 and 14 that knowledge must remain open and that all facts are disputable.
But arguments must be provided for these disputes and I did not find arguments for
refuting that deforestation occurs at a fast pace, will have a significant negative impact
and that this impact will be irreversible if primary ecosystems are replaced by
no fact leads to refutation. In this case, theories must be regarded as certain in practice,
in not in absolute terms. This is the case of the fast pace of deforestation in
Madagascar. What is largely questionable, on the other hand, is the exact pace of
381
Not surprisingly, the region where the rain forest corridor is more fragmented is the area just facing
the densely populated highlands (Map 1 in Chapter 1, page 26).
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deforestation and its exact impact on biodiversity in the case that not all forests would
finally be cleared. But as I contended earlier, I consider this debate as trivial with
regard to geological time and to the ethical significance of the issue. The most reliable
figures, anyway, converge to say that deforestation is fast and has accelerated during
stop deforestation and conserve a significant part of the Malagasy biodiversity. This is
an ethical question and I can just assert a personal opinion, which is that we must
conserve primary forests 382 and their unique biodiversity. My main argument is that
nature is ontologically distinct from culture (Chapter 14), which may provide it with a
specific intrinsic value. We do not know what this value is made of because we do not
know everything about nature. But precisely for this reason, and invoking the
precautionary principle, I contend that some nature must be conserved in its primordial
state or close to its primordial state, in some places if not in all places. I follow
Serres’s (1990) arguments that a contract must be made with nature in the same
manner as humans made a social contract (Rousseau 1762). As living forms are the
an essential heritage. It is part of our world, part of our history and our future may also
rely on it (Myers 1984; Wilson 1988; Whitmore 1992; Guruswamy and McNeely
1998). As it happens that the most significant biodiversity reservoirs are now located
that our knowledge has some limits, which is essential in order to escape from radical
382
This concept must not be confused with virgin forests, which are primary forests not occupied by
humans. Biodiversity has no reason to be higher in virgin forests (in comparison with nonvirgin primary
forests), because humans contribute to natural selection by coevolving with their environment.
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positivist epistemologies. Moreover, as the value of things is based on what we know
about these things and their uses, conservation may be necessary for avoiding the
consequence of the acceptance of the Cartesian anxiety and the remedy to the
we still have a chance to know it some day because it will still be there, in an unknown
There is, however, a paradox in this assertion. Market, which is the cause of
the destruction of nature, may also be the solution for conservation. “Nature has
become an emporium, a commercial warehouse awaiting its brokers” (Zerner 1999, 4).
conserved for ethical and philosophical reasons, but unfortunately, money is necessary
to achieve this and market hegemony renders it difficult to raise money by other ways.
A last argument for conserving biodiversity and tropical forests is that all those
having an experience in these ecosystems attribute a value to them which is not found
in the modified landscape created once they have been destroyed. Local people see
primary forests as the domain of their ancestors and other spirits. They developed
rituals aimed at apologizing to the forest and its inhabitants before clearing it.
Occasional visitors, on the other hand, appreciate primary forests for an esthetical
value they can find nowhere else. For both, conservation has to be compatible with the
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3.3. Solving the tradeoff between conservation and local livelihoods
The tradeoff between conservation and livelihood was a central issue in all
chapters of this dissertation. This tradeoff is not specific to the case of Madagascar, as
shown by the works of West and Brechin (1991), Ghimire and Pimbert (1997),
Brechin et al. (2003), Sunderlin et al. (2005) and West et al. (2006), and by the
communities’ livelihood, such as food security, are often threatened. Communities can
also be subject to coercive state control that disrupt their culture and limit their
freedom. Hence conservation programs often lead to cases of human right violation
(Chapin 2004; Campese et al. 2007), which may explain the strong tension between
Malagasy National Environmental Action Plan (Chapter 2), and discourses elaborated
by the social sciences, which led to the alternative visions I presented in Chapters 12
Facing this problem, I take a simple position which consists in putting human
rights above nature’s rights, for moral as well as technical reasons. Only with this
condition can we find solutions that will save nature without forcing the weakest
social groups to pay for it. Such solutions certainly exist. We just need to be open,
about environmental conservation make the implicit assumption that local people can
pay a high price for nature conservation, or reveal an unawareness of the price they
pay. They also assume that local communities have no political weight in the
bargaining about nature. But this is just an illusion, as local people are those who can
ignite fires. The overlooking of these elementary socio-economic realities, rather than
the lack of ingenuity, as would contend Homer-Dixon (2000), may be the cause of
failure of conservation policies. Hence, putting human rights above nature rights is not
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only ethically satisfying. It will oblige us to face social issues, creating an appropriate
conversion of forest land into agricultural land is, overall, more profitable than
sustainable resource exploitation. Chapter 11 showed that the main reason why the
GELOSE approach fails is the lack of congruence between the interests of the parties.
resources to be exploited, but more importantly, of land, whereas their main function
for external actors involved in the GELOSE is to maintain for future generations a
contradiction, the GELOSE created the illusion that development and conservation
This idealistic vision of communities able to live in harmony with nature must be
only slow down forest conversion, by closing access to migrants. In the long-term,
Malagasy farmers will convert most remaining primary ecosystems to other land uses,
just like European farmers did before them. This is why there cannot be any
Farmers, however, have reasons to stop or slow down forest clearing. They
when forest resources are limited; local climatic changes and modification of
hydrologic regimes; loss of products they use to build their houses, fabricate
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traditional drugs, complement their diet and sustain their life in case of food shortage;
violation of ancestors’ land and aggressions of the spirits of the natural world. For all
way as possible and to conserve some, if not all forests. But this can last only as long
Nambena (2007) showed that when farmers cleared the forest in Beforona, they left
behind forest patches, but that when the frontier was closed, these patches were
cleared one after the other due to the increasing pressure on land (Chapter 3).
In practice, enforcing the ban means that forest guards must tour the country
and show the authority of the state, like they did during the first republic (Chapter 2).
As argued by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987), there might be some cases where
coercion is necessary to conserve natural resources (Chapter 13). Coercion, also, may
be a cheap approach. Forest guards would not cost much in training. An uniforms, a
GPS, a decent salary and touring indemnities would suffice to provide them with good
working conditions. They would also establish a link between the state and the
Malagasy realities, a link which has unfortunately been lost because the reality toward
which state services are directed, now, is the reality of the donors, their meetings,
The ban, however, must concern only clear cutting, not access to forest land
for the collection and commercialization of forest products, including the extraction
and sale of wood. It is clear that conversion of forest land is a major threat to
biodiversity but the same cannot be said about the extraction of natural resources.
Human utilization of forest products modifies ecosystems but does not destroy them. It
The main problem of the enforcement of the ban, as we saw, is that the poor
and the powerless are always the first victims of coercion. In case of relatively
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prosperous economies, like in northern Madagascar where profitable cash crops such
policies do not necessarily result in social drama (Laney 2002). Farmers can invest
their income in intensification and adapt to the new context. But for communities that
do not have these opportunities, such as the people in Ambodilaingo, the Tanala from
Ikongo and Ranomafana and a significant part of the population of the Fianarantsoa
and Toamasina provinces, repression means a deep economic crisis. It would thus be
repressive policies alone. The ban must then be associated with strong supports to the
local economy, on behalf of the fact that human rights have to be put above nature’s
rights. The ban will be the medium that will link environmental policies to political
economy issues. If it fails to do so, it will remain illegitimate and inefficient. In sum,
the ban will define the duties of local communities, while the support associated with
it will express the recognition of their historical rights over forest land and of their
In practice, this means that forest guards must not tour the country alone. They
must be accompanied by experts who will identify alternatives, such as sites for
will not be sufficient, which justifies an approach based on compensation, rather than
legitimate repressive conservation policies. The next sections will detail the measures
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3.4.2. Mitigation by supporting agricultural intensification
change before farmers have no choice, i.e. before the forest is completely cleared or
closed to access and before a Malthusian crisis occurs. Several types of support are
possible to achieve this. As they have already been discussed at length in Part III, and
labor, to constitute the new asset that will replace the one that is degrading. The faster
intensification occurs, the more investments are needed. The first role of projects
aimed at mitigating the ban on forest clearing should be to favor these investments.
