Can capturing global ecosystem service values reduce poverty?

Lead Research Organisation: King's College London
Department Name: Geography

Abstract

Zafy lives in a village on edge of the forest in Madagascar. He wants the best for his family and so uses the resources and options he has open to him and clears a patch of forest to grow hill rice. His hard labour pays off and he is able to sell a small surplus. Rakoto farms rice on the valley floor. In good years, when there is plenty of water, he produces more than his family can eat. However as the forest on the slopes continues to be cut, water in the dry season is reduced, and there are fewer and fewer good years.

That tropical deforestation threatens species' survival is well known to the general public. There is also increasing awareness that it contributes to climate change (through the release of carbon stored in trees and soils). Zafy's story demonstrates that although cutting down forest is often presented as wanton destruction, it may well be a perfectly sensible choice for the people directly involved. It also shows that some negative impacts of deforestation may be felt locally as well as globally.

In recent years a new approach to conserving tropical forests has evolved. The central idea is that those who benefit from the existence of forest should pay those who would otherwise cut it down. This concept is known as payment for ecosystem services and has come to dominate discussions about rainforest conservation. People who support this approach argue that it will benefit poor people like Zafy, who will be compensated for not clearing forest, through cash payments or development activities in their area. In addition, the land-use changes which will be encouraged under the payment schemes (protecting forest or planting new forest) may benefit other poor people in the area; for example Rakoto may benefit from increased forest cover through improved flow of water to his rice fields.

Unfortunately nothing is ever as simple as it seems. While these payments for ecosystem services schemes are attracting millions of dollars, and there is a commitment by many involved to ensure they are beneficial for poor people, questions remain both about the impact current schemes are having on the poor and about how these schemes could be designed to realise any potential for alleviating poverty while avoiding harm.

These vitally important questions need a research approach which brings together specialists with a range of expertise. Our team involves sociologists, economists, ecologists, hydrologists, remote sensing experts and modellers who will explore the complex ways in which international ecosystem service payments affect the lives of poor people. Specific questions we will address include quantifying the benefits which lowland rice farmers may expect from increasing forest cover, exploring the costs (and who bears them) of reduced access for wild-product harvesting, and investigating how politics and social structures influence how any benefits from payments are distributed. We focus on a single area (the eastern rainforests), in a single country (Madagascar). Such a narrow focus is necessary to get the complete picture which takes account of all the interactions between ecological and social systems.

Although we focus field work within Madagascar, and our results will directly influence payment schemes in the country, our project's findings will also have a much wider impact. We are working closely with those involved in developing the policies which underpin payment schemes, and in implementing them on the ground both in Madagascar and worldwide. Our project will result in scientific papers which push the boundaries of interdisciplinary research, and interesting coverage in the media and on our project website. However through this wider engagement our project will also result in concrete changes to the design of payment schemes which should improve the lives of people like Rakoto, Zafy and their families, wherever they live in the world.

Planned Impact

Who will benefit from this research and how?
Ultimate beneficiaries: The ultimate beneficiaries most directly impacted by this project are the rural communities (often highly marginalized and poor) that live in areas where payments are being implemented.
a. There are 8 million people in Madagascar's eastern rainforest belt, 1 million of whom live in the communes surrounding Conservation International's (CI) two REDD+ pilot projects. The most direct impacts are on the 75,000 people identified across both projects as extremely poor and highly impacted. They will benefit from improved design of payment schemes (through both the land-use changes incentivized and improved equity in the distribution of payments).
b. Land-use is not only affected by the design of international payment schemes but by local institutions including forest management associations. Within the study area these will benefit from improved capacity to make informed decisions about local land-use change and negotiate with those involved in scheme design.
c. The work will inform future payment schemes under a national REDD+ system (by influencing the national REDD+ strategy) and thus people living around all of Madagascar's forests could ultimately benefit.
d. Results will feed into international discussions on ecosystem service payments providing benefits to rural people impacted by schemes in other parts of the tropics through improved scheme design.

Users of research:
a. National decision makers in Madagascar are eager to capitalize on the potential of ecosystem service payments for poverty alleviation. This includes those responsible for developing national REDD+ policy (e.g., Ministry of Water and Forests, the Office National pour l'Environnement) and those testing feasibility of REDD+ approaches (e.g. CI, WWF, Wildlife Conservation Society). They benefit from nuanced analysis of the impacts of policy options on poverty alleviation, communicated so as to be easily used for policy decisions.
b. The project will provide guidance on designing effective, efficient and equitable payment schemes to those involved in developing REDD+ policy globally (e.g., Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance) and implementing REDD+ schemes around the world (including CI field programs).
c. Efforts to incorporate ecosystem services into national accounts (e.g. the World Bank Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) will benefit from estimates of the costs/benefits of land-use change.
d. We will fill important knowledge gaps in ecosystem service linkages (see academic beneficiaries). We will improve understanding of the response of hydrological services to land-use change on the forest/agricultural frontier thus improving the WaterWorld model (a freely available tool). The new information on local ecosystem service values will feed into the Ecosystem Service Partnership's database for use in values transfer. The empirical carbon work will calibrate remote sensing data for a previously understudied habitat (regrowing tropical forest) which has wide utility in carbon assessments. We will make methodological advances in adapting environmental valuation methods developed in the west to low income country contexts.

Research Institutions in Madagascar: Poor investment has hindered the development of Malagasy research. The majority of the field research will be carried out by Malagasy researchers who will lead-author a significant number of papers, working (where helpful) in international partnerships. This strengthened capacity will make them more able to publish their research internationally (benefiting them and the research community).

