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Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin’ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity.
Money for Madagascar is delighted to have been invited to participate in an innovative international tree-growth and care initiative.
The Darwin Nursery Exchange Project is in its final year and its last ‘nurserymen workshop’ – designed to share best practice, experience and build networks in creating tree nurseries to enable reforestation in Madagascar – will take place from 2nd to 7th September (2025).
The project is led by Chester Zoo, and its contributors are Madagasikara Voakajy, Madagascar Fauna & Flora Group, Missouri Botanical Garden, GERP, UEBT, and KEW Madagascar.
Next month’s workshop will be held in three locations in Andasibe, Eastern Madagascar, and will explore potential new sites for nursery creation in Madagascar, new techniques, and evaluate the work that has taken place since the project began in 2023.
Money for Madagascar has been invited to participate, as a result of our commitment to and successes in nursery development, reforestation and helping Malagasy people lift themselves from poverty while protecting and expanding the vibrant Malagasy wilderness on which we all rely.
Two of our partners will be involved in different ways.
We have nominated the SADABE NGO, with which we partner in the Tsinjoarivo forest, to participate in the event.
We work with SADABE in Tsinjoarivo, which the Rainforest Trust identifies as a priority conservation site, where flora and fauna are under threat of extinction including from vulnerable farming communities who rely on the forest for their livelihoods.
Our partnership works to create and operate tree nurseries, and to help set up and provide skills and equipment for Dynamic Agroforestry, in which Malagasy people can improve their agricultural outputs without harming – and in fact protecting and expanding – their rainforest, wilderness and all the plants and animals within them. 
Another Money for Madagascar partner, Mitsinjo will also be involved.
We work with Mitsinjo in the Torotorofotsy Wetland, near the Andasibe Mantadia National Park, home to iconic, critically-endangered, species such as the golden mantella frog, the greater bamboo lemur and the black and white ruffed lemur.
The Park has been seriously degraded in the last decades, but our work is making a difference. In 2024, in the forest communities of Betombotsirika and Behontsa, we have:
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Replanted 27 hectares of unique indigenous forest
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Created 10 local jobs in tree nurseries
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Trained 40 families in sustainable agriculture
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Trained the communities in environmental protection
The workshop’s participants will be able to visit the Mitsinjo restoration sites (one of two field visits planned for the workshop) to learn more about their experiences, approach, methods and successes.
We are extremely honoured to be a part of this excellent initiative and delighted that our partners SADABE and Mitsinjo are both able to benefit from and share expertise to implement standardised best practice, drive effective forest restoration, and promote sustainable economic alternatives in Malagasy communities.
Malagasy forests are globally recognised biodiversity hotspots and directly support the livelihoods of people in rural communities.
The Project connects very closely to our uniting of development – helping people lift themselves from poverty, improving their lives and livelihoods – and the environment, protecting and expanding the natural resource on which every living thing on Earth depends, and we are exceptionally pleased to play a part in this collaborative and vital effort.