assets they pay more attention to, such as water resources for irrigation, home gardens
or livestock. Chapter 7 showed the fast results that can be obtained by supporting the
represent their future. In Ambodilaingo for example, young people are aware that
finding a good spot to establish a home garden is essential to guarantee their future
(Chapter 5). All households further perceive that creating paddy fields is essential
when access to fertile soils suitable for tavy is limited. In case the key asset cannot be
identified and the new agricultural practices are still unknown, the comparison with
what happened in other regions of the world with similar conditions provides relevant
guidance. Boserup (1965) analyzed the unfolding of land uses in relation to population
growth. She showed that once the fallow period of slash-and-burn systems is too short,
farmers develop annual cropping and multiple cropping systems based on crop
rotation, plowing and manure application (Chapter 5). The integration of agriculture
with livestock husbandry substitutes for fallowing as a way to reproduce fertility. The
669
investment capacity is low. The farmers of Beforona are already engaged in this
change in the most densely populated villages (Chapters 3 and 6). They show us a
pathway for intensification which may not be the optimal one, but which most farmers
and agroforestry could play a role if properly designed, but it would be highly risky to
although in most cases this favors the intrusion of outsiders to the detriment of
marginalized farmers who moved to the frontier. Establishing land tenure security,
prior to the creation of the road, can be a way to remedy this. But the securing of land
tenure must take account of the diversity of tenure modes which are associated with
the diversity of land uses. Micro-credit can also have an impact, as well as the
avoid the generalized failure of extension efforts by projects (Chapter 6), the new
techniques have to be created in the farming system context. On-farm research usually
fails to do so because on-farm trials, in general, reproduce on farmer plots the artificial
farmer’s conditions, not in the farmer’s location. The agricultural contest implemented
conditions. In this contest, metis was the type of knowledge that mattered and that
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3.4.3. Subsidies
We saw that economic supports, rather than technical ones, are essential for the
development of more intensive land uses in eastern Madagascar. We further saw that
receive a benefit in exchange for their engagement in respecting the ban. Providing
Subsidies could take the form of cash or food. In the context of Beforona, food
remote areas. But subsidies in the form of cash, on the condition that they would
represent a significant but reasonable amount, could also be tried. Excessive amounts
could disrupt the economy by introducing behavior that would not be economically
rational. Farmers could behave like someone winning the jackpot at the lottery. But if
the amount matched with what farmers need to solve ordinary economic problems (for
example, buying rice during the food shortage period, buying animals to raise, paying
laborers to develop irrigation schemes), they would have no reason to waste this
money. At the scale of one household, a subsidy of 50 to 150 USD per year appears to
actors, is that farmers would receive a payment for doing something that is already
assumption that the ban on forest clearing is legitimate, which I disagree with as I said
earlier. There are several reasons for saying that the ban is not legitimate. First, the
cost is born at the local level. For equity reasons, it cannot be accepted that local
people continue to bear this cost. Second, the local people who pay the opportunity
cost of stopping deforestation often belong to the weakest social groups. Their
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presence on the forest frontier is usually the consequence of a marginalization process
that has lasted for decades or centuries. Those who can immediately enjoy the benefits
of stopping deforestation, on the other hand, are citizens of the richest nations. Third,
deforestation is not the only global environmental issue. There is a law that forbids
deforestation in Madagascar but no law limits the use of fossil fuels in any place in the
world, which raises again equity issues. Fourth, reducing the use of fossil fuels (or
more modestly, increasing taxes on them) would not lead to imperiling those
concerned by this measure. Life comforts could be threatened but not basic needs. For
the households that live on the forest frontier of Madagascar, it is the real livelihood,
even the capacity to produce sufficient food, which is put into peril by the ban on
clearing. Fifth, the burning of fossil fuels may be as significant a threat to Malagasy
biodiversity as forest clearing. Some forests could escape from clearing due to infertile
soils or to other factors that would render them unsuitable for agriculture. In the case
IPCC (2007), the risk of extinction will reach 20 to 30% of animal and plant species
on Earth if world temperatures increased by 1.5 to 2.5 °C. There are already signs on
all continents that global warming affects plant and animal species (Forcada et al.
2005; McClean et al. 2005; Wilson et al. 2005; Wing et al. 2005). There is also a large
array of evidence showing that coral reef are threatened by carbon release and water
temperature increase due to global warming (Glynn 1991; Kleypas et al. 1999; Hughes
et al. 2003; Donner 2005; Lesser 2007). In the case of Madagascar, Ingram and
Dawson (2005) showed that the first impact of global warming on ecosystems are
In sum, asking the weakest social groups, those whose survival depends on
natural resources, to bear the main cost of conserving biodiversity is totally unethical.
This is a very naïve advocacy but there is no other choice than being naïve or cynical
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in this case. To compensate the cost of restricted access to forest land is both an ethical
way to respect the right of the people. It is also a way to guarantee that nature will be
better preserved, because a nature that would be a vector of inequity would become an
One can thus wonder why subsidies have not been implemented earlier. There
may be a simple reason. Granting subsidies is usually a political decision which results
from a negotiation between those who pay and those who receive the subsidy. In the
the potential beneficiaries are not politically organized. They express the need to
receive supports when they are visited, as did the farmers of Tsinjoarivo and
Ambositra (Zafimaniry people), when they asked for compensation for the restriction
(Chapter 11). But local communities lack efficient modes of political representation to
claim subsidies in a more formal way. Associations, such as the COBAs, created for
implementing GELOSE contracts (Chapter 11), could serve as a platform for this
claim, but unfortunately often lack efficiency and representativeness. They are
efficient, sometimes, but to favor the enforcement of the ban rather than to advocate
which I have not yet raised explicitly, but which may be central. In fact, projects may
As Ferguson (1994) argued, the development apparatus fails to achieve its explicit
objectives, but may successfully achieve implicit ones. Central in these implicit
the illusion that problems can be fixed by technical solutions. The will for this
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depoliticization may be the main cause of the maintenance of received wisdoms and of
the mismatch between representations and realities. If the mismatch disappeared, the
would develop, would empower, and could oppose the power of the state and
international organizations. They would demand for compensation for the ban on
forest clearing, for example. From this perspective, subsidies are a danger for the
NEAP refused the concept of compensation (Chapter 2). Subsidies would transform
the anti-politic machine (Ferguson 1994) into a political one. Farmers receiving
subsidies could develop new land uses according to their own strategies. They could
free themselves from the discourses produced by projects and from the practices
which attempt to reshape their productive basis and their social organization. If this
thesis was true (and I believe it is), political activism, not science and knowledge,
Granting subsidies further raises the question of who is going to pay for them. I
would reply that if we, the global society, consider that the Malagasy biodiversity has
more value than the agricultural production that is obtained after the forests are
cleared, then we have to be ready to pay a price equivalent to the opportunity cost of
losing this agricultural production. At present, this price is low, at least in countries
like Madagascar, because farmers who clear forest still practice traditional forms of
agriculture that have low productivity per unit of land. Considering an average yield of
one ton of rice 383 per hectare and an average fallow period of five years, we can
383
In reality, tavy produces more than one ton per hectare during the first cultivation cycles and less
than that once the land is degraded, and rice would not be the only product. I use here a very gross
estimate because my intention is just to encourage more precise calculation aimed at exploring
subsidies in more detail as a strategy for conservation.
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quickly calculate that the nonclearing of the remaining 5.5 million hectares of the
eastern rain forests of Madagascar could be compensated by 440 million USD. 384 The
annual interest rate of a capital of about 7.5 billion USD would suffice to pay this
annual compensation forever.385 This is much more than the half billion USD spent by
NEAP up to now but is about the cost of a few subway lines, 386 which is quite cheap
This cost would be much lower if we considered only the forests directly
threatened at present, i.e., the periphery of the remaining forest fragments. According
a World Bank note (2007), the cost of restrictions on access to land concerns mostly
villages located less than five kilometers away from a protected area limit. The same
note proposes a formula to calculate the total area affected by these restrictions. 387 We
can apply this formula to the whole eastern rain forest of Madagascar. If the 5.5
million hectares remaining was divided into 173 protected areas, the area affected by
average population density of 20/km2 (hypothesis of the World Bank note), this would
USD per year per household would cost about 37 million USD per year in total. A
384
5,500,000 hectares (surface covered by rain forest) / five years fallow x 1000 kilograms (harvest) x
4000 FMg (price of one kilogram of rice) / 10,000 USD (change rate FMg-USD).
385
With an interest rate of about 6 %.
386
In New York City, a subway line project on Second Avenue, having a cost of 15 billion USD, is in
discussion but failed to find a budget (http://www.thevillager.com/villager_34/thesecond.html.) Still in
New-York City, an extension of line 7 (two new stations) was recently approved for a cost of 2.1 billion
USD
(http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292006/news/regionalnews/subway_station_to_cost_2_1_bil_regiona
lnews_jeremy_olshan___transit_reporter.htm).
387
This formula is “area less than five kilometers off the protected area limit = 0.886 x area of the
protected area + 25,480 hectares (World Bank 2007).
388
According to the World Bank (2007) note, there will be 143 protected areas in Madagascar in 2008,
for a total of 4,539,000 hectares. This represents an average of 31,741 hectares per protected area. The
eastern rain forest now covers 5,500,000 hectares. If it was divided into protected areas having the same
average size (31,741 hectares), this would constitute 5,500,000 / 31,741 = 173 protected areas. The
formula of the World Bank (2007) note can now be applied to calculate the area affected by mitigation
measures if the whole rain forest was protected: 173 x (0.886 x 31,741+25,480)= 9,273,237 hectares =
92,732 km2.