Wider society: The general public (in Madagascar and internationally) will benefit from increased understanding of the linkages between ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Improved understanding empowers positive changes (e.g. through lobbying politicians).

Publications

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Zwartendijk B (2017) Rebuilding soil hydrological functioning after swidden agriculture in eastern Madagascar in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

 
Description The research has now been published in some papers and others are in preparation. In common with many protected areas, we show that the CAZ has a limited effect (footprint) downstream (especially in dry season when much of it does not produce flow since all rainfall is evaporated) - nearby populations are thus most affected by conservation and reforestation. Being close to this forest is thus critical to receiving hydrological benefits from it.
Our use of scenario analysis indicates that the deforestation that has occurred to date is orders of magnitude greater than that which will occur over coming decades, so most of the hydrologically negative impacts have already occurred in the region and rehabilitating these should be a key focus. We show that 95% of people are hydrologically affected by current forest cover (mostly a little), 99% by historic forest loss (mostly a lot).
With respect to management options, we show that conservation or afforestation policy options always improves water quality compared with "business as usual", but can have positive or negative effects on water quantity and dry season flow, depending on where and how it is done. Careful spatial targeting of interventions will thus be important. The future conservation scenarios that we develop show that they have small changes relative to those already benefitting from forests and those affected by historic forest loss. The vast majority of people will be hydrologically unaffected by short term future interventions of the magnitude currently proposed. However, the people near the forest are affected by these changes.
We analyse reforestation policy options discussed under the IPCC Paris accord and indicate that this has to scale-up significantly to outweigh hydrological effects of background deforestation rates in the region (to date afforestation has had only small impacts on water). We show that forest loss leads to benefits and dis-benefits for water quantity and quality, depending on location (i.e. there will be winners and losers from any intervention)
We also look at impacts of data uncertainity in these conclusions and indicate there is still much work to do in better understanding rainfall uncertainty and its impacts
Exploitation Route Work from p4ges has been presented to the Conservation International board and has been influential in shaping a major (10s of millions of dollars) Green Climate Fund project starting in our study site. Data provided by the carbon team is being used actively by the REDD+ process in Madagascar and is being used in follow up projects funded by IRD and CIRAD and is influencing investment by major donors (in the Projet Agriculture Durable par une Approche Paysage). Our research has informed a major review by the World Bank on the implementation of Community Forest Management in Madagascar. Our new method for conservation impact evaluation using self-defined wellbeing is being used by other projects. Two projects looking at social impacts of protected areas have been funded continuing our work (p4ges are involved in both). WaterWorld and Co$tingNature (both improved as part of p4ges) are being used in conservation/development projects in Colombia, Honduras, Peru, South Africa, West Africa. A proposal went in to GCRF using these policy support tools in the Amazon. We have worked with THAMO (the Trans African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory) to set up weathers stations providing much needed local capacity and gap-filling the Africa-wide available climate data. This work has developed well with applications and funded projects deriving from it now active.
Sectors Environment

