Community’s plant project secures dunes
FIELDS, homes, wells and tombs were gradually being buried under shifting sand dunes on a windswept stretch of Madagascar’s southern coastline until the local community fought back, armed only with plants and elbow grease.
After years of painstaking planting by hundreds of volunteers, 36 hectares of dunes have been stabilised by long lines of plants that trap moisture in the ground and stop the wind from blowing the sand further inland.
The World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, provided most of the plants as part of a project to help local communities build resilience to weather-induced problems. “The system came from the villagers themselves. They know that the lalanda plant covers the ground and brings moisture,” said Theodore Mbainassem, who runs WFP operations in the area.
The agency contributed filao – which grow up to 1.9m – and sisal plants, species that also do well in arid conditions. Sisal can be used to make
ropes, carpets or roofing, providing a source of income to the community.
The build-up of sand dunes started becoming a problem about a decade ago due to droughts and strong winds, partly linked to the El Niño climate pattern. Climate scientists warn things will worsen.
Madagascar, with a population of 30 million and natural variability in its weather patterns, faces increased aridity, more frequent droughts and extreme weather events in future, according to the UN’s climate panel.
Faux Cap is part of the Androy
region, where a shortage of food caused by four years of drought has made more than a million people dependent on food aid from the WFP.
Mbainassem said it was crucial for communities to plan for the future and find ways to build resilience.
At Faux Cap, the efforts of the community were already being rewarded, he said, citing the income from the sisal plants, the protection of wells and fields that had been at risk of disappearing under the sand, and the preservation of tombs, a vital focus of many cultural traditions.