Summary
The Climate Resilient Cocoa Landscapes (CRCL) project utilizes a landscape analytical framework to assess the interface between the cocoa cash crop sector and the dynamics of deforestation in the Sambirano Valley of Madagascar. The CRCL project is financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, an independent development organization working in thirty countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. CRCL subcontractors are Earthworm Foundation and the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern, and local commercial partners Ramanandraibe Exportation (Rama Ex) and the Société Commerciale et Industrielle de Madagascar (SCIM). Beginning in 2019, the USAID funded Integrated Landscapes and Resource Governance (USAID ILRG) began a partnership with CRCL at the request of Lindt & Sprüngli AG to support the consideration of land tenure and property rights issue into design and implementation of the CRCL project.
Each year USAID ILRG activity in Madagascar summarizes the state of knowledge about the resource tenure situation in the Sambirano Valley of the District of Ambanja. This FINAL report highlights the patchwork of land tenure issues in the valley and the rapidly evolving initiatives carried out by government and donor-funded programs to increase the levels of tenure security of different land ownership categories. Significant progress has been achieved over the past year to address the long-festering insecurity around ex-indigenous land reserves, a tenurial category set up during the colonial
period to provide labor to plantations of cacao and other cash crops.
Download the full report in English or French below