Other

URL http://www.p4ges.org
 
Description This grant is part of a consortium project 'p4ges: Can paying for global ecosystem services reduce poverty? www.p4ges.org'. We operate in very close partnership with the other components of this consortium ((NE/K010220/1, NE/K010417/1, NE/K010115/1, NE/K010085/1, NE/K008692/1) and much of our impact is a result of collaboration. Below I introduce some of the most significant impact from the project as a whole. 1) Madagascar made a commitment to REDD+ in its INDC document submitted to the Paris climate conference in December 2015. This has confirmed the interest of the Malagasy government in REDD+ and the relevance of the p4ges project. The move away from project focus to a national REDD+ strategy is underway and our team (especially those from CI, LRI and ESSA) are centrally involved in this process and are regularly in discussions with key people in the process. The lead on REDD+ from the Malagasy government invited our team to brief the whole national REDD+ team about our research results. Partners from LRI and ESSA are in regular contact with them and members of our team now serve on the REDD+ national safeguarding committee. 2) The national coordination office for REDD+ asked if our carbon team could provide carbon data from the hidden pools (soil, roots etc) for non forest land uses for incorporation into base line assessment and modelling for the national REDD+ strategy and the emissions reduction strategy. Our team from LRI led by Prof Razafimbelo and Prof Razakamanarivo provided this data and helped them use it. This data is being used in a number of ways to support the REDD+ process. 3) In 2017 the World Bank recently announced their major new investment in Madagascar over the next decade which will replace the National Environmental Action Plan and will combine agricultural and environmental investment into a single programme (Projet Agriculture Durable par une Approche Paysage). We are following this process as closely as possible to ensure any opportunities to feed out results in are identified. P4ges PI Prof Jones was invited in 2017 to brief some of the key developers of this programme on 'The impacts of conservation efforts in Madagascar over the last decade on poverty reduction'. 4) The Green Climate Fund Board has approved a U$70 million project for Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar (with a U$53.5 million contribution of the GCF). The overall objective of the new project is that 'sustainable landscape measures are used to enhance the resiliency of smallholder farmers, improve ecosystem resiliency, improve access to low emissions energy sources, and reduce emissions from deforestation'. CI (part of p4ges) will co-implement this project with the European Investment Bank. This highly complex project is the first GCF project proposed by an international NGO, it also the first time the GCF will work with co-implementation arrangements. But maybe most importantly, it is the first time that a green bond for the European market will be directly linked to climate change investments on the ground in a Least Developed Country. If we can show that this model works we could potentially unlock US$3.6 billion in additional climate finance annually. Another unique feature is that the returns of the Investment Fund may flow into a national Climate Change Trust Fund, which will ensure a lasting legacy of this project to Madagascar to continue building resilience of smallholder farmers and communities. The project will be implemented in Ambositra-Vondrozo (COFAV) and Ankeniheny-Zahamena (CAZ) corridors in the eastern part of Madagascar. This confirmation of ongoing investment in our project site (with p4ges organization CI at the heart) gives many opportunities for lessons from p4ges to influence future activities. As the project design is finalised there are a number of ways in which lessons from p4ges have been fed in. 5) The research conducted by p4ges on social safeguard implementation resulted in our partners Madagasikara Voakajy and an organisation linked to p4ges through representation on our national advisory board (Durrell Wildlife Trust) reviewing their own safeguard procedures for protected areas they manage and ensuring they were adequately ensuring that remote households had opportunities to participate. 6) We have returned to all the communities where our work was carried out to share results (presentations and through distributing our detailed booklet covering all p4ges research). This has empowered local people in ways which are very difficult to quantify or collect evidence for but we have many examples of people telling us how valuable this has been. The two parts which have been particularly valued are 1) information helping communities understand why external actors want to invest in forest conservation (many were aware of the global value of biodiversity but the value of forests in terms of carbon sequestration has not been locally understood but is important context) 2) we presented the results of our hydrological research using a very simple demonstration of the impacts of loss of vegetation on infiltration (see video). This was extremely well received locally and following this demonstration many local leaders gave speeches which referred to this demonstration and emphasised why keeping vegetation is so valuable for them in terms of water. 7) The Malagasy government has recently made a public commitment to attempt to reforest one million hectares of degraded land. They are therefore extremely interested how our empirical research and the model WaterWorld (which has been improved with funding from p4ges) can be used to optimise this process. We are exploring opportunities to work closely in advising this process. 8) WaterWorld and Co$tingNature are widely used spatial policy support systems, by more than 1200 institutions across 141 countries. They are used to understand water resource and ecosystem services baselines as well as conservation priority. As solution-focused tools, they are also used to understand the impacts of scenarios for land use and climate change and the impact of management interventions. During P4GES the tools have been further developed for all users with new functionality for calibration of mapped data on the basis of fieldwork, new intervention tools for analysing the impact of paddy rice and improved tools for mapping the distribution of beneficiaries. Version 3 of Co$ting Nature was launched at a meeting on research impact at the House of Commons on the 7th February. The tool is being used in of conservation/development applications in Colombia, Honduras, Peru, South Africa, West Africa. The built-in datasets have been improved for Madagascar and we have provided training and support for technicians in key organisations in using the tools. 9) In September 2017 His Excellency the President of Madagascar met with the UK Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey MP, and delegates from the International Climate Fund, DEFRA, Durrell, Fauna & Flora International and TRAFFIC to discuss the future of conservation in Madagascar. P4ges PI Julia Jones was part of this high level round table to discuss the most appropriate ways forward for combining conservation and development in Madagascar and presented and discussed p4ges results.
First Year Of Impact 2016
Sector Environment,Other
Impact Types Societal

Economic

Policy & public services

 
Description Improved tools being used in a range of policy formulation activities around the world
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact New functions developed in the WaterWorld and Co$ting Nature Policy Support systems have supported decision making around sustainable land use, climate change adaptation and mitigation, conservation prioritization and other around the world
URL http://blog.policysupport.org/search?q=guest+post
 
Description MSC field work - Bob
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation Free University of Amsterdam 
Sector Academic/University
Country Netherlands
Start 02/2013 
End 09/2013
 
Description MSC field work - Cassandra
Amount £12,000 (GBP)
Organisation Bangor University 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2014 
End 09/2014
 
Description MSC field work - Mamy
Amount £8,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Antananarivo 
Sector Academic/University
Country Madagascar
Start 04/2014 
End 09/2014
 
Description MSC field work - Nanne
Amount £12,000 (GBP)
Organisation Free University of Amsterdam 
Sector Academic/University
Country Netherlands
Start 08/2014 
End 08/2015
 
Description MSC field work - Pepijn
Amount £12,000 (GBP)
Organisation Free University of Amsterdam 
Sector Academic/University
Country Netherlands
Start 04/2014 
End 09/2014
 
Description MSC field work - Shanti
Amount £12,000 (GBP)
Organisation King's College London 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2014 
End 09/2014
 
Title WaterWorld 
Description Software for analysing hydrological ecosystem services and mapping them at a variety of spatial scales 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Uses by 1200 organisations in >140 countries with impact on decision making by .gov, .org and .com institutions. Also used as research tool by academic institutions and increasing their capacity to conduct research in this area 
URL http://www.policysupport.org/waterworld
 
Title Hydrological and meteorological data for three plots with different vegetation near Andasibe, Madagascar, 2014- 2015 
Description Hydrological and meteorological data were collected for three plots (each 50 x 50 m in size) near Andasibe village in the Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena (CAZ) in eastern Madagascar. The plots differ in terms of land cover: semi-mature forest, reforested tree fallow (i.e., young secondary forest), and degraded grassland. The plots are located within 2.5 km from each other. See the supporting documentation for detailed information on the plots. Data collection continued for one year (October 2014-September 2015) at each plot and included micrometeorological data (rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed), soil moisture and overland flow, and for the two forested plots also throughfall, stemflow and sapflow. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Its been used to write this paper https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13836 Resulting in this media coverage https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/reforested-areas-rival-mature-forests-in-securing-water-study-finds/ 
URL https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/5d080fef-613a-4f24-a613-b249ccdd12bf
 
