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Reforestation in Antanetiambo Nature Reserve: Planting 10,000 Trees
By Nicholas Reed-Krase
United States Peace Corps Volunteer, Third Year Extension, Environment Sector
P A G E 9
V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 1
S A V A C O N S E R V A T I O N
About 7km outside of the city of Andapa in northeastern Madagascar lies a beautiful, private rainforest reserve
called Antanetiambo (on the high mountain). Not the normal landowner, the owner of Antanetiambo, Mr. Desiré Ra-
bary, bought the land with the intention of establishing a new protected area. He has been purchasing land at every
opportunity, and in the
last two years has con-
siderably increased the
size to its current 25
acres. Unfortunately,
newly acquired land is
seldom ideal forest.
Often, people agree to
sell their land after they
have practiced slash-
and-burn
agriculture
(for rice or cassava) on
the hillsides leading to
partially deforested ar-
eas riddled with invasive
species and very few
trees. The goal of my
US Peace Corps Third
Year Extension Project,
funded by the non-
profit organization SIM-
PONA, was to undertake
a large scale reforestation program in Antanetiambo as well as remove many invasive species such as wild ginger or
lingoza (
Aframomum angustifolium
), velatra (
Clidemia hirta
) and bracken ground fern (
Pteridium aquilinum
).
Sustainability was the heart of this reforestation program which was designed to engage, teach and empower local
communities to plant trees without huge dependence on outside funding. Aside from planting trees and restoring
the reserve, what we are really trying to accomplish is to improve the livelihoods of the Malagasy people and transfer
skills so that one day all of our projects will be self-sustaining. Towards this end, salaries are not paid for people
working in the tree nurseries or even to plant the seedlings. However, participants do benefit by receiving 40% of the
seedlings (to plant or sell), the tools (shovels, machetes, baskets, watering cans, sifters and wheel barrows) to con-
tinue the work and the knowledge of how to plant efficiently and successfully in the future.
When I first considered this project design, some had their doubts; but so far we have produced over 10,000 seed-
lings between three nurseries. Of the 10,000 seedlings, over 8,000 have been produced by no more than 20 people
in two different nurseries. We’ve also worked with 293 students from 10 different local middle schools and high
schools to produce 2,500 seedlings as well as teach a little bit of English. I have emphasized to local residents that if
we only plant one or two varieties of trees, it’s good, but it’s not a forest. For that reason, our three nurseries contain
Community members planting seeds in an Antanetiambo tree nursery
Photo by Nicholas Reed-Krase