We are currently supporting conservation of four of the highest-priority landscapes in Madagascar, which include some of the most threatened forests in the world. These are the Baobab Forests of western Madagascar, Ankarafantsika National Park, Makira Natural Park, and Tsitongambarika Protected Forest. They represent a wide range of different eco-regions and forest types, which contain over 50% of Madagascar’s terrestrial species including many of its most threatened plants and animals.

Within each of these landscapes we support initiatives that address drivers of deforestation, restore degraded lands, and improve the local economy. We support coalitions of partner organisations who work together to achieve lasting change. For example, in the Baobab Forests landscape we partner with FAPBM to directly support Madagascar National Parks (MNP), Fanamby, and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, as well as other partners from government to community groups. And in Ankarafantsika National Park, we partner with FAPBM to directly support MNP, Planet Madagascar, and Association Fosa. We believe that only by collaborating together around a shared strategic vision for a landscape can organisations accelerate their impact and achieve lasting change.

This approach is already showing positive results. In Ankarafantsika National Park, the combined efforts of the conservation partners has reduced incidences of forest fires by more than 75% between 2023 and 2024. Similarly positive results have been seen in the Baobab Forests of western Madagascar – an area that historically had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.

Achieving lasting conservation success across Madagascar requires significant and sustained funding. To support this, FAPBM has created an innovative sustainable finance model that provides long-term funding for Madagascar’s unique ecosystems. By leveraging endowments, blended finance models and partnerships with international donors, FAPBM provides reliable funding for protected areas and community-driven conservation initiatives. These efforts not only support biodiversity but also generate income for local communities through activities such as sustainable agriculture and ecotourism.

We support FAPBM so they can continue to build financial sustainability, strengthen Madagascar’s conservation landscape, and ensure that critical habitats and species are safeguarded for future generations while improving livelihoods for many thousands of people across the island.

Not only do we support sustainable financing through FAPBM, we also ensure it is an integral part of every landscape we fund. Without sustainable financing models for every landscape to generate a financial return from forest management, those sites will forever depend on philanthropy. It is therefore important not only for the Hempel Foundation to support landscape conservation today, but to simultaneously support the development of new sources of financing for tomorrow.

We therefore support a wide range of sustainable financing models in our focal landscapes including eco-tourism, forest carbon initiatives, and sustainable eco-friendly income-generating activities for local communities.

The long-term conservation of biodiversity in Madagascar not only relies on sustainable financing, it also relies on the capacities of the implementing partners. The Hempel Foundation is therefore committed to supporting capacity development as a core component of our strategy for accelerated and sustained impact in Madagascar.

We are addressing capacity gaps at multiple levels. At the national level, we are working with FAPBM on a long-term program to identify and address Madagascar’s most urgent capacity gaps to help ensure more effective conservation. This includes training for protected area staff, support for national NGOs, support to early career conservationists, and environmental education in rural schools. We are working with Maliasili to support their exceptional organizational capacity development work in Madagascar, and have provided four years of funding for organizational development of four national NGO partners who work in the landscapes we support.

We have also provided funding to FAPBM to help them improve their own capacity. As one of Madagascar’s largest donors, we are supporting them in their efforts to improve the way they measure the impact of the funding they provide. This will allow them to assess the effectiveness of their grant-making, and adapt their funding focus to ensure even greater impact.

We also support organizational capacity development and mentoring for early career conservationists through our partnerships with the Whitley fund for Nature and the Conservation Leadership Programme, both of whom provide funding for grassroots NGOs and budding conservationists in Madagascar.

Our aim is that every grant we provide to Madagascar complements and accelerates the impact of our overall portfolio, leading to even greater and more lasting impact. We also work hard to coordinate and align our funding with that of other donors, as we strongly believe that coalitions of donors working together around a complementary agenda can achieve far more, and be far more cost-effective, than donors working in isolation.

Therefore, we make great effort to coordinate our efforts with other donors, and we ensure that every grant we make to Madagascar is complementary to our existing grant portfolio. New landscapes must provide biological additionality to our existing portfolio of landscapes. New tools and techniques are tested in our focal landscapes. And new financing models are piloted within our landscape portfolio. For example, we are funding a potentially game-changing technology that is testing the use of airborne eDNA to assess species presence and relative abundance. That work is being piloted in the Baobab forests, where it could reduce time and money spent on biological research and monitoring, making the landscape more cost-effective.