By IPS Correspondents
DURBAN, Sep 19 2003 (IPS)

The President of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana has announced that his country intends increasing its protected forest, wetland and marine ecosystems from 1.7 to six million hectares.

This is significant in global terms. As a large island, Madagascar is home to many species that are found nowhere else in the world: 48 endemic primates, 110 endemic birds, 346 reptiles and 154 amphibians (most of which are endemic) and 95 species of endemic freshwater fish.

The island has a range of habitats from rainforests to deserts.

Madagascar has set itself five years to achieve a trebling of protected areas and 150,000 U.S. dollars have been pledged for a National Environmental Action Plan. This money will come from various sources including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID).

This is good news, since poverty, deforestation and erosion have become serious threats to biodiversity in Madagascar.

Ravalomanana attended the World Conservation Union’s Vth World Parks Congress held in the South African port city of Durban from Sep. 8 to Sep. 17.

During the conference, Mozambique, South Africa and Senegal also said they intend setting aside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in their respective countries.

The Mozambican government is in the process of ratifying the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. It intends declaring 700,000 hectares of the Zambezi River Delta as a Ramsar Site.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) will work with the government of Mozambique on a larger initiative to ensure sustainable management of 400,000 hectares of mangroves found along Mozambique’s coast. Mangroves are vitally important as a wildlife habitat, breeding areas for fish and for coastal protection against climate change and erosion.

South Africa will proclaim three new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) later this year: the Cape Peninsula MPA, a 900-square kilometre area along the Pondo coastline (Eastern Cape) and Aliwal Shoal of KwaZulu-Natal which boasts coral reefs popular with scuba divers.

Mozambique’s minister of tourism, Fernando Sumbana Junior, announced his country’s commitment to establishing three new MPAs: two off the north coast and one off Maputo in the south.

Senegalese Fisheries Minister Pape Diouf said his country will create four marine protected areas, totalling some 7,500 sq kms, which should protect fish stocks from depletion by overfishing.

Quantities of valuable coastal fish caught in Senegal’s waters have diminished to less than 20 percent compared to the 1950s. Faced with diminishing catches, local communities along the coast requested the creation of these MPAs’ and were supported in their lobbying by WWF.

All the environmental initiatives announced at the World Parks Congress will have strong community involvement and opportunities for poverty alleviation.

Another important challenge facing conservation in Africa is conflict. Transboundary conservation areas hold a hope for promoting peace on the continent.

Ministers of the Environment from Nigeria and Cameroon have agreed to protect the Cross River gorilla, the world’s rarest sub-species of gorilla – there are only 280 individuals left, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The two countries, represented by Cameroon’s Chief Tanyi-Mbianyor Clarkson and Nigeria’s Colonel Bala Mande, signed an agreement that will pave the way for a transboundary protected area combining the Takamanda-Okwangwo complex.

The conference’s Africa plenary, held this week, opened with traditional song and dance as two kings made their way onto the stage. King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulu nation, South Africa, said a country without protected areas was like a room without light.

He said protected areas should be viewed as a community asset.

The importance of people in conservation was echoed by King Osagyefou Amoatia Ofori Panin of Akyem Abuakwa, Ghana, who said "We are trustees of all the properties of this earth. It is ironic that the trustees are now destroying the earth."

However, by changing attitudes, people could become allies of the environment. Panin’s department – the king is presidential advisor on environment – was able to mobilise village brigades to combat ‘timber predators’. Some 200 towns already had village rangers patrolling forests and he wanted to expand the programme to all 900 towns in Ghana.

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