Community based innovation promotes sustainable development in Madagascar

Talata Volonondry is a small village with big aspirations. Located just 26 kilometers from Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, the small community is being transformed into an eco village. The idea is that by using local, sustainable resources to build dwellings and help with energy and farming, the community will also preserve and recreate biodiversity in the region. The transformation is an initiative by Malagasy entrepreneur Andry Andrianjafy, who felt that years of logging and environmental degradation had robbed many of those living in rural areas of their livelihoods. "We have some families that we have here, we train and we try to improve their livelihood their future by helping them to envision something different from what they usually do," said Andrianjafy. Most of Talata Volonodry's residents are farmers. Many have received training on new and better farming methods that can help increase their agriculture and livestock output. "If one day we have to move from here, then we could use what we learnt here and apply it somewhere else," said Rakotoarindriana, a farmer. Residents of the eco village also practice permaculture, an agricultural system that seeks to integrate human activity and the environment to create a highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystem. This method also aims to ensure that farmers can harvest food all year around, securing the locals livelihoods. Before the initiative was introduced in the village, farmers had to travel long distances to look for water. Now, there is a new irrigation system that uses pipes to pull water from the source into the village. "I farm prawns because it's less demanding now, I have water here, so I don't need to put too much work in it. We get water from the source through the pipe, which is shared by the community," said Racelestin, another farmer. To preserve water, eco-toilets also known as dry toilets were introduced. They have been developed with the help of the community so that they can build with local materials and are easy for the residents to put up for themselves. In addition to improving sanitation, the toilets also provide organic fertilizer for pasture on which villagers' livestock can feed. "This system, manure is free, it is just human waste mixed with some wood parts and there is no bad smell in the surrounding. These are the advantages of this dry toilet," said Andrianjafy. He says the eco village can provide a leading model of community-based environment management and send a strong message to the rest of the country. "After the Millennium Development Goals, next year it will be the Sustainable Development Goals. So it's time for Madagascar to catch up a little bit and see what others are doing a lot in terms of permaculture, conservation agriculture. and this is the area where I want to focus and where I think I can add some value because nobody is doing a lot about it here. So I'm just trying to contribute in the development of the country and the sector," Andrianjafy said. Andrianjafy and the residents of Talata Volonondry also hope to establish an eco-tourism initiative that will help to fund community projects - schools, health clinics and ongoing conservation activities such as tree nurseries.