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BROAD DEVELOPMENT GOALS
1. Aware of the significant environmental problems that it faced, the government of Madagascar approved its National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) in 1989. It then embarked on the implementation of the NEAP through a fifteen year Environment Programme. The first five year phase aimed at creating a proper policy, regulatory and institutional framework. In this second phase, for which GEF Incremental Funding is being sought, the first phase programmes will be consolidated before the final phase which will mainstream environment into macroeconomic management and sector programmes.
BASELINE
2. Madagascar's Second Environment Programme aims to curb current environmental degradation trends, promote the sustainable use of natural resources, and create the conditions for environmental considerations to become an integral part of macroeconomic and sectoral management of the country. Under the baseline activities proposed in PE2, biodiversity actions would be limited to improving the management of 20 national parks and reserves, and 19 other identified priority sites would remain unmanaged. Forest management would focus on production, so inventory of the remaining biodiversity resources, including marine biodiversity, would remain incomplete, despite the knowledge that existing national parks and reserves cover but a small part of Madagascar's biodiversity and most were established with other interests in mind. In particular, the root causes of biodiversity loss, identified as local and district actions, would be left largely unaddressed.
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVE
3. Madagascar has been called the single highest major biodiversity conservation priority in the world owing to its combination of high diversity, endemism, and degree of threat. Although Madagascar occupies only about 1.9% of the land area of the African region, it has more orchids than the entire African mainland, and is home to about 25% of all African plants. Overall, about 80% of Madagascar's plant species are endemic, and for animals the proportion is usually even higher, the best example being the lemurs, close to 100% of which occur naturally only in Madagascar. In addition, 95% of the country's 265 reptiles and 99% of its 120 amphibians are endemic, and figures for other groups of organisms are comparable. Higher-order endemism is also extremely high in Madagascar, making even less diverse Malagasy taxa exceptionally valuable. For instance, although there are only eight genera of endemic Malagasy freshwater fish, the genetic information in these species has been compared to the entire very rich cichlid fish fauna of the African rift lakes. Madagascar has also recently been selected as a critical site for marine conservation worldwide.
4. The global environment objective of the Second Environment Programme Support Project is to curb the loss of globally significant biodiversity by slowing current environmental degradation trends, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, and creating the conditions for environmental considerations to become an integral part of macroeconomic and sectoral management of the country. Given the national scope of the EP2 and the range of ecological conditions in the country, the GEF project would fall under all four GEF biodiversity operational programmes, with higher emphasis on forest ecosystems, and to a lesser extent on coastal and marine ecosystems.
GEF ALTERNATIVE
5. The GEF contribution to EP2 will lay the groundwork for new approaches to addressing root causes of biodiversity loss in the country. It will build integral components of biodiversity conservation into revitalized forestry institutions and strengthen the administration of protected areas. Finally and most importantly, it will build consideration of biodiversity into on-going national programmes aimed at decentralizing the management of natural resources.
6. By adding GEF financing to the second phase of the Environment Programme the shortcomings noted in the baseline are overcome. In particular the Environment Programme is extended to complete inventory of the still little known biodiversity of the forests and marine ecosystems of the country, critical sites for terrestrial and marine protected areas are identified and management is established, effective management is established at those known biodiversity sites that are of little ecotouristic value (ie. the sites other than National Parks), and the root causes of biodiversity are attacked through support to a programme of regional and district action.
SYSTEM BOUNDARY
7. In this case the system boundary is the country of Madagascar as a whole, together with its fringing reefs and coastal zones. The programme cuts accross all sectors of the economy and involves public, private and community institutions.
INCIDENTAL DOMESTIC BENEFITS
8. Long term incidental domestic benefits will stem from the increased valuation of non-timber forest products (NTFP's) resulting from a review and revision of policies and mechanisms to address these. In particular the use, export and sale of an increasing range of products, together with the values associated with their genetic composition (bioprospecting), will be enhanced. In the long term incidental domestic benefits may stem from increased ecotourism associated with the identification and establishment of new biodiversity reserves and national parks, including marine sites.
COSTS
9. The GEF contribution is $20.8 million allocated as follows:
| $ (million) | |
| Multiple-use Forest Management Component | $5.0 |
| National Parks and Ecotourism | $7.8 |
| Marine and Coastal Environment | $2.0 |
| Regional Programming and Spatial Analysis | $3.0 |
| Environmental Policies, Strategies & Instruments | $1.0 |
| Research and Inventory __ | $2.0 |
| TOTAL | $20.8 |
INCREMENTAL COST MATRIX
10. See table.
AGREEMENT
11. Details of the technical content of the programme and its financing have been negotiated and agreed with government during the course of the 18 month GEF PRIF preparation process and two multi-donor appraisal missions (November-December 1995 and March-April 1996). The final World Bank appraisal will take place in June 1996.
Annexes
Incremental Cost Matrix
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