Money for Madagascar’s Earth Raise 2026 (the new name for the Big Give’s Green Match Fund) fundraising campaign ran from Wednesday 22nd to Wednesday 29th April.
We reached and surpassed our £60,000 target. Thanks to your kindness and generosity, we raised £61,016, which will have a double 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 aimed to raise £30,000, to 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, we will continue our work uniting conservation and development. Thank you!
The slogan marking this, our 40th 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 have stood together, and will build stronger forests.
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