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trust fund of about 600 million USD with an interest rate of 6% would suffice to
provide this annual compensation. This is much more than the trust fund (about 50
about 2 millions hectares by ANGAP, but is not much more than the total cost of
In sum, the first figure (a 7.5 billion USD trust fund generating 440 millions
USD per year) represents the upper limit of conservation cost, i.e., a case where the
conversion of all the Malagasy rain forest into agricultural land would be
compensated, whereas the second figure (a 600 millions USD trust fund generating 37
millions USD per year) represents the immediate cost of compensating land
conversion by farmers living around the forest. If we extrapolated these figures to the
would be necessary to create a trust fund of about 289 billion USD 389 (generating 17
billion USD per year 390 ) in the high figure and 16 billion USD 391 (generating 102
million USD per year 392 ) in the low figure. The real cost would be indeed between the
two figures because the opportunity cost of non clearing is more elevated in certain
countries, like Brasil 393 . If the 500 millions richest citizens would contribute, this
high figure, and 0.2 USD 395 in the low figure. Again, this is relatively cheap for
conserving the heritage that nature bequeathed to us. Even the highest figure (17
389
212,289,100 hectares / 5,500,000 hectares x 7,500,000,000 USD = 289,485,136,363 USD.
390
289,485,136,363 USD x 6 / 100 = 17,369,108,181 USD.
391
212,289,100 hectares / 5,500,000 hectares x 440,000,000 USD = 16,983,128,000 USD.
392
16,983,128,000 USD x 6 / 100 = 101,998,768 USD.
393
In Brasil, the opportunity cost of nonclearing is much more elevated than in Madagascar because
forest is cleared for the development of highly profitable agriculture systems, such as intensive soybean
monoculture for export. On the other hand, a significant part of the forest is not directly threatened.
394
17,369,108,181 USD / 500,000,000 persons = 34.74 USD.
395
101,998,768 USD / 500,000,000 persons = 0.20 USD.
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already put in place. To give just a few examples, in 2002, US farmers received 3.9
billion USD as subsidies in the season 2001/2002 for cotton alone (OXFAM no date).
Between 1999 and 2001, OECD 396 countries spent an average 6.35 billion USD per
year to subsidize sugar production (La Vina et al. 2007). In 2002, agricultural
subsidies in OECD countries “totaled $235 billion, of which $100 billion was accounted
for by the European Union and $40 billion by the US” (OECD 2003). Developed nations
competitiveness in the global market and slow the abandonment of agricultural land
and the desertification of plains. But doing so, they also create unfair competition with
invest and may increase their dependence on natural resources. Subsidies having
perverse environmental effects also exist in other sectors. Myers (1998) estimated that
they total 1.5 trillion USD per year, including 250 billion in the agricultural sector. On
the other hand, according to data gathered by (James et al. 1999), about 6 billion USD
are spent every year for managing protected areas world wide, including 1 billion only
in the tropics 397 (Australia excluded) 398 . If subsidies were to decrease, these sums of
for example to compensate for the ban on forest clearing, which could enable the
al. (1999), an additional 2.3 billion USD per year could fill the financial gaps of
existing reserves (about 1.2 billion in the tropics), 14.5 more billion (including 7.5
billion in the tropics) would allow to extend the protected area network in order to
396
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
397
In Latin America and Caribean, East Asia, Asia, Sub-saharan Africa and Pacific
398
According to Myers (2000), 400 million USD have been spent annually on the 25 biodiversity
hotspots from 1990 to 2000.
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strictly protect 10% of the land, and 49 more billion (worldwide) could be used to
price in comparison with the amount currently spent for conservation. But the aid
system faces two problems that play in favor of this new strategy. First, donors are
already at mid-term of its third and final phase and has not proven to be successful if
we consider its overall impact on forest clearing (Chapter 1). A new estimation will be
available soon and may provide a more encouraging figure. It has already been
observed, indeed, that deforestation decreased after the antifire campaign of 2002. But
this result, if confirmed, cannot not be called a success. The campaign just proved that
when a few farmers are arrested for practicing tavy and when messages are broadcast
nation wide to create fear, people stop clearing forest, at least for a few years. But
considering ethical issues and the economic, social and political cost of the campaign
(Chapter 5 and 6), this cheap strategy cannot be regarded as a success. A solution
efficient because if this win-win situation did not occur (if farmers continued to clear
the forest), then the subsidy could be stopped and the capital be restituted to the
donors.
Subsidy for conservation, however, also raises ethical issues. To pay such a
cheap price for conserving primary ecosystems can be perceived as a way to take
advantage of poverty (Karsenty 2007). It is true. But in comparison with the current
situation where clearing is forbidden with no compensation, more equity is, however,
achieved. Subsidy for conservation thus remains a valid approach from a pragmatic
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community, under the appellation payment for environmental services (PES). 399 I
showed in Chapter 10 that the ASB Consortium, in its conclusions (Sachs 2005),
sees PES as a more cost-effective approach than the indirect support provided to
with the outcomes of Chapter 6. Wunder (2001; 2007) suggests that payments for
households living on the forest frontiers and the international community can win
from conservation. The approach, thus, will gain increasing momentum on the
international agenda. The challenge is rather to direct the payments to the communities
in need of compensation and avoid their capture by elites, as has occurred with other
resources in the past. The case of the VMCRCC carbon sequestration project, in
activities. The core of the economy can remain agriculture and/or sustainable
extraction of resources. The subsidy will be aimed at compensating for the ban on
clearing, not other activities that are compatible with conservation or can be rendered
the development of their agricultural activities outside the forest and in the sustainable
harvest of forest resources, including wood. The payment would be just a bonus,
399
I prefer the term subsidy because PES are usually designed to compensate for more specific services.
In Madagascar for example, PES are put in place for the monitoring of animal population (Durbin et al.
2001). Subsidies aimed at compensating the nonclearing of forest, however, can be regarded as PES
because communities would have to guarantee that no clearing occurs on their land, which implies
patrolling the area and can be regarded as a service.
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achieved between local and global actors: biodiversity conservation and the
One could still object that future agricultural intensification will allow the land
to generate more benefit than what is currently possible with slash-and-burn systems,
and that subsidies could be used as a way to buy a “no development” situation
(Karsenty 2004). I would agree with this objection if payment was fixed once and for
all, and was associated with a ban on resource extraction, in addition to a ban on
clearing. But the payment can be renegotiated over time in order to adjust to the
opportunity cost of nonclearing. And if the ban concerned only forest clearing, local
development could still occur. Development would just be based on the optimal use of
agriculture. The discussion about the case of the VMCRCC project, in Chapter 6,
3.4.4. Conclusion
(which includes the creation of infrastructure), and subsidies, which are aimed at
compensating the opportunity cost of not clearing primary forests. If the enforcement
of the ban alone was applied, conservation policies would be unethical. If the ban was
remain illegitimate, or unfair, because failure is the norm concerning support for rural
enforced. Indeed, support for intensification, in the form it takes in rural development
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projects, could even be abandoned. Farmers would certainly be more efficient in the
way they use money than projects that would be granted the same amounts.
4. Institutional approach
Once a series of measures have been defined, it remains to determine the way
one elaborated in this dissertation, can lead to unintended strategies when translated
into actions. Institutions have their own understanding and impose their own logic,
which can significantly distort the approach. In other words, this dissertation produced
knowledge but development and conservation policies and practices are determined by
much more than knowledge. Politics, i.e., the making of choices aimed at satisfying
certain aims and interests, may be more determining. Chapter 11 showed how
from its early ideal by the dominance of conservation discourse and top-down logic.
example of how implicit aims can detour the aid system from the realization of its
explicit objectives.
representation and realities can never be reduced to zero, and there is no way to know
for sure where a representation is located, between a perfect match and a total
mismatch. The representation elaborated in this dissertation does not make the
exception.
How, then, to avoid that the outcomes of this dissertation will be wrongly
distorted or perverted, if they are some day appropriated by the aid system? How, at
the same time, to guarantee that they will be adjusted and improved, for aspects for
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which they may be misleading? Popper (1966) helps in answering these questions. As
science and other modes of inquiry but did not consider that science had a monopoly
not decide the fate of human societies, he extended his epistemology to political
philosophy. In The Open Society and its Enemies (Popper 1966), he developed two
concepts which I will introduce here: the “open society” and “piecemeal engineering.”
determined by the relations between one another. In order to guarantee that everyone
plays its role, strong institutions such as castes and strong beliefs such as taboos
guarantee that the ties remain strong. This provides a stable social environment which
that could lead them to question the system. In such a closed society, there is no
Cartesian anxiety. Myths and religions close knowledge, close the society on itself,
open society started when the ancient Greeks invented democracy and is still ongoing.
responsibilities and insecurity. When the Greek society started this transition, it
realized that the price of more freedom was less happiness, entered into a crisis, and
attempted to find new ways to provide solid ground for its citizens. Philosophy played
this function. It “replaced the lost magical faith by a rational faith” (Popper 1966,
188). Plato’s myth of the cavern played a central role in this endeavor. Based on this
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myth, Plato committed to designing a perfect society and to arresting social change,
allowing a return to a closed society. This myth provided the foundation for setting the
regarded as an attempt to return to the more comfortable and reassuring closed society.
But for Popper (1966), there is no way to return to the closed society. “We can
never return to [its] alleged innocence and beauty” (Popper 1966, 200). Once citizens
are freed from the primordial myths and have access to more objective knowledge,
closed systems of knowledge can only create utopias which lead to dictatorship. We
must then “go on into the unknown, the uncertain and insecure” (Popper 1966, 201).
