Our Earth Raise campaign ran from Wednesday 22nd to Wednesday 29th April.
Thanks to your amazing kindness, generosity and support, we raised £61,016, which will make a measurable, meaningful, and in many cases lifesaving impact to the environment and the lives of Malagasy men, women and children.
Thank you.
Our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods portfolio manager Christiane Randrianarisoa, explains what your donation will deliver:
‘Resilient Forests and Livelihoods is about one simple but urgent reality: forests and people cannot thrive separately.
‘In Madagascar, many rural families live at the edge of survival, facing declining soil fertility, unpredictable rainfall, and limited economic opportunities. At the same time, the country’s extraordinary forests, home to unique biodiversity found nowhere else on Earth, are under increasing pressure from deforestation, often driven by necessity rather than choice.
‘We work alongside communities to strengthen livelihoods while restoring and protecting forests.’
This is what your donation will help achieve: a platform – equipment, training and seed funding – upon which Malagasy men, women and children can improve their lives and livelihoods, and protect and expand the wilderness upon which we all rely.
Madagascar is beautiful, and a critical biodiversity hotspot. Ninety per cent of species here are found nowhere else on Earth. We are also one of only four ‘carbon sinks’ – Madagascar absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit – on Earth, one of the world’s last remaining ‘brakes’ slowing the runaway climate catastrophe.
But we are losing our wilderness. If deforestation continues as it is, the Malagasy forests will be gone before 2065.
Poverty is one driver of this. 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. Hunger and urgent need drive people to remove trees to create land to grow more food.
This vicious cycle can be ended, but only if we act to reduce poverty and protect Madagascar’s wild spaces. And that’s what our Earth Raise campaign is for.
We will use what you generously donate to:
train Malagasy people in dynamic agro-forestry (DAF), so they can restore degraded land, increase crop yields, and reduce the need for forest clearance
restore wild land and reforest, recreating spaces for Malagasy plants and animals to thrive
strengthen community conservation leadership, improve environmental protection and stewardship, and improve livelihoods and incomes
We are already doing this. In Mango Trochi community, we, alongside our partner SAF Melaky, and the local community, have restored 35 hectares of forest, some 52,500 seedlings, in the period 2020-2025.
We also operate a farmer field school, where practices and initiatives in DAF and other agricultural innovations are demonstrated and practised.
Soamino is one farmer who attends the centre, and uses the DAF techniques in her fields.
She said: ‘My harvests were not good. There was too much pressure on the soil, which needed time and assistance to regain its earlier fertility. Sometimes, we did not even have enough to eat.
‘But since I have been using the techniques I have learnt at the field school, all my crops, such as aubergines and cucumbers, have done much better. All have been successful. This is by using better crop rotation, natural fertiliser, crop variation and intercropping. I have seen real results because I can now both sell and consume my produce.
‘It is a great benefit to me to not face such stress finding enough food, and to know we have some money in case we need things for an emergency.’
Soamino is far from alone, and the reforestation in Mango Trochi is by no means an isolated success. What we are doing is working. But there is so much more which must be done.
The slogan marking our 40th anniversary this 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 have stood together, and will create stronger forests.
Malagasy
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‘Resilient Forests and Livelihoods is about one simple but urgent reality: forests and people cannot thrive separately.
