(English) Land, Lives and Livelihoods: DAF and MfM

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Restore Forests, Renew Futures in Madagascar

Double Your Impact with Earth Raise 2026

Wednesday 22^nd – Wednesday 29^th April 2026

Money for Madagascar’s Earth Raise 2026 (the new name for the Big Give’s Green Match Fund) fundraising campaign begins in a fortnight, at 12pm (UK time) on Wednesday 22^nd April.

From that moment until 12pm UK time on Wednesday 29^th April, everything you donate will have:

• double the value: your donation will be doubled by our pledgers and champion fundraiser, meaning every £20 you donate will deliver £40 to Malagasy communities; and

• double the impact: it will be used to improve Malagasy people’s lives and livelihoods and to protect and expand Madagascar’s vibrant, vital wilderness, upon which we all rely

Madagascar is one of only four ‘carbon sinks’ – regions which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit – on Earth. It is one of the world’s few ‘brakes’ on the climate crisis increasing temperatures, raising sea-levels and causing crop failure.

But Madagascar is also losing its wilderness. If deforestation continues at its present rate, all of its forests will be gone before 2065.

Some of this deforestation is driven by poverty. More than 90 per cent of Malagasy men, women and children live on or below the global poverty baseline, and most report missing at least one meal per day. This hunger drives many to remove trees to create land to increase food production.

That’s why our Earth Raise 2026 campaign aims to raise £30,000, which will be doubled in value to £60,000, to address Malagasy food insecurity and protect and reforest Madagascar’s wilderness, by:

• training Malagasy people in dynamic agro-forestry and climate smart agriculture, to restore degraded land, increase crop diversity, resilience and yields increasing food security and incomes, and reducing the need for forest clearance

• restore wild land and reforest, recreating spaces for Malagasy plants and animals to thrive

• strengthen community conservation leadership, to improve environmental protection and stewardship, and livelihoods and incomes

In the Tsinjoarivo rainforest, MfM’s Dynamic Agro-Forestry (DAF) project has been training men and women in soil protection, methods to increase agricultural yield, and in protecting their local forest.

Fidèle Randriamitantsoa, a relay farmer in Sarodrano Tsinjoarivo, said: ‘Before adopting DAF, agricultural production on my land was very low, because the soil was not very fertile and I could not afford fertiliser.

‘After receiving training in DAF and seed technique, I learned to make vermicompost, and produced 3m³ of fertiliser.

‘DAF proved to me that it is possible to obtain good production even on a small surface. On a plot of land measuring 40x40m, I harvested 80 cups of beans from 17 sown cups. I also harvested three bredes soubiques (a Malagasy green, used in many dishes) from a 10g packet of seeds, and 500kg of potatoes using vermicompost.

‘My brother saw my harvests, and also decided to adopt DAF.’

Our work here and elsewhere in Madagascar proves that there is no ‘clash’ between the survival of men, women and children reliant on what they can grow, and the remote forest in which they live and upon which the global ecosystem relies.

With your donation, which will have double the impact, and will continue our work uniting conservation and development, we will be able to do even more.

The slogan marking this, our 40^th anniversary year, is ‘Hazo tokana tsy mba ala, Ny firaisakina no hery: One tree does not make a forest – Together we are stronger.’

With Earth Raise 2026, we can stand together, and build stronger forests.

Please share this message with friends, family and colleagues, and save the date.

Earth Raise 2026

Earth Raise 2026: what we will do

Reaping the fruits of the forest – DAF with MfM