Title Hydrometric data and stable isotope data for streamflow and rainfall in the Marolaona catchment, Madagascar, 2015-2016 
Description The data comprise hydrometric data and stable isotope data for streamflow and rainfall from the Marolaona catchment in the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor on the Eastern escarpment of Madagascar between February 2015 and March 2016. Rainfall and streamflow were measured at 2 locations, perched water tables at 10 locations, and soil moisture at 3 locations (1 - 3 depths). Samples were taken from streamflow and rainfall for stable isotope (delta-2H and delta-18O) analyses. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/f93d87ed-7bc4-4d03-9690-3856e6cbbd11
 
Title Soil hydrological characteristics for three areas in the Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena (CAZ), Madagascar 
Description We determined the soil hydrological characteristics for 51 sites located in three regions in the Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena (CAZ) in Madagascar. The sites differed in terms of land use and land history: closed canopy forests, reforestation sites, tree fallows, shrub fallows, degraded grassland sites and eucalyptus plantations. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact We use it in this paper https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13836 Which is written up in this media coverage https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/reforested-areas-rival-mature-forests-in-securing-water-study-finds/ 
URL https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/7987c6d4-973d-436d-a13b-c52997d0bce5
 
Title WaterWorld model 
Description WaterWorld is a testbed for the development and implementation of land and water related policies for sites and regions globally, enabling their intended and unintended consequences to be tested in silico before they are tested in vivo. WaterWorld can also be used to understand the hydrological and water resources baseline and water risk factors associated with specific activities under current conditions and under scenarios for land use, land management and climate change. It incorporates detailed spatial datasets at 1-square km and 1 hectare resolution for the entire world, spatial models for biophysical and socio-economic processes along with scenarios for climate, land use and economic change. A series of interventions (policy options) are available which can be implemented and their consequences traced through the socio-economic and biophysical systems. The model integrates with a range of geobrowsers for immersive visualisation of outcomes. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2015 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The systems have more than 1279 registered users. In the last year the tools have been used by 1179 organisations from 141 countries with the most frequent non-commercial users being Conservation International, UNEP-WCMC, WWF, FFI, TNC, World Bank Group, Resources for the Future, ZSL, Amazon Conservation, RSPB, Birdlife International, Earthwatch, EPA, USAID, CAFOD, European Parliament, UNDP, BCCI, a number of GEF projects, universities and national hydrological and meteorological services around the world, alongside many smaller overseas NGOs or projects. 
URL http://www.policysupport.org/waterworld
 
Description Trans-African Hydro Meterological Observatory (THAMO) collaboration to establish a network of weather stations in Madagascar 
Organisation Trans-African HydroMeteorological Observatory
Country Netherlands 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Our partners on p4ges from Zurich University (specifically Ilja van Meerveld) facilitated 5 complete weather stations to be donated from THAMO to NGOs and relevant organisations in Madagascar. The partners were found through partnerships established or built during p4ges and the locations selected partly on p4ges knowledge of hydrological gaps in knowledge for Madagascar.
Collaborator Contribution THAMO proided weather stations. Ny Tanintsika, Conservation International, ESSA and a school in southern Madagascar are hosting them.
Impact None as yet.
Start Year 2017
 
Title Developments to WaterWorld and Co$tingNature Policy Support Systems 
Description WaterWorld and Co$tingNature are web-based, spatial policy support systems for examining ecosystem services and water risk for the current state (baseline) and under scenarios for land use and climate change 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact WaterWorld and Co$tingNature are widely used - more than 1000 organisations from 141 countries - so any developments in the software made available to these users have impacts on their use of them in fields from water security and water risk to land use management and conservation priority or ecosystem services assessment. For example the tools are used in natural capital acounting under the WAVES programme by the World Bank and partners. 
URL http://www.policysupport.org
 
Description Co$ting Nature and WaterWorld training course 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On 13th February 2014, in Antananarivo, Madagascar the ESPA-funded p4ges (Can paying for global ecosystem services reduce poverty?) project delivered a training course in freely available policy-support tools for assessing baseline ecosystem services and the impacts of scenarios on ecosystem service flows: WaterWorld and Co$ting Nature. The 25 trainees included staff from the Ministry of Water among other local government ministries, university departments and the Office National pour l'Environnment. Local and international conservation (WWF, Conservation International, WCS) and development-focused (WaterAid, EU-DEV) organisations were also represented in significant numbers.

The training was introduced by Dr Luciano Andriamaro (head of science at Conservation International) and Dr Rija Ranaivoarison from the world bank WAVES programme. There was great interest in the tools, so much so that the planned 2 hours session ran to 3 hours and the participants all requested that we run further training to allow them to get deeper into the tools. Jean Roger Rakotoarijaona from the office national pour l'environnment (ONE) said 'These sort of tools are very useful for us in planning further investment in REDD+ at the national scale. I will encourage my colleagues to attend further training and look into this in more detail'.

The training involved the participants running baseline analyses for northern Madagascar with Co$ting Nature and a baseline and land use change scenario using WaterWorld. The WaterWorld examined the potential impacts of a deforestation scenario on annual water flows in the country. The image below shows areas in which such a scenario of continued forest loss outside of protected areas would lead to reductions in river water flows.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://p4ges.org/news/Markmulliganreport.php.en
 
Description Community feedback in northern CAZ (Zahamena) ESSA team led 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Our team travelled to Zahamena National Park in the north of CAZ to share results with local communities in Antevibe and Ambodiavohangy communes. We did demonstrations about the links between hydrology and land use, we gavce presentatiosna nd shared our reports. About 240 adults attended our three events in total.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/sharing-results.php.en
 
