Our areas of expertise

1. Protection of Sites and Protected Natural Areas Against Anthropogenic Pressure

Our teams can play a fundamental role in assisting with the preservation and protection of biodiversity, natural environments, and human habitats. The current context significantly increases anthropogenic pressures on protected sites and natural areas in several ways:

(1-1) The COVID-19 crisis, due to the suspension of international mobility, has had a strong impact on the income of some local communities, for whom tourism represents a significant source of income. This is the case, for example, of the porters, trackers, and local guides of the Makay New Protected Area, managed by NaturEvolution Madagascar. These local teams, with whom we have had a long-standing collaboration, live off a combination of livestock, agriculture, and tourism. The elimination of this source of income could drive them back into banditry (dahalo, poaching, illegal exploitation…), as a means of survival. If no alternative is available to them, local populations will spontaneously turn to the exploitation of natural resources at their disposal, to feed their families and survive: slash-and-burn farming, charcoal production, hunting, and poaching… If these practices are not controlled and regulated, they are harmful both to the natural environments themselves and to human environments in the medium and long term, as the ecosystem services provided by protected areas contribute, through many channels, to human security (food, water resources, mitigation of climate change effects and extreme weather events…).

(1-2) Another threat to natural sites, exacerbated by the current situation and the restriction of mobility, this time at the national level, is the trafficking and illegal exploitation of valuable resources, carried out by members of these local communities but commissioned by informal structures with a national influence network. The forests of the Makay Massif, for example, like many protected areas in Madagascar, are rich in valuable species (rosewood, mahogany, ebony…), animals, minerals, and natural resources that are already the subject of trafficking. The control exercised over inter-regional borders and the movement of individuals and environmental protection organizations allows these networks to carry out a real pillaging of valuable materials, which quietly disappear.

(1-3) The role of our field teams, who know the locals, is to help limit external pressures on these fragile and endangered environments. The mistrust often observed in local communities towards law enforcement or government representatives does not apply to our guides, who provide them with a regular supplementary income and are appreciated and respected. Since the contact and trust have already been established for a long time, discussions are facilitated. 

(1-4) Surveillance brigades must therefore be established or reinforced through our teams. Similar to the operational model of South African National Parks, we can ensure that the guides accompanying tourists in the parks also serve as guardians of these protected areas, as rangers do in South African national parks. These protected areas are divided into different sectors, each under the responsibility of a Sector Ranger, whose role is to ensure the integrity of the sector they are responsible for, fulfilling the following (non-exhaustive) tasks:

• Organizing patrols (on foot, by bike, by vehicle…), detecting and immediately reporting any risks;
• Anti-poaching efforts, including monitoring past violations, surveillance of suspects, and, if necessary, arresting offenders;
• Enforcing regulations on tourist and visitor behavior;
• Inspecting and maintaining fences and other site maintenance elements;
• Combating bushfires through the implementation and coordination of specific, tailored programs;
• Monitoring and eliminating foreign and invasive plants and organisms;
• Water and river management: reporting potential pollution, water levels;
• Monitoring the extraction and use of natural resources by local communities;
• Specific functions for endangered species according to sites (counting, monitoring, reproduction…);
• Monitoring and reporting erosion levels, potential diseases…

Above all, our guides can facilitate the establishment of connections, discussions, and awareness among local communities. Meetings should be organized by the rangers with all stakeholders to create local support groups. These groups can offer alternative solutions to poaching and ensure supplementary income for locals while protecting natural resources. 

2. Environmental and Civic Education for Local Communities

We are able to participate in raising awareness among local communities about the preservation of our universal heritage in terms of biodiversity, the protection of cultures and traditions, and respect for humanity. This awareness-building should take place in several stages : 

(i) Adult training for local communities, accessible to all, on the importance of biodiversity: both in terms of conserving the island’s natural wealth, combating erosion and climate change, the benefits of living in rich and balanced ecosystems (particularly in agriculture), and the importance of biodiversity for tourism in Madagascar. These training sessions would primarily be conducted by our guides, who have been interacting with locals daily through tourism for nearly 10 years. These sessions will be paired with awareness-raising activities and advocacy. The guides will introduce local communities to scientific concepts in an accessible manner. 