It is interesting to notice that Popper’s (1966) The Open Society and its
Enemies starts with a criticism of Plato’s myth of the cavern, as Latour’s (1999) The
Politics of Nature does. But the concepts of open and closed societies led Popper to
propose an alternative different from that of Latour (1999). Instead of proposing the
controversies, Popper (1966) contends that policies should abandon the objective of
closing controversies. The search for happiness, for example, should be left to the
private sphere because defining the good for each individual would create the risk of
alleviate suffering. This leads us to a second key Popperian concept: piecemeal social
engineering.
social progress aimed at alleviating suffering where it is more acute. The objective is
more modest than the creation of happy societies. An ideal can still exist but it is
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The politician who adopts [piecemeal engineering] may or may not have a
blueprint of society before his mind, he may or may not hope that mankind
will one day realize an ideal state, and achieve happiness and perfection on
earth. But he will be aware that perfection, if at all attainable, is far distant,
and that every generation of men, and therefore also the living, have a
claim; perhaps not so much a claim to be made happy, for there are no
institutional means of making a man happy, but a claim not to be made
unhappy, where it can be avoided. They have a claim to be given all
possible help, when they suffer. The piecemeal engineer will, accordingly,
adopt the method of searching for, and fighting against, the greatest and
most urgent evils of society, rather than searching for, and fighting for, its
greatest ultimate good. (Popper 1966, 158)
Popper (1966) opposes this approach to “utopian engineering,” which is an
1966, 159). Utopian engineering matches quite well with Scott’s (1998) high
philosophy is clear. The way he considers the truth in his epistemology is similar to
sufferings by policy makers plays the same function as the falsification of theories by
blocked by the imposition of pretended truths. In the open society, rationality and
science have a role to play, but for debunking false representations rather than for
elaborated in this dissertation is not intended to be a new blueprint for the design of a
new materials for future piecemeal engineering. No revolution is expected, nor wished
to occur on the basis of the material I have provided, whether this material is wise or
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not; whether the representation I elaborated matches or not with the reality. I just
maximize the match between this representation and the reality, I believe that it is
worth translating it into policies, programs, and projects. I thus propose a new concept,
the open project, which, I hope, will find a favorable ground for being translated into
new practices.
suffering. Mainstream approaches, which are determined by the current state of the
society, must not miss the chance of having that problem solved, but their whole
edifice of practices and representations must not collapse on behalf of this. In other
words, the aid system may be unfair and unsustainable, but may be consistent with
both the societies which sustain it and the societies it sustains. If it collapsed, these
societies may lose their relative stability and fall into chaos. They would need new
myths, new blueprints to be rebuilt, but Popper (1966) showed that new blueprints
Madagascar has to open itself to criticism and to experimentation with new practices.
This will provide supplementary evidence that will lead to the falsification or
corroboration both existing and new representations. Based on the new knowledge and
experience that will be produced, the aid system will be able to engage in significant
reforms. The world will then be used as a laboratory for cautious experiments, not as a
685
One could consider that this approach is unethical because citizens are not
laboratory guinea pigs. But the world is already a laboratory. The problem is rather
that this fact is not recognized, which results in dogmatic, ill designed and poorly
but are not recognized. The structural adjustment programs implemented by IMF were
a worldwide experiment that lasted a decade and cost several billion USD.
experiments, we could put in place more careful monitoring, design experiments and
policies more cautiously and collect feedback from the people we target. Our
“virtuoso social actors” (Flyvbjerg 2001, 2) doing phronesis (Part I). This
One can wonder why this has not been done before. The reason may be that the
explicit that we are experimenting on the world, rather than pretending to rule it in an
enlightened way, we would have to face the Cartesian anxiety (Chapter 14). If
anxiety. I contend, therefore, that we have no choice but to accept facing this anxiety.
Unless we want to return to a premodern society and be bound again by myths and
taboos? If we did that, our mistakes would result in more deleterious effects because
we have more potential to impact our planet and our peers than our predecessors had,
686
and because the imbalance between techne on metis reduces our opportunities to learn
In practice, and getting back to Madagascar, this approach implies that donors
will have to open a second window in their practices. This will be a minority window.
It is not necessary to invest hundreds of millions USD to test new ideas. But this
second window will have to be totally open. It will have to receive projects established
deforestation while alleviating poverty, will have to be stated. Magical keywords such
generating activities, fish farming and bee keeping will not be required. The only
criteria will be the overall consistency of the grant requests, the perspiration of the real
world across and between the lines, the genuine commitment of the organization that
would run the project and the impact in comparison with the cost, which will
determine whether the project will be scaled up or not. All approaches would be tested
at small scale, for example in a village, before being scaled up, cautiously, at
communal, regional and national scales. Risks will have to be accepted in the move to
the unknown of new practices, but will be minimized by the small scale of the first
tests and by cautious monitoring. Expectation will concern the impact of activities and
nothing else. There will be no other indicator than the state of the society and the
environment before and after the project. Impacts will be carefully monitored and
measured and the project will be modified, even stopped, in case of negative impacts.
687
I have made propositions that represent a significant move away from the
current practices. This move is the consequence of entering into the world of
uncertainty. But institutions which manage aid should not fear this change, because it
would concern just a second window, while most activities would continue to run as
rejected. But the experiments conducted in the second window would provide new
ideas, new results, new cases of successes and failures that would help to
progressively reform practices in the first window. No major disturbance could result
from this because the second window will have done the job of taking the main risk
and of reducing uncertainty. The first window will just need to be open to a dialogue,
allowing implementation, as efficiently as the reality and the discourses would allow,
Indeed, this second window may be created soon, by the appearance of new
actors in the aid system, rather than by the opening up of existing actors. Private
foundations, whose financial power now matches that of powerful organizations such
as United Nations Agencies, may already be on the verge of creating this second
window.
5. Conclusion
knowledge. Techne and metis are two complementary modes of knowledge production
isolate elements of the world, compare them, classify them and derive general rules.
Metis is necessary because uncertainty always remains behind the general rules, even
those most strongly established. Context, by the apparent disorder it bears, is the
688
counterpart of the order incarnated by rules. Techne is justified by the necessity to put
some order in representations, while metis is justified by the necessity to address the
disorder that surrounds this order. These two concepts may have a dialogical
relationship (Chapter 14), like order and disorder have. Behind this dialogy, there may
often call ignorance and which I prefer to call uncertain knowledge, may need to be
integrated into knowledge if we are to stop producing real ignorance. 400 In other
words, some general rules must be identified, while flexibility must be allowed to
have been identified in this dissertation and served to make the propositions of Section
The first rule is that there is no “natural” harmony between humans and nature.
Harmony can exist but is not intentional. It is a matter of circumstance. For this
reason, if we are to conserve biodiversity, there has to be a ban on forest clearing and
it has to be enforced, which constitutes the second rule. This ban, however, must not
prohibit resource extraction, even the harvest and sale of wood, because granting
access to these resources to local communities is a condition for the social acceptance
The third rule is that the ban on clearing, although necessary, is not legitimate,
measures which are not taken (for example, significantly increasing taxes on fossil
fuels, investing billions in renewable energy, and controlling the illegal international
trade of tropical woods). The ban on forest clearing is just more easily subscribed to
than these other measures because it has, supposedly, a lower political and financial
400
As I said earlier, I prefer to define ignorance as certainty about false statements. Uncertain
knowledge is hence not true ignorance and this is why it has to be integrated to knowledge.
689
cost. This leads us to the fourth general rule: being illegitimate, the ban must be
compensated.
This support could be the continuation of rural development activities we are used to
necessary, which leads to the fifth general rule: support for agricultural intensification
capitalize on new assets which will replace the assets (forest biomass and fertile forest
soils) they lose as a consequence of the ban. This brings us to a sixth general law: if
forest biomass. This is not a discovery indeed. We just need to travel across the
country to observe that Malagasy farmers move across the island in the search of two
main assets that allow them to produce rice and sustain their livelihood. These assets
are biomass (forest in free access which they can clear) and water (bottom land which
can be irrigated and improved). They constitute the first and the second agricultural
pressures from the first to the second frontier. 401 Creating hydraulic infrastructure
could be a straightforward way to achieve this. But for this to work, it would need to
be guaranteed that the poorest farmers would benefit from land improvements.
401
The potential for achieving agricultural expansion is indeed huge in Madagascar. Vast territories in
the west and the middle-west could support much higher population density if infrastructure were
created, security guaranteed, and subsidies for installation provided. These regions, however, are
already occupied by groups of people who practice extensive livestock husbandry and who are already
marginalized by waves of migrants. They resist by igniting fires and making raids to steal zebus.
Expansion in these areas will hence face important social problems and improving land tenure security
in favor of autochthonous communities will be a prerequisite. As I did not address the case of western
Madagascar, I cannot provide more insight on these issues, which constitutes one of the shortcomings
of this dissertation (a limit to my ideal of comprehensiveness).
