‘As a result of this project, we’ve noticed remarkable changes… We’re planting new trees and we look after the forests, reporting when people come to chop down trees… we’re learning new techniques and raising awareness about the importance of the environment.‘
The Big Give Green Match Fund ran from Tuesday 22 to Tuesday 29 April 2025.
The campaign – thanks to backing from our Champion Funder the Reed Foundation and two other pledgers – doubles every donation, giving us £2 for every £1 you give.
We reached our target for the campaign on Friday 25 April – thank you!
But you can still donate, here: your donation will be very gratefully received and will be used to help Malagasy men, women and children lift themselves from poverty and hunger, and protect and expand the vibrant, vital Malagasy rainforest.
And we wanted to let you know what we are fundraising for – how your money will help Malagasy men, women and children, Malagasy wildlife, the Malagasy rainforest, and by extension every person on the planet.
Because this year, we are raising money for our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods (RFL) programme, which is working to provide Malagasy communities – young people and adults, men and women – a platform, training and expertise to develop, manage and enact initiatives to protect and expand the forests and environment which surrounds them, and – crucially – improve their livelihoods and living standards.
The latter is vital. Not only because development and the environment must work together, but also because 79.9 per cent of Malagasy people live on or below the global poverty baseline of £1.73 per day. Eighty per cent of Malagasy people rely on agriculture for their income and/or survival, many of them on subsistence farming.
This poverty impacts people severely. More than five per cent (50.6 per 1,000) of Malagasy children die before they reach their fifth birthday, compared to 3.7 per cent as a global average, and 0.4 per cent in the UK.
Simultaneously, even though Madagascar is a ‘carbon sink’ – one of only four countries in the world agreed to absorb more carbon than it emits – the impacts of man-made climate catastrophe are particularly harsh here: droughts and floods ruin crops, while extreme rainfalls wash away fertile soil which will not be replaced within the probable life of humanity as a species.
The temptation – and without accessible alternatives almost the necessity – is to remove trees to ‘free’ more land for farming: destroying habitats for animals, and harming the forests on which we all rely.
That’s where we come in.
RFL directly addresses all these challenges, helping people access incomes and food, which we all need and deserve, while actively growing and protecting the forests we all also need, and the animals within them need and deserve.
One example is Youths for Lemurs, a project which since 2021 has been helping young people to champion (and benefit from) development and the environment.
Working with Madagasikara Voakajy, MfM’s project focuses on reducing the need for forest clearance, which significantly threatens lemurs. One practice in eastern Madagascar was to use slash-and-burn ‘forestry’ techniques, in which forests were burnt to clear space for rice cultivation.
Endangered Species International reports that: ‘The population of the lemur has fallen to between 2,000 and 2,500 animals in the wild, a highly disturbing 95% decrease in the last 17 years.’ There are now fewer ring-tailed lemurs living in the wild than in zoos around the world: creating habitats which help the lemur population survive is incredibly important.
Youth for Lemurs has educated 239 young people in Eastern Madagascar on sustainable farming practices.
They have enhanced yields, introduced aromatic and medicinal plants, and promote ethical marketing, and have become the driving force behind our conservation efforts.
And they are, crucially, also sharing that knowledge. Those 239 young people have carried out 356 awareness sessions and 19 reforestation activities, reaching 4,711 people.
As in all our RFL projects, Malagasy people are being empowered to help themselves, help other Malagasy people and help the wildlife and wider environment around them.
Maxime, a 26-year-old from Ampahitra, 13km from Moramanga, explains: ‘I joined the Pronki group, an environmental protection initiative, in 2019 after the Madagasikara Voakajy team helped me realise the urgent need to protect our biodiversity and lemurs.
‘Our group joined the RFL project. As farmers, we’re learning new techniques and raising awareness about the importance of the environment. We also conduct regular patrols and report violations to the authorities.
‘As a result of this project, we’ve noticed remarkable changes. For example, we now cultivate the same plot for multiple years and use fewer seeds, reducing seed usage from 65 per cent to 50 per cent.
‘We’re planting new trees and we look after the forests, reporting when people come to chop down trees, and we’re setting up a larger cooperative with 50 members, to pool our expertise and grow and distribute rice, ginger, beans and other crops. We are working to make that the first cooperative, and to develop more, as platforms for youth engagement but also contribute to the sustainable development in our region.
‘We’re helping our communities, and we’re helping the forest, including the lemurs within it.‘
As noted, we already achieved our Green Match Fund target – thank you so much!
But if you still want to donate to the RFL programme, please do so here: your donation will be very gratefully received and will help Malagasy people lift themselves from poverty and hunger, and protect and expand the Malagasy rainforest, upon which we all rely.
Your donation will benefit:
Malagasy people who deserve as we all do to live in reasonable comfort, free from risk of malnutrition and harm: your donation will help us provide the platform from which they can increase their incomes, produce the food they need, and develop and manage their own initiatives and ideas. You will help change lives, absolutely for the better
The Malagasy rainforest and all the animals and plants within it (the Malagasy wilderness contains five per cent of all the world’s species of flora and fauna: 80 per cent of those are found nowhere else on the planet): your donation will give Malagasy people the means to protect and expand the forests, and safeguard the animals and plants it contains and supports
Everyone: the world relies on its forests. That includes all of us. Even if we did not have a moral responsibility to protect – or at least not be responsible for harming – the living things with which we share the planet, our rainforests provide air we breathe and are central to our hopes and efforts to reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Your work and generosity will, in this way, benefit every person – every living thing – on Earth
Thank you!
Thanks so much for reading, and please help us give Malagasy people the platform they need to improve their lives and health, and protect and promote the magnificent ecosystem in which they live, and on which we all rely.
As the tree has many leaves which give it the nourishment it needs to grow, produce fruits and seeds, provide shelter and produce oxygen, so we can be the leaves which provide Malagasy people what they need to thrive, and to protect the forests on which we rely, as well as the animals within them.
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Simultaneously, even though Madagascar is a ‘carbon sink’ – one of only four countries in the world agreed to absorb more carbon than it emits – the impacts of man-made climate catastrophe are particularly harsh here: droughts and floods ruin crops, while extreme rainfalls wash away fertile soil which will not be replaced within the probable life of humanity as a species.
Endangered Species International reports that: ‘The population of the lemur has fallen to between 2,000 and 2,500 animals in the wild, a highly disturbing 95% decrease in the last 17 years.’ There are now fewer ring-tailed lemurs living in the wild than in zoos around the world: creating habitats which help the lemur population survive is incredibly important.
Maxime, a 26-year-old from Ampahitra, 13km from Moramanga, explains: ‘I joined the Pronki group, an environmental protection initiative, in 2019 after the Madagasikara Voakajy team helped me realise the urgent need to protect our biodiversity and lemurs.