(ii) Environmental Education for Children and Youth in Schools: We have the capacity to create suitable educational materials and organize regular interventions by our teams in schools, to raise awareness among the new generation, who represent the future of the country. Environmental education must pass through the youth, who are the last chance to reverse the processes of environmental destruction.

(iii) More specialized interventions on preservation, surveillance, and reporting should then be organized, with scientific trainers. These experts could come from various scientific organizations with which we are connected, or from the Faculty of Science at the University of Antananarivo, with whom Détours Madagascar is a partner. 

(iv) Our agency can also offer its support and expertise in organizing cultural and environmental events (festivals, environmental actions) aimed at education and awareness-raising. For example, we can handle all aspects of coordination, logistics, transportation, accommodation, and catering for speakers, volunteers, and the public.

The value of these actions lies in the fact that they raise awareness among a large audience and awaken curiosity, training targeted individuals, primarily young people, in environmental conservation professions (rangers, guides, naturalists, scientists…), within local communities. These trained individuals will then serve as relays to ensure the continuity of awareness efforts within the communities in the long term.

3. Implementation of Ecotourism Projects Generating Income

We would like to work on the development of income-generating activities for local communities, mainly in the fields of ecotourism and the social and solidarity economy, areas in which we specialize. The idea is to jointly think about a microeconomic approach for local actors, encouraging the creation of non-predatory or destructive income-generating activities that do not harm natural environments, and to associate these activities with the promotion of natural environments through ecotourism. This could include, for example, the creation of village-style accommodation structures, guided tourist circuits led by villagers who have been trained, or the crafting of artisanal products from sustainably managed local resources, as some of our collaborators are already doing here in Madagascar.

At Détours Madagascar, with our expertise in ecotourism, social and solidarity economy, and our deep knowledge of travelers' expectations in Madagascar, we are also able to assist in setting up these activities. We can serve as a bridge to advise both local communities and funding organizations about the ins and outs of such activities and help identify their markets and commercial networks.

A prerequisite for these projects would be to organize work sessions with the managers of protected areas and representatives of local communities, to share the advocacy efforts of local actors, guides, and travelers in protected areas that are already involved in tourism. These workshops would allow us to identify best practices in managing and protecting the environment and biodiversity, think about and implement adjustments to the functioning of protected areas, and work together to develop a diversified local economy, in which tourism can be integrated in a responsible and fair way. It is essential that these local economies do not become solely dependent on the tourism sector, which, as shown by the current crisis, is one of the first sectors to be impacted by the cyclical health, social, economic, and environmental crises that our societies face.

4. Participation in Reforestation and Ecological Restoration Actions

We can also be active in organizing and implementing short-term, occasional, and/or regular reforestation, environmental preservation, and ecological restoration actions. We are capable of managing the logistics for these activities and also communicating about them to a broad audience: potential volunteers among our travelers and respective networks (national and expatriate), partners and collaborators, institutions, NGOs…

5. Organization of Ecovolunteer Teams and Proposal for Combined Stays

Additionally, we have the ability to mobilize and organize ecovolunteer teams for longer-term projects. We can handle all logistics related to welcoming, transporting, accommodating, and feeding these ecovolunteers, as well as organizing bush missions, especially when there is no local infrastructure (providing camping and cooking equipment, guides, cooks, etc.).

Furthermore, our travel community represents a valuable pool of potential ecovolunteers whom we can easily engage. The vast majority of our travelers are sensitive to environmental preservation and local development issues: we regularly receive inquiries and requests from our travelers who want to get involved in solidarity projects and give their trips meaning. We could design and offer combined stays to our travelers and ecovolunteers, blending tourist exploration of the country with ecovolunteering for several weeks.

6. In Response to the COVID-19 Health Crisis

We are able to deploy throughout the country (as well as in Antananarivo) for case detection and identification, quarantine, and transportation of cases to health centers.

We are capable of cleaning and disinfecting sites and taking necessary protective measures (masks, goggles, etc.).

Our team can provide specific hygiene training and guidance on procedures, often in the regional dialects.

We can set up secured food supply convoys, which seems to be one of the main challenges to address in the coming months. Of course, we understand that in the case of our intervention, specific and joint training for all involved will be essential.