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Otherwise infrastructure would, to the contrary, contribute again to their
day economy and cannot invest significant effort in terracing, digging canals and other
shows that when irrigation schemes are created, the most competitive groups
appropriate them, to the detriment of the weakest ones, who then abandon the land and
move to the forest. If we are to allow marginalized farmers to get their share, we have
to entitle them improved land, which constitutes a seventh rule, but we also have also
to subsidize the factor of production that is available to all of them: labor force. This
leads to the eighth general rule: energy must be subsidized. In practice, this means to
purchase food for communities (or give money to buy this food) in exchange for the
the NGO Zanaky ny Ala, farmers should be allowed to choose for themselves what
And finally, the ninth rule is that subsidies should be preferred to mitigation
measures because these mitigations usually have very low impact. Only in this way
land.
In sum I proposed in this chapter a major paradigmatic change that would lead
to moving from technical to economic supports and from closed to open projects.
guarantee radical changes without putting the existing aid system at peril. But for this
second window to work, more opening will be necessary, not only at the level of
relations between projects and beneficiary farmers, but also at the level of relations
between donors and Malagasy institutions. These are the conditions for the design of
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new projects that will escape from communicative illusions and from the many
development buzzwords that close discourses on themselves, even when these projects
“beneficiaries.” This does not mean that donors would have no word to say. Money is
not free and cannot be obtained without commitment to something. But once these
rights and duties are negotiated and agreed upon, the recipient would have to take
responsibility and find his own ways to achieve results. In case of failure, he would
know that the grant would be stopped. But once the rules are clear, he could use his
own contextualized knowledge, his own combination of metis and techne, to design
the most appropriate strategies. This would apply in the same way at the community
level (the simple rule being the ban on forest clearing) and at the state service level
(the simple rule being an objective measured in terms of impact, not in terms of
realization).
To make this work, it would be necessary to fix simple and more realistic
objectives (to stop forest clearing, rather than to stop tavy) and simple and
straightforward strategies (to tour the country rather than to create management
management). A supplementary advantage of this approach (but also a threat to the aid
system) is that it does not need much external expertise. Success will mostly depend
on the experience that teams of hydrologists, masons and forest guards will
accumulate while touring the country and creating and maintaining land
improvements, and on the opening of postal or communal offices where farmers will
receive their subsidies. This is indeed a chance, because it is a guarantee that the
Malagasy people, both the local communities and the state services involved, will hold
development challenges in their own hands. This does not, however, mean that there
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would be no watershed management and that tavy would be practiced forever. It
would just mean that metis would do most of the job, beyond the enforcement of the
ban, the construction of dams and roads and the distribution of subsidies.
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CONCLUSION
the light of other scholarly work (Chapter 13), a synthesis in the light of
political ecology, a discipline to which I may indeed belong, even if this was not
intended. The marginalization thesis and the control thesis are central narratives in this
corroborating these narratives. But Chapter 13 also showed the limits of political
ecology and its difficulty addressing biophysical realities and integrating the outcomes
Popper (1963) provided me with appropriate tools and concepts to escape both
positivist and relativist traps (Chapter 14). I reframed my outcomes in this new
theories with higher verisimilitude. The lesson learned doing this exercise is that
scientists should attempt to create more inclusive theories in order to depoliticize their
work. The dialogy principle of Morin further argued in favor of considering as distinct
and interdependent some principles which are too often conflated (nature and culture)
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pay the price for it. These proposition mostly consisted of enforcing the ban on forest
and compensating the opportunity cost of not being allowed to clear primary forests.
Applying the first measure alone (the ban) would have an elevated political
and social cost and would be totally unethical, because marginalized groups would pay
Applying the first and second measures (ban and mitigation) would be
order to achieve this, I proposed to open a new window at the donor level and to
design “open projects” that would reflect the “piecemeal engineering” ideal of
Popper’s (1966) political philosophy. I further contended that the concept of metis, as
elaborated by Scott (1998) to answer to the high modernist project (Chapter 8), should
be given paramount importance in these new practices. However, success could not be
expected in the short term, and failure in support to agricultural intensification may
For this reason, the only viable solution appears to be the simultaneous
does not have the will to pay its cost at present. The Malagasy environment may then
be doomed, unless activist voices are raised to defend its rights and the rights of its
people. Until now, voices have been raised mostly to defend the rights of nature. As
this imbalance may explain the failure of current policies and their drift to
authoritarianism, new voices now have to rise to defend the rights of marginalized
Malagasy farmers.
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In the light of these last outcomes, it is time, now, to propose a general
conclusion for this dissertation. This conclusion will start with a brief summary of the
outcomes of each Part. This may create a few redundancies but is also a way to take a
breath before the end of this journey inside the Malagasy environment, its people, the
actors who watch them and the practices and representations that link all these
together.
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PART VI
GENERAL CONCLUSION
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1. Introduction
This general conclusion will start with a brief summary of the main outcomes
of Parts II through V (Section 2). This summary will not strictly follow the structure of
the dissertation in order to emphasize the links between chapters. In Section 3, I will
rearticulate the main empirical arguments in the light of my research questions and
2. Summary of outcomes
The historical perspective drawn in Part II showed that for as far back as it can
be remembered, there has always been a tension between poverty and deforestation in
advocated at the same time that the forests were the resources for the poor (Chapter 2).
Throughout the history of Madagascar, groups of people whose land was taken or who
fled from war, slavery, tax collection and forced labor moved to the agricultural
frontier, where the forest offered them a refuge and resources to sustain their
claimed that environmental policies had to “reconcile humans with their environment”
action plan (Chapter 2). Market and migrations are now the new forces that push low
is now committed to closing the forest frontier, due to the paramount importance given
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to biodiversity conservation in the global environmental agenda. The Malagasy
government and its partners are aware of the consequences, as revealed by the
The case study drawn in Part III, showed that the economic impact of
while the economic level of these communities may be overestimated. The reason is
that knowledge about this land use is mostly produced using data collected in villages
located close to roads and having access to markets, whereas most slash-and-burn
farmer communities live in remote areas. In these remote places, market opportunities
are almost non-existent due to elevated transportation costs, unless some products with
high value and limited weight can be sold. In Ambodilaingo, wood transportation
plays this role but is not sufficiently profitable and secure to represent significant
income. Most households live almost in autarky and are highly vulnerable, as shown
by the impact of the influenza epidemic in 2002. Capacity to invest is about equal to
zero and even energy, in the form of caloric intake, is insufficient to make land
improvements. Due to this lack of investment capacity, combined with the closing of
the forest frontier (by unfavorable ecological conditions as well as by forest control)
the farmers fail to engage in intensification and the agrarian system remains in a
Part III also showed that solutions to escape the crisis are already present,
visible in the landscape. They develop naturally as soon as pressure on land renders
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the old systems unprofitable. Irrigated rice cultivation in bottom land, crop rotation,
plowing, integration with livestock husbandry and specialization in the most profitable
cash crops, such as ginger, may be the seeds of future land use.
The central question, then, when dealing with slash-and-burn cultivation, is not
what are the driving forces that lead to the first or the second dynamics. Population
14). The key processes that create turbulences in this dialogy may be the
decapitalization and capitalization of assets. These assets are the natural stock of
fertility (the biomass that can be burnt); the fertile soils in forests (exploited by
clearing the land) and in bottom land (exploited by plowing the land); water resources,
which are rendered exploitable by irrigation schemes; perennial crops (home gardens),
which can be extended without requiring significant maintenance efforts; and cash,
farmers in Beforona, and even in Ambodilaingo, have strategies that relate to these
assets. As closing the frontier signifies the immediate loss of access to forest biomass
and fertile soils, the logical answer that rural development projects and policies should
Part III also showed that despite the fact that alternatives to tavy are already
significantly support their development. Instead, they invest research efforts in the
development of systems that require still more investment. Farmers can ill afford to
implement these alternatives. They try them on a small part of their land and continue
plowed land, extensive home gardens) on the rest of their land. They sometimes
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practice the “modern” alternatives a few years, but rather by curiosity or because they
expect to obtain advantages from projects, such as access to jobs, social prestige or
PSDR grants (Chapter 6). Ecological ginger and SRI provide the most striking
examples. They are tried, but not adopted, because farmers quickly experience that
they are more risky and less profitable than their own alternatives in terms of labor
productivity.
Part III also identified a series of myths, or received wisdoms, that can explain
these awkward policies. One myth is the belief that geometry (sowing in line) and high
yields are the keys to successful intensification, whereas in a context of abundant land
and high vulnerability, the maximization of labor productivity and the minimization of
risks are more essential. A second myth is the demonic character attributed to fires and
myth is the supposed beneficial effect of markets. It is true that farmers living in
remote areas could increase their income if they had access to markets. But as they are
not the most competitive to seize market opportunities, increased access to markets
Part III further showed that the concentration of development activities along
the road led projects to develop closer collaboration with a population of migrants and
small entrepreneurs, who are easier to work with due to their higher education levels
and their higher capacities to organize and adopt new techniques. Dynamic private
entrepreneurs and traders can contribute to the development of their community and
deserve some support. But as they are in competition with poor households for access
to land and resources in general, focusing support on them may favor still more the
dynamics of marginalization.