Description Community feedback event in southern CAZ (Andasibe commune) MV team led 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We shared our research results in a series of events in Andasibe commune in the CAZ forest in Madagascar. More than 90 people attended the three events. We gave presentations, demonstrations of our hydrological research and distributed leaflets summarising the research. These events were very well received and led to alot of discussion about the meaning of the research locally. The local NGO Mitsinjo will use the hydrological research in promoting reforestation and restoration locally.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/sharing-andasibe.php.en
 
Description Community feedback in eastern CAZ (Anjamana) MV teanm led 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Our teams went back to all the sites we had worked at in eastern Madagascar to share results. They gave community presentations and distributed leaflets. Most popular was our hydrology demonstration. Over all the events in this area-we estimate about 200 people were reached.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/eastern-caz.php.en
 
Description Community feedback in southern CAZ (Ampahitra) ESSA team 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact May to July 2016 a team from Bangor University and the University of Antananarivo returned to all our study sites for the 'indepth' socio-economic research conducted by p4ges. The 1st series of events happened in Ampahitra fokontany in May 2016. 4 individual public events (as well as many courtesey visits) were held. At least 50 people attended each one. A blog describing the 1st of these is below and a a video is available here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnLs1WTtt9Q&feature=youtu.be
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.espa.ac.uk/news-events/espa-blog/community-engagement-vital-researchers-and-research
 
Description Community feedback in western CAZ (Didy) MV team led 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We delivered a number of community feedback events in the west of CAZ with communities where we had worked. We also visited local officials to share results and discuss what they mean in the local context.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/sharing-CAZ.php.en
 
Description Community stakeholder event (Andasibe site) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We invited representatives of the local community (including the mayor, school teachers, representatives of the church and women's groups as well as selected children from 8 schools) to visit the plots in Andasibe, see demonstrations of our equipment in action and discuss the preliminary results. The event was a real success. More than 50 people attended (more than we had planned for or invited as interest was so high). Our local assistants played a really vital role in explaining the research to our guests. This was very successful: "Not meaning to be rude but to be honest people don't believe researchers and vazaha [foreigners]. What is good is that it is people from here who have explained to us what they have seen every day in terms of differences in the amount of water entering the drums in the different sites. This makes everything very clear. This is very convincing. This needs to be shared more widely." Bruno Rakotomalala (school teacher from Ampangalatsary).

We had so many excellent questions-some quite technical focusing on the research, but many taking a wider perspective. There was a real focus on what people locally could do and there was deep and detailed discussion on this topic between the guests as they walked around the site.

Video of event: http://p4ges.org/p4gestv/openday.php.en
Blog about the event: http://p4ges.org/news/Juliahydroblog.php.en
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://p4ges.org/news/Juliahydroblog.php.en
 
Description Double page spread in popular news magasine l'hebdo 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Following our policy-event in Madagascar marking the close of the project in Madagascar, there were at least four articles in Madagascar's national media about our research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://p4ges.org/news/documents/LHebdo_9_dec_Rina.pdf
 
Description English language booklet summarising p4ges research 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We have printed 100 of our Nalagasy language booklets (there are 4000 in Malagasy) in english.These booklets (which we produced with a local cartoonist) cover all the main findings of the p4ges project but in simple form. They are useful for communicating p4ges to international stakeholders but also for showing other researchers what we have done in terms of local communication as many projects don't produce such a detailed saummary in local languages. Many people have found it useful and shared it and told us they will attempt to produce something similar in their projects inspired by this.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/documents/FINALENGLISH2.pdf
 
Description Impactful environmental, developmental, regulatory and policy-relevant research: case studies from King's Geography A reception at the House of Commons 7th February 2018 7-9pm 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact During her welcoming speech Laura Sandys (Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency) said of research into policy that 'it's not what you say, but what is heard that matters'. Professor Frans Berkhout (Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King's) spoke about the importance of sustained partnerships in order for research to have policy impact, through the co-production of knowledge. Co$tingNature version 3 and the FreeStation projects were launched
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/geography/research/Research-Domains/Contested-Development/new...
 
Description Malagasy language booklet summarising p4ges research 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We have printed more than 4000 of these booklets and given them to stakeholders at every level from national advisors, ministers and researchers to commune mayors, village chiefs and households. These booklets (which we produced with a local cartoonist) cover all the main findings of the p4ges project but in simple form. These have been extremely well received and we have received many comments from all levels of society about how interesting and valuable they are and how unusual it is for resea
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/documents/FINALMalagasy_000.pdf
 
Description Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests representative visits p4ges team in the field 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact M. Hiarinirina Randrianijahana who is responsible for research in the Direction Generale de Fôrets spent a few days in the field with the p4ges team. This was an excellent oppurtunity to ensure staff at the Direction Generale de Fôrets have a deep understanding of our research. The meeting was a great success.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://p4ges.org/news/MEF_visit.php.en
 
Description National advisory group discussion about p4ges impacts 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact After the formal policy-focused close event of p4ges (attended by 2 ministers), the leaders of p4ges had a meeting with our National Advisory Committee. This expert group includes representatives from the Office National pour L'Environnement (ONE), The World Bank WAVES programme, the National Coordination Office of REDD+ as well as NGOs involved in REDD+ and forest conservation. It is chaired by Mme Claudine Ramiarison (Ministry of Research and Higher Education). We had a really helpful discussion about the next steps for ensuring p4ges research is as available as possible to be used. One thing which was agreed was to put p4ges papers and archived data sets on the ONE website. We also agreed that the carbon data will be shared immediately with the national REDD+ office to be integrated into their current work on establishing the national Reference Emission Level [this has since been done].

