Another contract was made, on training and technical assistance by the project. Village committees are now involved in the enforcement and fulfilment of the contract. At the same time, the activities of the fishing department consist in finding alternatives so as to reach a long-term solution. Back to top Natural Resource Management From the beginning of statehood in Madagascar, the protection of the forest cover has been a constant concern with successive governments from monarchy to the colonial administration, which handed down its principles on the management of the State's forest estate to the different regimes since independence. Whatever the type of the protected areas, all forms of exploitation are either completely forbidden or subject to prior permission from the Department of Water and Forest.
Trespassers are liable to severe punishment.
And yet the forest continues to be burnt, and the animals continue to be hunted. It has become obvious that repressive protection measures taht exclude the population are all more ineffective as the Malagasy Government lacks the means to stop poaching, illegal tree felling or land clearing inside the protected areas. In 1984, the National Conservation Strategy, based on Conservation and Sustainable Development, was adopted. A new form of management, not only of the protected forest zones, but also of other ecosystems, is about to be implemented in Madagascar. Based as it is on the development of joint management of natural resources with grass-roots communities, it shows the way towards reconciliation between the population and their environment.