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Responsible tourism in Madagascar

Responsible tourism in Madagascar is not all about volunteering with communities or planting native trees. While donating time or money can go some way to helping this struggling island, the best thing you can do is travel well - ensuring you support rather than damage the remaining tracts of forest, and that your money goes directly to local people rather than multinational resorts. Better for the lemurs, better for the Malagasy, and - we believe - a much more memorable holiday for you.

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Responsible tourism in Madagascar

Madagascar is a destination where it’s essential for travellers to tread as lightly as possible. Where we should respect and try to understand a complex culture and belief system without making its practitioners feel as if they are ‘under a microscope’, and where the environment is as delicate as a chameleon perched on a spindly branch.

There are many contradictions in Madagascar, some fascinating, some frustrating. Awash with natural treasures from rainforest to mangroves and coral reef, all of them teeming with wildlife, this is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Madagascan people revere their ancestors, yet the country does not do enough to protect its children from exploitation, or its forests from the ‘slash and burn’ agriculture that is leaving landscapes barren and bleak.

Madagascar’s trees are cut down for charcoal, short-term agricultural needs, and mining of precious stones, at the expense of the rainforests that harbour wildlife, and help to store carbon. As the trees go, rainfall patterns change, and soil degrades making it harder still to grow crops. The deadly famine that swept Madagascar between 2021 and 2023 was largely believed to be the result of climate change, but if it was, then the conditions for it were laid long ago.

Our holidays are led by local guides who bring these issues to the fore. As you explore remote communities, visit craft workshops, and watch performances of traditional folk music and dance, you’ll also learn about the fine balance required for people to earn an income from farming in Madagascar’s fragile protected areas.

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Wildlife & environment

The first famine caused by climate change?

Over a million Madagascans, mostly in the south of the country, were affected by famine between 2021 and 2023, after three years of failed rainy seasons resulted in the country’s worst drought in 40 years. But while Madagascar is no stranger to natural disasters – flooding and hurricanes are also common – this food crisis had extra significance. Several organisations, including the United Nations, declared it the first climate change-induced famine.

It coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent global lockdown, which forced markets in Madagascar to close and prevented migratory workers from moving elsewhere within the country or abroad to earn money. The government has neglected to foster secure employment or provide infrastructure, keeping the people of southern Madagascar firmly embedded in poverty.

Gilles Gautier is the owner of Tsarasoa Lodge, in the Sahanambo Valley of Madagascar’s Andringitra National Park. “In the south, I would say that drought is likely endemic. The government is blaming climate change but in my opinion it’s not true. Forty years ago it was the same situation, chronic hunger and serious drought every few years, with cattle being sold for nothing. I don’t deny climate change, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t believe it caused this drought. The problem is most likely political. Successive governments consider the people of the south ungovernable, they just leave them to it, so nothing has ever been done to fix the underlying issues.”

Whether or not climate change caused Madagascar’s devastating drought, it has undoubtedly had a bearing. The country is experiencing an increase in aridity well beyond normal, and has been for years.

Many of those affected were subsistence farmers, and therefore particularly vulnerable to shifts in climactic conditions. Out of desperation, thousands of people resorted to eating mud for sustenance, leaves flavoured with salt, and locusts. Some were forced to sell their worldly possessions, even their land, to buy cassava or rice. Farming families resorted to sleeping in their fields to protect their precious crops from thieves. And children suffering severe malnutrition have been forced out of school to forage as best they can.

All of this brings home the unfairness of the climate crisis. Around 80 percent of the Madagascan population lives in poverty. They contribute almost nothing to global carbon emissions, yet they are among the worst affected.

Aid agencies and charities provided famine relief, but what happened in Madagascar won’t be a one-off. It’s a harbinger of things to come in many parts of the world, where just a few years of poor rainfall can be the difference between life and death on a large scale.

What you can do
If you want to make a difference, here and now, there are various funding appeals to benefit Madagascar that you can contribute to, such as UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children.

It can be difficult to know when to visit a country after a crisis, but tour operators are organising trips to Madagascar.. Responsible holidays here use locally owned accommodations and restaurants, and local guides, ensuring that as much money as possible stays in communities. Tourism in Madagascar, when it is responsible, creates jobs, protects nature and traditional ways of life, and encourages the development of infrastructure that benefits all Madagascans.