Mme Claudine closed the event by commenting on how impressed she was by the quality of the research conducted by p4ges and that she hopes to see the collaborations which have been developed, continue into the future as this is a very important area for Madagascar.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://p4ges.org/news/close-sharing.php.en
 
Description National stakeholder event (Andasibe site) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact More than 45 people including the British Ambassador, the regional Director of Forests, the regional Director of Rural Development, representatives of the Office National pour l'Environnement and NGOs visited our field site in Andasibe to discuss some of the research results p4ges has generated so far, to visit our intensely instrumented hydrological plots and to discuss some of the likely future scenarios of land use for us to explore in our modelling.

The VIPs were extremely interested and engaged in the work and we got many excellent questions. Herizo Andrianandrasana of Durrell said "As a scientist it is excellent to see these advanced approaches for exploring the effect of land use change on hydrology." Dimby Razafimpahanana, the coordinator of Rebioma (the national biodiversity data archive) said "This work is extremely interesting and it is so good to visit it and see the equipment in the field. If you just watch a presentation you don't get the full understanding".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://p4ges.org/news/VIPhydrovisit.php.en
 
Description National workshop focused on the potential of water-based PES to address water shortages in Madagascar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact In January in Madagascar it should rain, and rain a lot. This year is different; much of the country, except the usually dry south, is suffering from a lack of rain. Madagascar is dependent on hydro power and as the reservoirs are drying out, the capital city, as well as other parts of the country, is plagued by power cuts. Farmers have not yet been able to plant their rice seedlings - a real concern in a country where food security is far from guaranteed. There is growing awareness that water can be a limited, and certainly a limiting, resource. The ministry of the environment took out a full page spread in the national newspapers recently, highlighting the connection between water and poor environmental management of Madagascar's countryside.


There is a growing interest around the world in the concept of payments for ecosystem services - whereby those who benefit from functioning natural ecosystems, help pay the costs of those who manage their land to ensure the natural ecosystems are protected. Examples include farmers in the UK being paid to maintain hedgerows or meadows on their land (funded by the tax payer as society benefits from the improved environmental condition), or forest carbon projects, where travellers can offset the carbon they emit by helping to fund projects that aim to lock up carbon through improved forest management.

This week a workshop was held in Antananarivo to discuss the potential of payments for watershed services to help contribute to improved water supply through funding for conservation of Madagascar's remaining forests, or restoration of degraded land. The workshop brought together experts from Bolivia, where a scheme known as 'watershared' has been operating for many years, with those in Madagascar who are trialling a similar approach and those interested in learning more.

Mme Hanta Rabetaliana, the Director General of the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests opened the workshop saying "We need to think in a new way about managing our environment in Madagascar. The world is changing fast and we need to respond. Water matters to everyone and everything. We must work with our colleagues in the Ministry of Water to see how these ideas, and the small pilots which exist in Madagascar, can be put into practice at a larger scale."

The linkages between land use and water supplies are complex and, especially in the tropics, remarkably poorly understood. Dr Ilja van Meerveld from the University of Zurich who has been studying the links between forest cover and hydrology in Madagascar for four years as part of the P4GES project, says "trees use water so having dense forest in a catchment will tend to reduce the total water available over the year, but this is not always what matters locally. Trees, shrubs and other vegetation, help water sink into the soil slowly. This helps ensure the rivers flow longer into the dry season. It also means overland water flow, which causes erosion and poor quality drinking water, is reduced".

Payments for watershed services schemes fund upstream farmers to plant trees or reduce grazing and fire to allow vegetation to recover. Funding comes from a small tax on water or electricity bills. There are many who feel that payments for ecosystem service schemes turns nature into a commodity and contributes to inequalities. Paying for watershed services may be particularly controversial as water is often seen as a human right or a gift from god. Dr Nigel Asquith from Fundacion Natura Bolivia explained that in their scheme they emphasise reciprocity rather than markets. "The upstream farmers are joining the scheme and agreeing to put their land in conservation at least partly because of a sense of doing the right thing. The philosophy behind Watershared is that people who produce water share it, and people who benefit from water, share the benefits".

There was a strong feeling at the workshop that this approach has real potential in Madagascar. Tovondriaka Rakotobe from the Association Tany Meva who are working with a small hydro dam in northern Madagascar, due to open next month said "Locally people don't really want to talk about forest conservation but when you discuss water and electricity everyone is willing to get involved."

As I write this, clouds are gathering on the horizon for the first time since I arrived in Madagascar two weeks ago. Let's hope this brings the rain that the farmers, and the power company, so desperately need. However, when the rain does come much will flow rapidly over the island's degraded hillsides to the sea. Could changes in how the land is managed help reduce future water shortages?
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.espa.ac.uk/news-events/espa-blog/can-payments-better-land-management-help-overcome-water-...
 
Description Newsletters describing the p4ges project (in French and English) produced every 6 months 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We produce a newsletter in French and English every six months. This is sent to our national and international advisory committees and we also make them available on our project website and tweet about them (increasing circulation).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014,2015,2016
URL http://p4ges.org/resources.php.en#newsletters
 
Description Policy briefs 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We have produced policy briefs (in English and French) covering the main findings of all pf p4ges papers which are so far published or in press. We have given out more than 200 copies of each at various events (to policy makers, academics etc). They are also available for download on out website.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017
URL http://p4ges.org/resources.php.en#policy
 
Description Policy focused event to share results 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact On the 27th January p4ges held an event to share the most policy-relevant results from the p4ges project with government, NGO and donor community who are involved in shaping and implementing policy surrounding forest conservation, restoration and REDD+ in Madagascar.

