(English) The Green Match Fund: it’s in the name

Saturday April 5th, 2025
| Dim Sylwadau

Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.

With the start of this year’s Green Match Fund just 17 days away, we take a brief look at one of the strands of our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme: ECCLiM.

Green Match Fund: 12pm Tuesday 22 April 2025 – 12pm Tuesday 29 April 2025

WHAT’s in a name? Some names are created for beauty, others to distract or deceive. Others still are chosen because they simply describe the thing to which they are attached.

One of the latter is the Green Match Fund, which starts at 12pm on Tuesday 22 April and ends a week later, at 12pm on Tuesday 29 April.

The Green Match Fund does what it says it will: it is a chance for organisations – including Money for Madagascar – to campaign to raise money for ‘green’ programmes and projects, those which focus on the environment, and it ‘matches’ every donation you make and we receive during its week: that is, your donation is doubled. For every pound you donate, we will receive two.

Another is the Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme, which as its name suggests helps Malagasy people develop skills, initiatives and innovations to protect and grow Malagasy rainforests (and their flora and fauna) and improve their lives and livelihoods.

This is what we will spend your doubled donation on. And it is vital.

Four in every five (79.9 per cent) of Malagasy people live on or below the global poverty baseline of £1.73 per day. Four in five Malagasy people rely on agriculture – most on subsistence agriculture – for survival.

Simultaneously, the impacts of climate change are hammering Madagascar: droughts and floods are wrecking crops and extreme rain events are stripping the fertile soil from the island. Food shortage and severe malnutrition threaten the vast majority of Malagasy men, women and children.

Under these circumstances, it’s easy to understand that without an alternative, Malagasy people feel forced to clear areas of forest to free land for growing more food.

But this is also catastrophic. Because the world’s rainforests are home to spectacular biodiversity and unique plant and animal species: 90 per cent of the flora and fauna in Madagascar’s rainforests are found nowhere else on Earth. These species must be protected.

And we all rely on the rainforest for our own survival as a species. We have a duty, and very good reason, to protect and expand these forests.

That is what your doubled donation will do: provide people with the platform from which they can escape hunger and poverty, and protect rare and amazing plants and animals, and the forests upon which we all rely.

One example of how RSF does this is also the final example – for now – of a name describing what it is attached to exactly: Empowering Communities for Conservation and Livelihoods in Madagascar (ECCLiM).

From July 2023 to December 2024, ECCLiM worked with communities in three Malagasy Key Biodiversity Areas: the ‘Bank of (the river) Onilahy‘, the ‘Lake Ihotry-Mangoky Delta Complex‘, both in the South-West, and Tsinjoarivo, in Madagascar’s Highlands.

All three are host to wildlife and plants under threat, many of which are unique to their region, including Onilahy’s spiny forest, in which 53 per cent of plant species and eight full genera are endemic, as are many lemurs, tortoises and birds.

The Lake Ihotry-Mangoky Delta Complex hosts a baobab forest and several endemic plant and wildlife species, particularly water birds, while the Tsinjaorivo area contains at least 11 species of primate, 17 species of tenrec, seven species of rodent, five of them endemic, six carnivores, four of which are endemic, and at least 247 plant species.

ECCLiM created a pool of cash for Malagasy people, including women, vulnerable minority groups and young people, to set up and operate projects which protect the unique and vital Malagasy rainforest, increase incomes, and become more resilient to climate change.

We helped Malagasy communities create and operate Grassroots Local Communities (COBAs), divided into Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) or Community Savings Groups (GECs).

These community organisations provided loans and grants to enable people to improve their farming techniques, train in new skills and purchase equipment and seeds.

Our work enabled and supported Malagasy people to run forestry activities, including agroforestry, improve agricultural production and sustainability, restore degraded habitats including soil damaged and lost because of climate change-driven unusual weather events, and train young leaders to deliver forestry-related support services.

Integrating community empowerment, economic resilience, and environmental sustainability, ECCLiM delivered:

  • Youth Leadership in Development – we trained 75 young leaders, 42 of them women, to provide agro-ecological guidance, improving local governance and livelihoods

  • Community Savings for Stability – 93 savings groups, with 2,488 members, 60 per cent of them women, strengthened financial resilience and conservation funding

  • Sustainable Farming for Climate Resilience – 77 per cent of participating households at least tripled their crop yields, boosted income by 47 per cent, and reduced farming costs by two-thirds

  • Stronger Local Governance – improved decision-making, communication, and participation has resulted in better natural resource management

  • Conservation in Action – increased community engagement and financial stability has resulted in reforestation and improved forest protection patrols

Christiane Randrianarisoa, Money for Madagascar’s Programme Manager and Network and Resource Mobiliser for the Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme, said:

‘This project has highlighted the power of local ownership, demonstrating that when communities, especially young people, take the lead, change is effective and lasting.

‘Linking economic incentives with conservation helps motivate communities to protect their environment. The project’s success offers a replicable model for other regions.

‘It has helped create stronger communities, thriving ecosystems, and shows how Malagasy people can achieve true sustainable development.’

What can I do?

The Green Match Fund starts at 12pm on Tuesday 22 April 2025, and will end a week later, 12pm on Tuesday 29 April 2025.

To help us reach our target of £60,000, at this point you can:

agriculture, climate, climate catastrophe, climate change, community, conservation, development, environment, equality, food, forest, Green Give, Green Match Fund, lemur, livelihoods, loans, Madagascar, Malagasy, poverty, rainforest, RFL, savings and loan, wildlife, women, young women
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