Deforestation

Madagascar has lost about 90 percent of its tree cover, leaving exposed landscapes vulnerable to having their quality topsoil washed away. The country’s rivers have, notoriously, turned red due to soil erosion caused by deforestation. Madagascar’s protected areas are disappearing at alarming rates. And, with over 90 per cent of the country’s endemic species dependent on forest, the future is bleak.

‘Slash-and-burn’ agriculture, where forested land is burned (at the risk of fire spreading out of control) so that crops can be grown, and livestock grazed, is one of the leading causes of deforestation in Madagascar’s protected areas. Typically, this is done without the permission of the government or community organisation that owns the land, and the soil degrades within a few years, after which the farmer moves on to the next patch.

“There are multiple reasons for the deforestation,” says Gilles, “it really depends on the region. On the east coast they slash and burn to cultivate cassava, maize, rice. On the plateau and on the west coast they are mainly burning away old grass because it’s not suitable for their zebu (cattle) to eat. In other areas the deforestation can also be for mining.”

This technique goes back a long way in Malagasy farming practices and is considered by many local people to be the only way to grow their crops. Others feel they have no choice but to continue cutting down trees and burning them for charcoal, in the absence of any other form of employment. Some 80 percent of Madagascar’s population lives below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day.

Conservation through stability
Through its Titre Vert (Green Title) scheme, the Madagascan government has a potential solution to the problem of unsustainable agriculture – in the north of the country, at any rate. Slash-and-burn farmers here are very often migrants from the south of the country, who have come north looking for work. Because they have no rights to land, they are forced to farm illegally, and unsustainably. Now the government is offering land titles and basic housing to people in the south, to persuade them to remain where they are rather than coming north.

The stated aim is to give people stability and a way to earn money; to encourage the farming of less water-hungry crops such as sorghum over maize, and ultimately to prevent people from entering protected areas.

But it’s not as simple as that. There has long been a pattern of internal migration northwards in Madagascar, usually driven by drought. And just giving someone ownership of land does not mean it’s going to be any easier to farm it. As can be seen from the most recent famine, it only takes one or two bad seasons for people to fall into desperate situations. To protect its natural areas effectively, the Madagascan government must address the root cause of deforestation, which is poverty and a lack of other means of income.

Tree-planting initiatives
In the Sahanambo Valley, Gilles Gautier has spent the last two decades spearheading a tree-planting initiative that has transformed his small corner of Madagascar. “We’ve developed our techniques, our processes. Now, in some areas we have a 90 percent success rate with our planting where it used to be around 20 percent because we’re correctly preparing the ground and using healthy trees.”

Gilles reports that his valley has not seen any burning for deforestation for the last five years, something he credits to how embedded his project has become in the local community. “People here who were young when we started this, they’ve grown up to head their own families now. They understand the issues of deforestation because of our continuous work. We’ve been planting every rainy season for the past ten or fifteen years, and I am always present.”

It's a fantastic effort, but one that Gilles purposefully keeps quite small, so that he can manage it properly himself and hopefully continue its effectiveness by doing so. “Planting 100,000 trees a year sounds like a lot but the country needs to be planting millions, billions.”

What you can do
Responsible holidays in Madagascar typically spend a lot of time in natural landscapes and protected areas. Simply by visiting these places you are proving to the Malagasy government that there is value in conserving them for tourism. And when you visit them with guides from local communities, it shows people that there is an economic alternative to cutting down trees for firewood and agriculture.

Don’t buy sapphires, or indeed any products made of precious stones, while on holiday in Madagascar, as mining is a significant cause of deforestation and the destruction of protected habitat. The same goes for any products made of animal skin, fur, or leather, as there’s a good chance these were harvested illegally. Avoid any products made from rosewood or palisander, which are threatened tree species.

You can also support the work of charities such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that work with the Madagascan government to increase the amount of protected landscape, but also with local communities to find suitable alternative farming methods and incomes. If you’re visiting Ranomafana National Park in southeastern Madagascar, you can also visit the conservation and biodiversity research centre, Centre ValBio, supported by Stony Brook University in New York. The centre offers group tours of the campus, and the park.

People & culture

Ancestry & taboos

One of the most important fundamentals of Malagasy culture is that of razana (ancestors). There is a widely held belief that the dead are the link between the living and Zanahary, the Creator; that the ancestors remain intimately involved with family life, and that to cause them any offence would be extremely unwise.