We were extremely honoured that the event was attended by two ministers of state: Mme Johannita Ndahimananjara from the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests, and Mme Monique Rasoazananera from the Ministry of Research and Higher Education. Both ministers gave excellent opening speeches. Mme Dahimananjara reminded us of the importance of the environment for underpinning human development-using the recent water and hydro power shortages in Madagascar to emphasise this point. Mme Rasoazananera emphasised the importance of research for evidence-based policy making and stressing the value of research on current pressing issues such as linkages between the environment and poverty.

Julia Jones (Bangor University), Julie Razafimanahaka (Madagasikara Voakajy), Herintsitohaina Razakamanarivo (Laboratoire des Radio-Isotopes-University of Antananarivo) and Luciano Andriamaro (Conservation International) presented the context of the project and key research findings. Bruno Ramamonjisoa (University of Antananarivo) then led a dynamic discussion focusing on the main lessons which could be learnt for the current policy processes in Madagascar.

We gave all our visitors copies of policies briefs in French and English which summarised the 10 papers we have already published in international journals. We also gave them copies of our local communication booklet and flash disks containing all of this and lots more (e.g. training materials for the policy support tools Co$ting Nature and Water World).

The very engaged audience asked may excellent questions across the full range of p4ges research and from a range of perspective. There were technical questions about the hydrological modelling carried out and the extent to which these models can be used by others (we were able to confirm that the models are freely available and training materials are available on our website and the flash disk distributed). There was a lot of interest in our hydrological research which is seen as particularly timely given the current water shortages in Madagascar and the recent ministerial announcement about the importance of significant restoration of degraded land in Madagascar.

Another area which attracted a lot of discussion was the question of costs of conservation and the lessons which could be taken from this research for the development of the new social safeguards for the national REDD+ strategy in Madagascar (which is currently being developed).

There was also an active debate about the importance of considering the hidden carbon pools (those in soil) in REDD+ monitoring and evaluation and the challenges that this presents. The p4ges carbon team presented their science which shows that these pools appear to be retained to some extent in cleared land and this needs to be considered in REDD+ policy at the landscape scale. National policies around sustainable agricultural production interlock here with climate change mitigation and related policies and soil ecosystem services are of central importance to both.

The event was closed by Sally Harrison from the British Embassy (representing the British government as the funding for p4ges came from the UK). Sally emphasised the UK and Madagascar's commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals and echoed Mme Rasoazananera (the Minister of Higher Education and Research) comments on the importance of evidence and research for making the best possible policy decisions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://p4ges.org/news/close-sharing.php.en
 
Description Project outreach at the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCC (COP 21) in Paris 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Between the 30th November and the 11th December, scientists, policy makers, practitioners and campaigners converged in Paris for the 21st meeting of the United Nation Convention on Climate Change. It was heralded as the last chance for an international agreement on climate change. The work we are doing in the p4ges project concerns one important issue which was up for agreement at Paris - that of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Four members of the p4ges project joined the Malagasy government delegation at COP to offer support and advice. Our team made presentations, took part in round tables and side events as well as manning the Malagasy government's pavilion. They fielded questions about the levels of local participation in the REDD+ processes, impacts of REDD+ on local people, and research on local knowledge in Madagascar among other things.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://p4ges.org/news/cop_blog.php.en
 
Description Public engagement event in Alaotra-Mangoro 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Josué Rakotoarisoa and Raphali Andriantsimanarilafy report:

Each year, regional authorities from Alaotra-Mangoro organize fair which is dedicated to local people for presenting their product. This year, the name fair was "Tangorogna" which mean big meeting. This region includes Moramanga and Ambatondrazaka district where we conducted most of our research on p4ges project. In objective of sharing our results at different level; Madagasikara Voakajy's team represented by Josué (WP5), Raphali (WP5&3) and Victor (WP3) were attended this event on 19th to 22nd of July within Ambatondrazaka main town.

During the 4 days of the event, we exhibited posters showing the mains results of the project; gave more explanation on our work to people and distributed Malagasy version of the booklet. Many people were visited our stand attracted by our posters, with colorful and beautiful images and photos of Madagascar's biodiversity. Most of the people visited the stand were very curious and asked lots of questions. The age and social class of people who visited our stand is very varied. There were children, much attracted by the pictures of animals and photos of landscape and biodiversity on the posters. There were also young people who were very motivated by his passion for environmental protection. And finally, there were adults who asked for advice and informations about the natural conservation and sustainable development. During the last day of the fair event, we gave presentation of our result to youth lemurs' ambassadors from Mangabe protected area within Moramanga District. They are very curious about carbon storage and the biodiversity of Madagascar. At the end of the presentation; they were really happy and gave more thanks to p4ges team for sharing this important knowledge to them. They promised to give their maximum for protecting environment and incite people in their respective localities on conservation.

Our participation in this fair is a great success due to the number of visitors to our stand which can be estimated about 300 per day and are also convinced of the importance and value of Malagasy biodiversity. It was a great success also, a very interesting experience and a better opportunity for sharing our experience about conservation and research results, not only for the P4ges project, but also a great opportunity for other research projects. Finally, participating to the Alaotra Mangoro fair was an unforgettable event. It allowed us to meet with people who helped and worked with us during field work of the P4ges project and many other people for future project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://p4ges.org/news/tangorogna-2017.php.en
 
Description Regional events to share results with policy makers, local authorities and other key stakeholders 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We ran two major events to feedback results to our regional stakeholders (some key national stakeholders also attended such as the national coordinator of REDD+ in Madagascar). After two and a half challenging years of field work and data processing it has been satisfying to start sharing our results with local communities (other enteries) that we have been working with but also to potential users of our results in positions of authority in the regions where we worked.

