CI Madagascar's work has included support for protected-area and landscape initiatives, including management of forest corridors in eastern and south-eastern Madagascar. The Fianarantsoa and Toamasina branches have managed the Ambositra-Vondrozo Forest Corridor (COFAV) and the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor (CAZ), respectively.[2] CI has also supported locally managed fisheries in the Corridor Marin des 7 Baies in north-eastern Madagascar and grasslands-restoration work in the south-west as part of Herding for Health.[1]
In 2016, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar, with Conservation International Foundation as the accredited entity, to support climate resilience for smallholders and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions through measures including climate-smart agriculture and sustainable forest management.[3][4]
History
Conservation International began working in Madagascar in 1990 and established a programme with a central office in Antananarivo and regional branches in Fianarantsoa and Toamasina.[1][2]
During Madagascar's 2009 political crisis, Conservation International linked increased pressure on some forests to weakened enforcement, citing cases of lemur poaching for bushmeat and raising concerns about illegal logging.[5]
By the 2010s, CI Madagascar’s regional branches had developed major landscape programmes linked to forest-corridor management in eastern and south-eastern Madagascar, including work associated with COFAV and CAZ.[2]
At the 2014 World Parks Congress in Sydney, a Malagasy delegation that included Conservation International sought support for protected-area finance and management.[6]
In 2016, CI’s Madagascar work expanded to include a large-scale climate-finance programme in eastern Madagascar (Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar), designed to support smallholder resilience and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions through interventions including climate-smart agriculture and sustainable forest management.[3][4]
CI Madagascar is based in Antananarivo and coordinates programme work through its central office.[1][2]
Eastern Madagascar
The GCF project Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar supports smallholder resilience and greenhouse gas mitigation through climate-smart agriculture and more sustainable forest management in eastern Madagascar.[3] A clustered phase-in impact evaluation design has been used to assess midterm outcomes, including adoption of conservation agriculture practices and changes in livelihood and food-security indicators among early beneficiaries.[4]
Programme implementation in the CAZ and COFAV landscapes has included reforestation and restoration of degraded forest areas and distribution of forest and agroforestry seedlings across participating communes.[7] The programme has also been associated with livelihood support for rural households and carbon-finance mechanisms linked to reduced deforestation and restoration outcomes in the landscape.[8]
Ambositra-Vondrozo Forest Corridor
CI maintains a regional branch in Fianarantsoa that has managed the Ambositra-Vondrozo Forest Corridor (COFAV).[2] Madagascar's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan referenced COFAV among conservation landscapes in national planning documentation.[9]
COFAV is a forest corridor linking Ranomafana National Park and Andringitra National Park.[10] Peer-reviewed research describing the corridor analysed habitat connectivity and corridor structure between protected areas, providing an evidence base used in wider corridor-scale planning discussions for south-eastern Madagascar.[10]
Community-based forest management in COFAV has included patrol and fire-monitoring activities by local associations working with Conservation International under the Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar programme.[11]
Toamasina and Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor
CI maintains a regional branch in Toamasina that has managed work associated with the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor (CAZ).[2]
In the CAZ landscape, CI has provided technical support to protected-area management, including secretariat functions for a technical committee established for the protected area.[12] In the early 2010s, Conservation International was engaged by the Malagasy government to manage CAZ, in the context of limited protected-area enforcement capacity.[13]
The CAZ corridor links Zahamena National Park and Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and covers about 425,000 hectares (4,250 km2).[12] A carbon-finance component aimed to purchase 430,000 tonnes of verified emission reductions from reduced deforestation, with carbon revenues intended to help cover protected-area management costs and expand local economic opportunities.[12] Research has evaluated conservation and development investments in the corridor using satellite-derived indicators of deforestation and fire across the landscape.[14]
Pressures in parts of CAZ have included illegal sapphire mining and associated forest impacts. Community-based forestry organisations (VOI) have been involved in patrols and reporting of infractions alongside CI and local authorities.[13]
In 2025, civil-society groups including Conservation International raised concerns about the Antananarivo–Toamasina highway project; the government said it would modify the route to avoid the CAZ corridor and other protected forests.[15]
North-eastern Madagascar
CI has supported locally managed fisheries in the Corridor Marin des 7 Baies in north-eastern Madagascar.[1]
Daraina
During Madagascar's 2009 political crisis, Conservation International cited cases documented in the Daraina region in northern Madagascar in raising concerns about lemur poaching and forest pressure.[5]
South-western Madagascar
CI has supported grasslands-restoration work in the south-west as part of Herding for Health.[1]
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