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Eventually, Part III showed that projects in Beforona favored repressive
policies against tavy. As the impact of these policies is not limited to the villages
located close to the road, vulnerable farmers in remote areas, not targeted by projects,
pay the high price of this policy. This contributes to keeping them in a state of poverty
In sum, Part III provided a case study that illustrates the social dynamic
valuable resources by the most competitive farmers and to the marginalization of the
additional burdens on the poorest households. The consequences are not dramatic in
the case of Beforona, because development projects overall are inefficient and because
environmental policies (the ban on tavy) are only sporadically enforced. But the
effects are sufficiently visible to say that the impact may be the reverse of what is
intended. I contend, hence, that the key answer to the marginalization dynamic and the
of the most vulnerable people. Remote villages have to be targeted first and supports
have to be adapted to the poorest households. The experience of the NGO Zanaky ny
Ala (Chapter 7) showed that this is technically feasible, that farmers are eager to invest
their own efforts when supports are provided from outside and that significant results
can be achieved at reasonable cost. The experience of Zanaky ny Ala, however, was
too limited in duration and scope to definitively validate the activities that were
implemented.
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2.3. The conclusions from Part IV
Part III. It showed that the dominant paradigm around which rural development and
inherited from the Enlightenment. A great partition occurred between romanticism and
rationality, which led to the hegemony of positivist and reductionist science (Chapter
9). The consequence is that biophysical processes, which can be more easily addressed
by this type of science, are paid more attention, as revealed by the research orientation
the antifire received wisdom (Chapter 12). System analysis, multidisciplinary methods
and an increasing attention to social issues are recent attempts to move beyond these
simple programs of actions, to the influence of a “high modernist” project whose main
objective is to render biophysical and social realities legible (Chapter 8), and to the
(Ferguson 1994) forces. In Beforona, the BEMA and Terre-Tany projects produced
relevant knowledge upon which wise development strategies could have been
designed. But these strategies were never implemented (Chapter 6), despite the fact
that collaboration existed between the BEMA/Terre-Tany and LDI projects. The
researchers explored all potential pathways to change but development actors selected
the pathways that matched better with their own objectives or dreams (to stop fires and
11) further demonstrated the difficulty of translating social analysis into strategies that
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Part IV (Chapters 8 and 9) also showed that the deconstruction of received
existing realities and the deconstruction of these concepts should not lead to an
social, political and cultural biases that accompany the production of knowledge. But
once the deconstruction is achieved, something has to remain. Dictionaries are simple
tools that help to understand what is that thing that must remains, while encyclopedias
reveal the socially constructed layers that are added upon the core meaning of
what? This “what” is the thing that must be kept at the end of the process.
Part IV further showed the necessity to take a slight departure from Foucault’s
(1970) and Latour’s (1987) epistemologies. The real world is not the only accomplice
of our knowledge, but it is an accomplice that has to be used to increase our chance of
producing accurate representations. If not, we would fall into the relativist trap and
ontological vacuum. Chapter 10 confirmed this. It showed how the ASB Consortium
built a strong rhetoric, in the sense of Latour (1987), and how this led to overlooking
the real cause of deforestation. But eventually, the real world, by unfolding its signs
under the eyes of the ASB researchers, has been stronger than this rhetoric and favored
confirmed the validity of the tools derived from them. The ASB rhetoric justified the
use of Latour’s (1987) model, as I said above, while the case of the GELOSE
11). Rational and transparent communication was invoked by the designers of the
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communication served to channel knowledge, and hence power, in order to impose
decisions (to stop forest clearing and to harvest resources in a sustainable way) which
were already taken by the international community and which are not negotiable.
Eventually, Part IV showed that new discourses emerged which challenged the
question the antifire discourse and showed that beyond environmental degradation,
humans create new landscapes with new cultural contents and economic values. He
further showed that antifire policies created resistances, and that wildfires, which are
more destructive than pasture fires or agricultural fires, are the main weapons of these
resistances. Kull’s narratives, however, also had its own limits, which was confirmed
The first synthesis (Chapter 13) was aimed at comparing my outcomes with
published twenty years ago: Land Degradation and Society, by Blaikie and Brookfield
(1987). The parallel was clear with regard to the general statement (the failure of
technology studies and political ecology were two disciplines visible in the
background of this book, as they are in my dissertation. A larger review of the political
ecology literature confirmed that my work has strong affinities with this field. But
Chapter 13, by analyzing recent political ecology work conducted in Madagascar, also
705
showed that this discipline may now be creating its own domains of exclusion, leading
is socially constructed, or that there is a “second nature.” This leads to ignore the
ontological distinction of the natural and cultural dimensions of our world and results
political ecologists often have the tendency to consider anthropogenic and non-
practical value, but which they cannot be ontologically, as they are designed with
different aims and following different rules. Hence the parts of the world which exist
ecologists.
into a new epistemological framework that would help to escape both the positivist
trap (which favors the hegemony of received wisdoms) and the relativist trap (which
core chapter of this dissertation, the point of crystallization of my outcomes for the
given by Latour (1993) to escape the relativist trap. Latour proposed to displace the
deliberation about nature into a larger collective whose agency would be the effect of
a mediation between humans and non-humans. Agency, in this model, would involve
non-humans (through the mediation), which would guarantee that controversies would
be closed with some form of objectivity. This would be a departure from social
constructionism and would allow an escape from the relativist trap. I criticized this
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model because it still recognizes the possibility of closing controversies, which can be
regarded as a new form of positivism, and because it tends to conflate human and non-
As I rejected this revolution, I contended, in the end, that this model is not different
from social constructionism: only humans can mediate between the human and the
In Chapter 14 I also explored another way to escape from the positivist and
relativist traps. This way was proposed by Popper (1959, 402 1963). For this author,
the positivist perspective that puts verification by induction at the core of its method.
Verification serves to corroborate theories, i.e., to render them more certain, but
certainty is not the only criterion for saying that one theory is better than another. For
Popper, knowledge also grows by the creation of theories with more content, which
does not necessarily imply that their certainty increases. To the contrary, there is a
tradeoff between increasing content and increasing certainty because theories with
more content are also less probable. In order to address this tradeoff, Popper proposed
consideration of these two criteria (content and certainty). A theory with higher
verisimilitude can be less certain than another one with lower verisimilitude but can
departure from both positivist and relativist epistemologies, is the acceptance of the
“Cartesian anxiety” (Bernstein 1983). In other words, a truth exists, because the reality
is unique, but this truth cannot be known. Accepting uncertainty is indeed the
402
First published in 1934.
403
It can even be questioned whether realities with low content exist.
707
condition for the advancement of knowledge, because accepting certainty is equal to
be closed and that nature would be the cause or the consequence of this closing.
of received wisdoms. Scientists favor certainty over content because they do not like
the Cartesian anxiety, and because a theory with high certainty and low content has
more chance of being published by a journal than a theory with low certainty and high
content. On the other hand, decision makers need theories with high content because
they are dealing with the real world, not with isolated parts of it. Theories with low
content, produced by scientists, are thus transformed into theories with high content by
decision makers that need to justify their policies. This is particularly true in places
like Madagascar because science is utilized to justify political choices made by foreign
actors who are not supposed to meddle in political affairs. In this process, the theories
with high content are not controlled by scientists (this dissertation was aimed at
remedying this). They are hence socially constructed to an extent that allows little
room for observing the signs unfolded by the real world. But they are given an illusion
of certainty by their assimilation to theories with more certainty and less content.
Scientists are sometimes even accomplices in this process. This subjective drift from
theories with low content to theories with high content may be the key mechanism that
certain schools of the social sciences (Chapter 13). These schools attempted to answer
to the hegemony of theories with low content by addressing larger and more complex
404
From a Popperian perspective, I defined ignorance as certainty about a theory that is indeed false.
Ignorance, like truth, exists but cannot be known. Ignorance can however be avoided, by refusing
certainty.
708
objects embedded in the social. They created theories with higher content and lower
these theories were created, these schools often reversed the drift mentioned above.
They derived new theories with low content from their theories with high content,
challenging biophysical theories that indeed had high probability to be true and were
appeared. These schools, however, had a sense that the facts were against them, and
for this reason, their “revision” remained ambiguous, mostly motivated by the political
necessity to break the myths created by the drift that operated the other way.
But Popper may have failed to see that it is not only the epistemology that has
to be changed. As shown by Morin and Feyerabend, we may also have to change the
scientific method in a more radical way, and even work against this method if we are
to address the complexity of our world. In theories with high content, the whole world
may need to be present, with its esthetic and spiritual dimensions in addition to its
materiality. We may need to be artists and philosophers, not only scientists, if we are
the marginalized social groups to pay the price for it. This program was based on nine
rules or principles:
biodiversity.
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5. Support to agricultural intensification has to shift from technical
marginal areas.
improvement.
