Manjarisoa Forest

The Manjarisoa Project is located in North Eastern Madagascar, in the region of Toamasina (18°27'47.1"S 49°06'43.9"E).

In the last 60 years, Madagascar has lost almost half of its tropical rainforest. In 2017, 510,000 hectares were destroyed, making Madagascar the fourth most deforestedcountry in the world. Additionally, because Madagascar has been physically separated from mainland Africa about 200 million years ago, many of the plants and animals that live on the island are endemic to this territory, making it an extremely important biodiversity hotspot. Scientists estimate that about 90% of the flora inMadagascar are endemic, while about 85% of fauna is endemic.

Manjarisoa is a site located in the tropical inland region of Atsinanana on the Eastcoast of Madagascar. This 680-hectare forest has undergone severe degradation, mainly from slash-and-burn agricultural practices, overgrazing and illegal charcoal production. Additionally, the site was threatened of being erased and transformed into ponds for industrial fish farming by an Asian industrial group. ForestCalling’s reforestation project is therefore essential to prevent such transformation from happening, and to protect and restore this secondary rainforest and the biodiversity it hosts.

ForestCalling has secured part of the forest by renting out 300 hectares of land in Manjarisoa. They will be looking at securing the remaining land and expanding the program over the next few years. As of now, the project consists in the rehabilitation of 300 hectares of tropical forest. A total of 91 people from the local community will be hired to build the one-hectare long nursery, grow the seedlings, plant 194,484 trees and monitor their growth over the next 30 years.

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