Community-based approaches have gained attention in recent decades as crucial building-blocks for conservation in many regions of the world. But what does it take to make them work? Over 45 years ago, leaders of a small community in southwest Madagascar joined with academics in Madagascar and the US to launch a partnership with the declared goal of helping people, forests and wildlife in the area flourish together. Using this as a case study, I trace the Bezà Mahafaly partnership’s gradual development from a “bargain struck” between constituencies with very different interests into a broadly shared endeavor. Today, Bezà Mahafaly offers a model for transcending the small scale and limited impact typical of community-based conservation initiatives, and a glimmer of hope that they can play a powerful role in safe-guarding the environment in Madagascar and beyond.
Lecturer
Dame Alison Richard
Senior research scientist in the Department of Anthropology and the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor Emerita of the Human Environment at Yale University