These rules, despite the fact that they are very precise, must not be seen as
fixed and immutable laws. They reflect tendencies that were revealed by careful
observation of realities. But they are operating in complex social and biophysical
systems that provide them with a context. This context is highly variable and can be
highly influential on the final outcomes, contradicting these rules in some cases. For
this reason, projects must be designed with flexibility and must be ready to accept
outcomes they did not predict. The concept of Metis (Scott 1998, see Chapter 8) helps
to achieve this. If metis knowledge is to be favored, the rules I mentioned can serve to
fix general objectives but must not lead to designing the details nor to defining the
• To provide credit to farmers but to let them design the activities they
• To provide subsidies to farmers, but to let them use this subsidy in the
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• To build a dam that has the potential to irrigate bottom land but to let
communities find their own way to improve the land and to organize
• To title land in the name of a lineage elder when land is not clearly
• To establish “food for work” contracts for land improvement but to let
The nine rules and the measures derived from them can be translated into a
policy that should be tested locally, before being scaled up. This precaution is
necessary to avoid the construction of new fashions or dogma based on these nine
rules, and to debunk the mistakes of the representations I proposed. These tests, if
successful, would provide more evidence of the correspondence of these nine rules
with the facts, increasing their level of certainty. In case of failure, some facts would
be refuted, allowing construction of a new theory with more true content and less false
To make this approach work, science and decision makers would be forced to
collaborate, each providing feedback to the work of the other. The acceptance of
donors, would open a second window aimed at funding “open projects” for testing
new approaches. This second window would be freed from received wisdoms and
from the many buzzwords that asphyxiate development practices. It would be open to
radically new practices, but the projects implemented within it would be carefully
monitored. The outcomes, in case of success, would be integrated into the first
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“virtuoso social actors” (Flyvbjerg 2001, 2) doing phronesis (Part I) and society could
engage in doing what Popper (1966) 405 called piecemeal social engineering.
3. Conclusion
order to assess to what extent this dissertation answered my research questions and
research questions and hypothesis, at the risk of creating redundancies with the
previous section.
• Why do the current policies and programs dealing with this issue fail?
mismatch between the reality of slash-and-burn farmers and the representation of this
control. Resources are granted once and for all and must not be
405
First published in 1949
712
exploit natural resources and capitalize assets to sustain their
resource is depleted, farmers shift to another one and when one asset is
lost, they attempt to capitalize upon another one. This is the strategy
world, market opportunities are limited and are captured by the most
tavy available yet. Farmers clear forest because they are backward and
have the required knowledge to develop more intensive land use but
fail to do so because they lack capital and energy, and because they are
achieve results. They increase farmers’ assets and yields and target the
poor first. In the real world, they flatter a clientele which flatters them
in return. They work with a rural elite which channels to itself the main
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benefits of the aid. They create technical dreams that depoliticize
politicizes fires and leads to overlooking the real causes of policy and
project failures.
regulate the extraction of their resources, but the main function of this
This last point leads us to what may be the main empirical conclusion of this
dissertation. The Malagasy primary forests may be the last locations where the
marginal people and the marginal natural resources – those having no value on the
market – encounter each other, and where the first taps into the second to survive. In
this tradeoff, the international community has chosen to protect the natural resources
first, to the detriment of the people. It is not a conscious choice. It is the choice of
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The consequence will be that both the people and the resources will be lost.
Three forms of power determine the fate of Malagasy forests: (1) coercion, which is
used by the state for ruling; (2) knowledge, which is used by the international
working groups and workshops) and people (through participatory methods); and (3)
actions on the ground, for example by igniting fires, which are used by local people to
shape their environment and resist to the other forms of power. 406 Action will be the
most efficient form of power in the end. Farmers will decide the fate of the forest by
clearing and burning it or not. Unless the other forms of power engage in
contains much ignorance, this strategy would just lead to new forms of totalitarianism.
and marginal people together in the world economic system. Technically, the solution
valuable resources, such as the forest biomass and the fertile bottom land, by the most
powerful social groups to the detriment of the weakest ones. This trend just needs to
be reversed, or at least stopped. We saw that three ways are possible for this: (1)
securing resource ownership, with a priority given to farmers living in marginal areas;
(2) injecting capital in the form of investments, in order to favor intensification and
that will compensate for the restrictions on access to resources, in case the other
strategies would not suffice. The first strategy justified the creation of the GELOSE
believed that negotiation alone could lead to win-win solutions. The second strategy
failed as well because it proposed ill designed alternatives, and because it did not
406
These forms of resistance are described in detail by Scott (1976; 1985). I have not read these two
books yet but I can guess they provide relevant insights to understand this form of power.
715
properly balance conservation and development objectives. The third strategy
The aid system, indeed, claims to be already engaged in this new strategy.
After the failure of ICDPs during EP1 and the failure of the GELOSE at present,
may quickly become a new fashionable concept while the Clean Development
finance these payments. But Chapter 6 showed that projects emerging from this new
approach (the VMCRCC project) can focus on the same ill-designed development
alternatives and fail to avoid resource capture by elites. Behind the apparent simplicity
wisdoms, shortsighted politics and unequal power relations. Knowledge can progress
quickly in an apolitical context but can immediately lose its main content when
introduced in the political arena. The theoretical background that sustained the ICDP
approach may have been wise, but the ICDP ideal was violated by the prioritization of
conservation objectives over development. In the same manner, the designers of the
GELOSE approach anticipated most problems to come, but in the end, the GELOSE
subsidy approach could become the victim of similar political distortion and ill
distribution. Those who can open bank accounts, organize and negotiate with NGOs
and government staff would capture these subsidies, pushing illiterate farmers out of
this new opportunity. Moreover, we saw that subsidies would cost more than existing
pay for them unless a clear additional benefit can be measured, which may explain
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why the term PES becomes so fashionable while the concept of compensation is
feared (Chapter 2). In other words, researchers can contribute to improving knowledge
but the implementation of their outcomes follows rules that are out of their control.
Would this dissertation then be useless? The answer will be given by decision makers
First, science and politics must not be separated but must remain clearly
distinct. Their functions must not be confused. The aim of scientists is to “know”
while the aim of politicians is to “decide”. It may be that the main reason for our
distinction between our will to know and our will to decide. Knowledge is a form of
remedy this, science and politics must be distinguished but must also exert a mutual
feed-back to each other. When decision makers go against empirical facts, scientists
should be there to correct their trajectories. When scientists fail to address complexity
and prefer to recreate oversimplified virtual worlds, and when the real world itself is
reshaped in the image of these models, democracy should exert a control on science.
The real social world could hence jump into the face of scientists and bring them back
Second, we arrive at a time where politics can no longer be for the defense of
particular interests. I am not raising here a question of legitimacy. Everybody has the
right to defend their interests and one cannot expect things to be otherwise. But the
world has now become global and there may be only one way to defend the interests
of the particular: to defend the interests of the whole. Stated more simply, if poor
farmers continue to be required to pay for conservation, they will continue to burn the
forest.
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Third, people and biodiversity both matter. In this dissertation, I contended that
people matter even more than biodiversity, which is a personal choice determined by
my personal ethic. Some could argue that biodiversity matters more because it may be
destroyed forever, whereas human rights can be violated only locally and temporally.
Another argument is that human societies would pay a higher price from biodiversity
loss than from local human rights violations. I disagree with these arguments because I
believe that human rights should not be computed, but also because the fundamental
character of human rights is the cause of failures of approaches that would violate
them. People can resist environmental policies and biodiversity will become their
enemy if they can feel that more importance is given to it than to them.
Fourth, biodiversity matters more than what can be guessed from the still
limited commitment of the international community to conserve it. The fact that
biodiversity is often put above people does not mean that it is paid significant attention
biodiversity, indeed, may matter less than guaranteeing cheap food or export
large cities. If a solution was found to conserve efficiently the world’s biodiversity, the
international community would have to pay significantly more than what it has paid
until now to achieve this. At present, we have the illusion that conserving biodiversity
is cheap but this is because marginal farmers worldwide pay a large part of
conservation costs.
Fifth, and as a consequence of the third point, it may be that science alone will
communities are expected to pay part of the cost of conservation because their voices
are absent from workshops and working groups. In order to remedy this, communities
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grassroots movements. The GELOSE was intended to do this but failed because it
channeled power in the opposite direction: from the centers of decision making to
that the ban on forest clearing is not negotiable at present. But if this ban was
empowerment.
a strong advocacy for science. But an excessive faith in biophysical sciences serves as
an excuse for not addressing deep social problems located in the global governance of
resources and markets. Science can provide us with illusions that progress can be
saw in Chapters 6 and 10, and ecoagriculture and agrobiology (McNeely and Scherr
2003; Altieri 2002) may take its succession in the future. As I mentioned in Chapter 6
se. But problems may arise from the excessive faith given to them (faith in technology
in the case of ecoagriculture , faith in harmony in the case of agrobiology), which can
lead to overlooking whether or not alternatives systems are profitable or suitable in the
Seventh, and this brings us back to the main epistemological outcomes of this
dissertation, society and the knowledge it produces must remain open. We must accept
719
living with uncertainty and resist the Cartesian anxiety. Only doing this can we listen
to what our world says to us, pragmatically improve knowledge and take a chance to
reduce mismatches between representations and realities. Only doing this can we
reconcile the heritage of positivist science with its post-modern deconstruction and
escape from the traps created by hegemonic doctrines. Decision makers, as well as
scientists, face this challenge and this is why they have to work together while not
confusing their tasks. By doing so, we may have a chance to understand the world we
live in, to be respectful of both the people and the environment and to find a way to
4. Future research
answer this question, I need to come back to the epistemological model of Popper
(Chapter 14).
