Sigrid Aubert

Rights transfers in Madagascar biodiversity policies: achievements and significance

Decentralization and peoples participation have been key features of government environmental policy since the 1990s. In Madagascar, the policy of Secured Local Management of Natural Resources, known as the GELOSE act, has created a framework for the transfer of rights from central government to local communities. This article analyses the practical implementation of this policy by focusing on the nature of the rights transferred and on the nature of the contracts and incentives developed. The Aghion and Tirole model for allocation of formal and real authority in an organization is used to shed light on the contractual definition process and on the trade-offs between giving responsibilities to local communities and losing control over natural resources management. It is shown that a congruence of interests between the parties is crucial for effective delegation of authority to local communities and that this congruence may emerge in relation to the transfer of exclusion rights

Assessment and Monitoring of the Effects of the ComMod Approach

The assessment of the effects of companion modelling is currently still a theoretical and methodological field under investigation. However, neighbouring fields of research provide relevant elements of reflection. For example, research on integrated assessments aims to provide public policy decision-makers with relevant information for decision-making.

Forest Management Devolution: Gap Between Technicians’ Design and Villagers’ Practices in Madagascar

In the 1980s, tropical forest-management principles underwent a shift toward approaches giving greater responsibilities to rural people. One argument for such a shift were the long-term relations established between rural people and their natural resources. In Madagascar, a new law was drawn up in 1996 (Gelose law), which sought to integrate rural people into forest management. A gap was observed between the changes foreseen by the projects implementing the Gelose law and the actual changes. In this article, we use the concept of the social-ecological system (SES) to analyze that gap. The differences existing between the planned changes set by the Gelose contract in the village of Ambatoloaka (northwest of Madagascar) and the practices observed in 2010 were conceptualized as a gap between two SESs. The first SES is the targeted one (i.e., a virtual one); it corresponds to the designed Gelose contract. The second SES is the observed one. It is characterized by the heterogeneity of forest users and uses, which have several impacts on forest management, and by very dynamic social and ecological systems. The observed SES has been reshaped contingent on the constraints and opportunities offered by the Gelose contract as well as on other ecological and social components. The consequences and opportunities that such an SES reshaping would offer to improve the implementation of the Gelose law are discussed. The main reasons explaining the gap between the two SESs are as follows: (1) the clash between static and homogeneous perceptions in the targeted SES and the dynamics and heterogeneity that characterize the observed SES; and (2) the focus on one specific use of forest ecosystems (i.e., charcoal-making) in the targeted SES. Forest management in the observed SES depends on several uses of forest ecosystems.

Incorporating institutions, norms and territories in a generic model to simulate the management of renewable resources

Management of the renewable natural resources in Madagascar is gradually being transferred to the local communities, particularly that of forest resources. However, these local communities are struggling to assess the consequences of management plans that they themselves must develop and implement on ecologically, economically and socially sustainable grounds. In order to highlight key aspects of different management options beforehand, we have developed MIRANA, a computer model to simulate various scenarios of management plan implementation. MIRANA differs from other simulation models by not only taking into account individual practices and economic exchanges, but also by accounting for the applicable regulations. These regulations are taken into consideration by means of a multiplicity of normative structures within a spatial context. The objective of this paper is to describe the representations of institutions, norms and territories proposed by MIRANA and to discuss these representations in relation to the state of the art in the field of normative multi-agent systems.

ComMod: Engaged Research’s Contribution to Sustainable Development

The question of how to conciliate ecology, economy and society was first raised in the 1970s with UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme. The term, ‘sustainable development’, a product of the growing awareness that ensued, was defined in 1987 as: ‘development that responds to the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland 1988).

Les paiements pour services environnementaux : un moyen de contenir les cultures sur brûlis forestier à Madagascar ?

Large-scale deforestation in north-eastern Madagascar, especially around Andapa, which is the main rice-growing area in the SAVA region comprising the districts of Sambava, Andapa, Vohemar and Antalaha, is causing erosion in catchment basins and silting up the floodplain where the rice is grown. Upstream from the Sahamazava catchment basin, slash-and- burn cultivation is a means of survival for the most impoverished farming house- holds, but it is disrupting drinking water supplies to the Andapa Urban Community. A system of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) has been considered to encourage a change of practice among slash-and-burn farmers. The scheme encourages them to abandon slash-and- burn cultivation ( tavy ) in favour of perennial crops upstream from the catchment basin, but questions have arisen over its condi- tions of implementation and sustainability. This study emphasises the importance of assessing local needs when a PES is to be implemented in a developing country. Using three different scenarios, it follows farming developments before and after the ban on slashing and burning was introduced in the forests of the Sahamazava catchment basin, at a time when com- pensation for access restrictions was not yet in place. Potential remedies specifying the allocation of expected compensations are finally proposed.