Setting up an endemic seed bank in Analalava:

“In Madagascar, we see that it is difficult to work with endemic or indigenous tree species, even though the country has more than 14,000 species of plants and nearly 3,000 species of endemic trees. As part of their operations, reforestation actors on the Big Island use, on average, around twenty species, including some exotics that pose invasion problems and, therefore, destroy habitats and all ecosystem services”, introduced Vincent Garruchet, before underlining the risks that these practices pose to human livelihoods: “We observe, for example, in the district of Analalava (in the Sofia region), an erosion of local knowledge related to the medicinal use of indigenous species, or linked to the construction of endemic wooden boats. Certainly, the elders in the villages still have this knowledge, but it is being lost among the younger generations, with the gradual disappearance of the landscape of endemic plants and trees.”

 For the Director of Operations of Bôndy, a general lack of knowledge of the issues surrounding ecosystem restoration explains, in part, the low use of endemic species on the Big Island. “A lot of actors wishing to finance biodiversity projects mention, among others, lemurs and baobabs. When you talk to them about things they don't know, like earthworms or native trees, it becomes more difficult to get funding. However, biodiversity is not a collection of species. It is a dynamic system that is based on the restoration of habitats and the maximization of their diversity. This is why we designed an indigenous cash bank project, in partnership with the Vahatra association,” said Vincent Garruchet.

Data collection and knowledge production

 To implement this project, Bôndy's teams are working to map the landscape units in the Analalava district. “It is mandatory to go through a data collection and knowledge production phase. We will inventory species in forests and create fact sheets to describe their specific characteristics. The objective is to then be able to work on technical routes, because a seed is good to collect, but you have to be able to make it germinate”, detailed the Bôndy Operations Director, before explaining that local communities will be placed at the heart of the implementation of the project: “We will train the villagers of the district to collect seeds to feed our seed bank. The idea is to pay them per order. The bank will finance these orders by providing reforestation actors with technical advisory services, and by selling seeds and plant material. If the structure manages to cover its operating costs, we have a strong argument for replicating the model in the different ecoregions of the country, with, in the long term, the dream of having a network of seed banks of indigenous species backed by community collection networks covering the diversity of Madagascar's forests.”

 According to Vincent Garruchet, the exceptional biodiversity of Madagascar can be a real driver of development for the country. “In Madagascar, we can imagine, by focusing research on the identification of molecules from indigenous species, the development of treatments against certain diseases, or even applications in cosmetics,” concluded the Director of Operations of Bôndy.