My research was aimed at elaborating a theory with very elevated content, i.e.,
a theory that would include a large set of statements. In consequence, and given the
limited time available to conduct my work, I had to accept that each statement
This choice was motivated by the fact that until now, most scientists preferred
to proceed the other way: by looking at one aspect of the reality and by attempting to
maximize the certainty of their representation with regard to this aspect. These
research works were relevant and I used them to increase the level of certainty of
720
deforestation and slash-and-burn cultivation in Madagascar. In sum, I claim to have
elaborated a theory with higher verisimilitude despite the fact that most of the
of these statements, or to refuting them. This, however, must not be done to the
detriment of the overall verisimilitude, meaning that scientists who will work on
certain aspects of the representation I elaborated should not isolate them from the big
picture. They will have to improve the whole theory in the end. Otherwise, they may
already argued (Chapter 15 and previous section) that the experimental method should
be given paramount importance and that experiments have to be conducted in the real
world, by being linked to the implementation of policies. The open project was
designed to achieve this. The simplest experiment that comes to my mind, following
site and to measure the impact at the level of agricultural intensification, dependence
and well being, at a spatial and temporal scale that would go beyond the site of this
implementation. Metis and adaptive management are the key concepts that the
But research detached from politics and focusing on certain aspects of the
reality must also be conducted. I believe that comprehensiveness is necessary and that
more synergies should be established between science and politics, but this approach
407
I prefer the term subsidy to that of payment for environmental services because I justify the payment
by the existence of a tradeoff between social and environmental externalities, rather than by the
providing of a particular service.
721
For instance, I am interested in the quantitative methods used by Levitt and
Dubner (2006), which proved to be efficient tools to debunk received wisdoms. Levitt
issues. If they could not, qualitative approaches addressing the global and quantitative
methods measuring the local may need to complement each other. The quantitative
surveys I conducted in Beforona 408 were, indeed, intended to complement and test my
qualitative outcomes.
IFPRI, 409 by the ILO 410 program 411 and by the SAGA 412 project, 413 with funding from
environmental degradation (Barrett 1999; Lapenu et al. 1998; Zeller et al. 2000;
Paternostro et al. 2001; Dorosh et al. 2003); 414 the relationships between agricultural
intensification and a series of variables such as risk, prices and labor constraint
(Barrett 1999; Barrett et al. 2003; Minten et al. 2006; Minten and Barrett 2006); the
2006).
408
Due to a lack of time, I did not use the results of this survey in this dissertation (Chapter 4), except to
estimate rice production per household (Chapter 5). I intend to use the results of these enquiries and to
complement them with other surveys in the future.
409
“Improved economic analysis for decision making in Madagascar,” funded by USAID and
implemented by Cornell University.
410
International Food Policy Research Institute, involved in a research program in partnership with
Cornell University and FOFIFA.
411
For an overview of their work, see FOFIFA-Programme ILO (2003).
412
Strategies and Analysis for Growth and Access, “A project of Cornell and Clark Atlanta Universities
for research and technical assistance in Africa, funded with a cooperative agreement with USAID”
(http://www.saga.cornell.edu/saga/annreport/mad1003.html)
413
Some of the work of these programs was mentioned in Chapter 1, section 4.1.
414
I introduced some of these works in Chapter 1.
722
These studies provide relevant results but could also be biased by the focus on
certain variables and certain sets of data. For example, Minten and Barrett (2006)
show that communes with higher rate of adoption of new agricultural technologies
have more healthy economies. Hence, these authors recommend supporting agriculture
intensification as a key strategy for alleviating poverty and food insecurity. But this
correlation could be exaggerated by the fact that farmers unable to intensify (the losers
in the competition) may move to other communes (to the frontier) or to remote
villages less represented in the sample (their paper raises this sampling issue). It could
also be explained by the fact that a more healthy economy favors adoption (the causal
relationship could then be the other way around). Eventually, the authors focus on
certain indicators, such as rice yield as a proxy of agriculture performance, and the use
rice seeds, SRI, and agricultural equipment (plows and harrows)” (Minten and Barrett
in the case of Beforona (Chapter 3, 5 and 6) that intensification can use very different
pathways. In sum, the conclusion of these authors (the rejection of the Boserupian
outcomes of this type of research with more comprehensive analyses. This could be
comprehensive qualitative studies in the sites they investigated, which could help to
identify the most relevant variables to measure and to limit the risks of spurious
correlations.
I already noticed, for example, that favoring migrations to the grasslands of the Middle
723
West of Madagascar can be a way to reduce the pressure on primary forests, but that
immigrant groups. The links between deforestation and migration on this “second
frontier” (Chapter 1) hence need to be better addressed. I also argued (Chapter 15) that
deforestation is not the only threat to Malagasy biodiversity. In the long term, global
warming may have a very significant impact as well, directly, by putting stress on
production. Vulnerable communities living on the forest frontier may be the first
victims of regional climatic change and of the increasing risks, which will increase
their dependence on the unsustainable use of natural resources. Future theories with
higher verisimilitude and dedicated to the “phronesis” ideal (Part I) will have to
Eventually, I must ask what might be the place of art and philosophy in future
research, or, more practically, what might be the place of ethics. I already argued that
the issues addressed in this dissertation cannot be isolated from ethical considerations.
Ethics appears when we ask the question of whether the dimension of the world that
exists independently of our representation, which I called nature (Chapter 14), is worth
conserving or not (Chapter 15). Ethical issues are raised also when we face the
economy, this tradeoff tends to be the rule, more than the exception. Ethic is hence
inescapable, for moral reasons but also for practical ones, which led me to argue in
nature became the enemy of people, it would have more reasons to be destroyed. The
and Sourdat 1998; Kull 2004). Fire is the simplest, the most universal and one of the
724
repression alone. I hence encourage future researchers working on environmental
ethic they adopt and to envision a way to test if their ethical choice helps to achieve
degradation and conservation in Madagascar. I hope that other scholars will continue
this trip, taking the holistic representation I created and submitting it to tests. I hope
also that decision makers and all those having the power to shape realities will use
these outcomes. It may be that making the right decision now is not so much a matter
of knowledge. Relevant knowledge about the human impact on the environment and
its causes has existed for a long time. Chapter 13 showed that most outcomes from my
dissertation were expressed twenty years ago by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987). Our
global society has huge financial resources that could be invested to stop the
movement that leads to the exclusion of marginal natural systems and marginal
people. To date, we have not made such investments, as shown by the comparison
with the amount of money spent on agricultural subsidies (Chapter 15). It would be
interesting to calculate the exact “benefit” (in the short term) that an average world
citizen receives from deforestation and social marginalization, two externalities that
Polanyi described in 1944 using different words. If this calculation was done, it may
confirm that what is required from better-off world citizens, indeed, is not to pay for
environmental destruction while marginalized farmers worldwide are asked to pay the
725
APPENDIX
“EP3 Purpose: Natural resources are conserved and wisely utilized in support of
sustainable economic development and a better quality of life.
726
Activities:
a – Support development and implementation of municipal environmental programs
b – Promote prevention and reduction of pollution in urban areas
Specific objective 1.2: Forest ecosystems and water resources are sustainably
managed:
Output 1.2.5:
Humid areas and water reserves are managed in a sustainable manner
Activities:
a - Promote sustainable management and conservation of fresh water lakes
b – Intensify protection of water basins
Specific Objective: 1.3: Protected areas are effectively managed and generate
economic
benefits
727
Output 1.3.1: Representation of ecosystems is PA system is improved
Activities:
a – Reclassify some protected areas
b – Create new land protected areas and conservation sites
c – Develop marine park system
d – Re-demarcate some protected areas
Output 1.3.3: Eco-tourism in protected areas continues to grow and generate revenues
Activities:
a - Improve and expand visitor infrastructure in PAs
b – Put in place / improve ecotourism services
c – Promote protected areas
d - Obtain PA visitor feedback
Specific objective 1.4: Marine and coastal ecosystems are sustainably managed:
Output 1.4.2: Value and equitable and sustainable management of coastal and sea
resources is enhanced
Activities:
a – Intensify the transfer of marine and coastal zone resources to communes
b – Promote certification of marine and coastal zone resources products
Output 1.4.3: Marine and coastal zone ecosystem biodiversity and functions are
maintained
Activities:
a – Promote conservation sites outside protected areas to enable species stock
renewing
b – Promote protection of marine and coastal endangered species
728
c - Promote marine ecotourism
Output 1.4.4: Prevention and reduction of coastal and sea pollution and degradation
are initiated
Activities:
a – Develop and support implementation of inter community pollution prevention and
reduction
plans
b – Put in place inter community pollution and degradation observatories
c – Reinforce erosion prevention and reduction upstream sea and coastal zones
subject of special
management
Specific objective 2.2: Basis for the sustainable financing of the environment is
established
729
b – Develop other financing instruments and optimize interface with other sectors
Output 2.2.2: Financial management and control is set on a more rational and
transparent footing
Activities:
a - Improve existing financial management systems
b - Develop management and administrative capacities
c - Strengthen mechanisms for institutional coordination
d – Optimize cost structure of implementing agencies
Output 2.2.3: Local financing systems for the environment are put in place
Activities:
a – Develop local taxation mechanisms
b – Support establishment of local sustainable investment funds
730
d – Extend control and information mechanisms initiated by OSF
e – Support forest control”
731
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