Another vitally important aspect of Malagasy culture is fady, which means taboos. These unofficial laws of life often relate to food, or the timing of certain rituals. One village may forbid funerals being held on a Tuesday, for instance, while another may threaten severe consequences for anyone who sings while they eat. Fady are closely linked with razana of course – they might be tied to the maintenance of a family tomb, or prohibit anyone from sitting in a dead grandmother’s favourite chair. And, when a fady is so broad and restrictive that it is getting in the way of everyday life, the living may try to negotiate a way around it with the dead.

“Understanding and respecting fady can be a bit tricky as they are so very diverse,” says Gilles Gautier. “Every region, every village, every family can have its own fady! So, in one place you can’t pick up stones at night, in another you can’t have a white rooster. If you go to these places and you don’t want to risk causing offence, you need a really local guide. Because even your driver or your tour guide won’t necessarily know all of the fady in an area. Like, everyone in this village eats goat – except this family! It’s always better just to ask people, and people do appreciate that you care about their traditions.”

While some of these rules may seem curious to the outsider, others are very clearly rooted in common sense. For instance it is fady to eat most lemur species – it’s also fady to cut down trees in some forests, and more people are likely to observe a taboo than they are a government order.

What you can do:
Always ask your guide to find out about any local taboos when visiting a community – it’s much better to check politely than it is to risk offending people accidentally.

Known for being friendly, warm, and welcoming, Malagasy have another belief known as 'fihavanana’ which is similar to karma – treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Do what you can to avoid confrontation, however small – ‘fihavanana’ translates into tourist language as not getting impatient at the check-in desk, or annoyed about breakfast being a few minutes late.

Although we as visitors might consider Malagasy beliefs and culture to be fascinating, responsible travellers should try not to make too big a deal of it, lest it make local people feel uncomfortable, as if their ways of life are odd or unusual.

Child sexual abuse tourism

Prostitution is everywhere in Madagascar, and can be a shock for many tourists. Even more unthinkable, however, is the growth of child sexual abuse tourism here, with adults trafficking children because of extreme poverty. Policing of child sexual abuse tourism has increased in tourist areas over the last few years, and international child protection agencies are aware of the problem, but lack of funding has meant that there is little consistency in policing in many cases.

What you can do: Always report any suspicious activities with regards to children, and, in particular, the tourism locations which are allowing it to happen, to local authorities. There is a telephone hotline in Madagascar for this purpose, the number is 147.

Responsible tourism tips

Poverty is the biggest issue in Madagascar. Without tackling this, nothing will change. Travelling responsibly ensures that as much of your money as possible stays in the local economy. Shopping at the markets, using local guides and buying local food all makes a big difference. Support the national parks systems and don’t resent the park entry fee. If conservation and responsible tourism bring money, it makes it more likely that Madagascan officials will protect habitats and the precious wildlife that depend on them. Many Malagasy people are keen to be involved in conservation and tourism projects, meaning that tourism operators that truly engage with local communities have been welcomed with open arms. Seek out tourism operators who are not only working with local people, but supporting them to create their own sustainable ways of living. If you want to volunteer in Madagascar, do your research properly. All of our volunteer holidays are carefully screened to ensure they provide genuine benefits; and the volunteer organisations we work with have years of experience in-country. As a basic starting point for your research on any volunteer holiday, here are our 10 questions that you should ask when looking for a suitable project. If you are one of the many bird watchers flocking (sorry) to Madagascar, become a member of the African Bird Club, which funds conservation projects and works very much hand in hand with local communities. It helps to speak French to order a beer, but there is still a difficult ex-colonial relationship between the Malagasy and the French, so better to learn at least a few words in Malagasy. Just being able to say Manahoana (hello) shows you’re making an effort and can go a long way. When shopping in Madagascar, beware of anything made of illegal hardwoods such as rosewood, and also anything made from shells (including tortoise), coral, fossils, or snakeskin. To get your message across to the vendor tell them it is fady (taboo) for you to own these items. Don’t buy sapphires in Madagascar. Sapphire mining has boomed here since 1998 when a seam of high-quality sapphires was found in the Ilakaka river valley. If you are tempted into buying some locally, you should be aware that children are used to source sapphires, as they are often sent into deep, narrow tunnels. Sapphire mining also threatens rainforests, and the endangered lemurs within them.