(English) Road update: compensation promise to impacted people

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THE MALAGASY government has said it will continue the construction of a road in the country’s east, without delay, despite its negative impact on communities in its path.

The government’s Minister of Communication and Culture, Volamiranty Donna Mara described anyone with concerns about the road and its impact on Malagasy men, women and children as ‘politically-motivated’ and ‘undermining development’, adding:

‘This strategic project is essential, not only for economic development but also to ensure sustainable connectivity for the country.‘

As we have noted previously, the Malagasy government is using an IMF grant of £258.8m, from the body’s ‘Resilience and Sustainability Facility’, to build two roads, one connecting the Malagasy capital Antananarivo with Toamasina on the east coast, and the Route du Soleil, which would stretch around 850km down the east coast of Madagascar from Maroansetra to Manajaray.

One major concern is that the most recently published road plans show the Anjozorobe Angavo New Protected Area and Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor Natural Resource Reserve, as well as Makira National Park, would lose 1,490 hectares (3,682 acres) of forest, home to critically endangered lemurs like the indri, and crowned sifaka.

In our most recent update, in March, we shared an appeal by Money for Madagascar and 108 other Malagasy and Madagascar-based organisations asking for the Antananarivo-Toamasina road’s construction to be paused.

This came in the wake of the devastation of farmland – mainly rice paddies – along the 80km stretch of the road on which work has already began, described by members of affected communities – almost 500 households (around 2,350 people) as:

‘(the road’s construction company Samcrete) razed our rice crops and field and deprived us of our main means of subsistence.‘

In her statement, Madame Mara said that Samcrete is ‘preparing’ a proposal to compensate the people affected.

Madagascar’s Public Works Minister Richard Rafidison said: ‘The ministry and (Samcrete) are in constant dialogue with the farmers, and a compensation system has already been implemented to restore their properties.

‘We need to be united. It is regrettable to see that our fellow citizens have sent letters to the IMF and MEPs, denouncing the project,’ and said civil society organisations and other stakeholders will be invited to a consultation around November to determine the route of the road’s next two phases.

We welcome the Malagasy government’s engagement with the concerns the communities raised about the work, and await the details of the compensation Samcrete proposes. It is also heartening to hear that organisations will be able to take part in ongoing consultations about the roads.

We do feel that we must restate, however, that our concerns about the roads are not motivated by political opinion, nor by any ‘anti-development’ sentiment.

As we have said from the start, we believe strongly that better communications are vital in Madagascar, and could help reconnect remote Malagasy communities to the national society with which they only connect from a distance at present. We are, after all, a development organisation as well as an environmental one.

But that environmental element is equally important. We as an organisation, and humanity as a species not only does not have the right to destroy and remove the rainforest, wiping out plants and animals as we do so, but in fact have a responsibility to protect and expand the rainforest, and help Madagascar’s native flora and fauna thrive.

Even were this not our duty, it would benefit us immensely as every living being – including every person – on the planet relies upon the rainforest.

And even from a purely developmental perspective, our aim with development is to help Malagasy men, women and children develop means to lift themselves from poverty: this aim is not served or advanced by destroying people’s land and livelihoods.

Once again, we welcome the government’s engagement and hope Samcrete’s compensation package meets the needs of those whose land and crops have been ruined. And we are pleased that more conversations will take place before work begins on the second and third stages of the road’s construction.

But we do not stand in the way of development: rather, we work to ensure that development goes hand in hand with, rather than clashes against, the environment, and that it benefits Malagasy men, women and children, regardless of their location.