Two regional events were organised in Moramanga and Toamasina; the two cities which are the focus points of partners and organizations working on conservation and development around the Corridor Ankeniheny Zahamena. The aims were to share and to inform our results to all regional stakeholders such as local representatives of government and relevant ministries, local authorities (mayors), NGOs working on development and conservation, private sector partners (the Ambatovy mine), local associations and others sectors in the region. We were also delighted that three members of our national advisory committee also attended: Jean Noel Ndriamiary, Mamitiana Randriamanjato and Andriamandranto Ravoahangy. There were in total about 70 participants at the Moramanga event and 50 at the one held in Toamasina.

After giving a general presentation of the overall project, the biophysical team emphasised the impact of different land use change on ecosystem services. Their research shows that some ecosystem services are rapidly lost (and not easily rebuilt) when forests are converted (through clearance for agriculture) whereas others are quite well retained in fallows, especially tree fallows. They showed that reforestation can rebuild some ecosystem services and also provide jobs (but data on whether active replanting or just controlling fire and grazing is more efficient is not yet available).

The next session was mainly focused on the effect of forest conservation on the local communities. P4ges has demonstrated that conservation projects can have negative effects on the local livelihoods as they are heavily dependent on swidden agriculture and few alternatives exist. There have been around 600 micro-development projects implemented in CAZ since 2006, under different forms, which can ideally compensate for these costs by allowing alternative livelihoods. While these are vital for the success of conservation and its local acceptability and are greatly appreciated, some improvements need to be made with implementation in some areas. Microprojects carried out as part of the social safeguards (implemented explicitly to avoid impacts of conservation) need better targeting to ensure the poorest people wouldn't suffer because of conservation and to make sure that the compensation project would reach the people truly affected by the conservation project (see here for a paper on this subject published in Global Environmental Change).

The session was followed by some recommendations and discussions from the audience. There was a lively discussion about the main issues of implementing safeguard project like the identification of the beneficiaries. There was also a deep discussion about the issue of land tenure which is currently complex and mostly not formalised. Many of the attendees feel tenure needs to be regulated if schemes such as REDD+ or forest conservation more broadly are to be effective.

The participants showed a big interest in our results; they were very engaged in discussions. The Prefect of the Alaotra Mangoro region, Rakotondrasoa Daniel said "the regional event was very useful for practioners to learn new things and improve the way of managing the forest. I encourage more researchers to communicate their finding in this way".

The Regional Development Director of Alaotra Mangoro, Rabenasolo Zakamalala said "The results from the project would help the police makers to take the right decisions ensuring a sustainable management of protected areas, local and regional development."

The Mayor of Ambodimangavalo, representing the voice of the lowest level of administration and remote areas along the protected area, emphasised that it was important that benefits from REDD+ reach remote areas (as they tend to be forgotten but have big needs). The national coordinator of REDD+ in Madagascar Mamitiana Randriamanjato also said that a well-designed project that meets official standards is not enough unless the benefits from conservation reach the right people.

Sam Mwangi from the espa directorate suggested a role play between the State (who are the main deciders) and other stakeholders. The aim of the game was to make people understand that it is not easy to make decisions and to choose the right way by considering the voice of different stakeholders. This helped us all to understand how the state and other all institutions should collaborate to ensure the effectiveness of conservation and development projects in improving local community livelihoods.

Many actors present said they looked forward to the full report of the work (some of the results are still preliminaries). The national project coordinator in Madagascar Bruno Ramamonjisoa mentioned that there will be a national event to present final results in Antananarivo at the end of January 2017.

While Sam Mwangi, the ESPA impact advisor in Africa, was in Madagascar, he has spent time with p4ges team to discuss deeply the impact of the project and advise us on how to improve our impact. He, met all institutions involved in the project at the national level; visiting each partner in turn. He also had the opportunity to come to the field briefly when we returned to one of our pilot sites: Mahatsara, to return research results. He met the president of the fokontany and some local people and saw how we share our research results in the community. He also visited the maternity hospital in Andasibe where some of our equipment has a new lease of life providing light. Sam Mwangi said "P4ges project is the first ESPA project in Africa who is doing feedback to communities." He also mentioned that "the scientists always want to do research but communities want development. So, research for development is a good thing". The local and regional feedback has shown that sharing and discussing our results locally is the starting point to turn on research into use which can eventually lead to development impact.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/stakeholder-results.php.en
 
Description Regional stakeholder event (Andasibe site) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A total of thirty people attended our regional stakeholder's day, including representatives of Madagascar National Parks, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, Ecology, Sea and Forests, the local mayor, representatives of the local community association and researchers from the University of Antananarivo and partner organisations. This involved visits to the field plots, demonstrations of equipment and explanations of the research findings and its wider meaning.

The day was very well received. Nasoavina (former president of local environmental association Mitsinjo) noted "Thank you so much for explaining us what you do in this area. It is very important and our wish is that the final report of this project won't just fill the scientific shelves but will be communicated to the local people and have a real sustainable impact on their livelihood, indeed for poverty alleviation". Another VIP said: "Thanks for giving us some scientific evidences about the affects of the land uses on the streamflow. Please put effort in spreading this to the people around here". Toutoun (Secretary and responsible of the environmental education in Mitsinjo): "Thanks for the presentation, I can see that the complicated research that you are carrying out can be explained in a simple way to the kids in primary school and emphasize the bad and good effects of the land uses on the stream flow".

Nasoavina (former president of local environmental association Mitsinjo) noted "Thank you so much for explaining us what you do in this area. It is very important and our wish is that the final report of this project won't just fill the scientific shelves but will be communicated to the local people and have a real sustainable impact on their livelihood, indeed for poverty alleviation".

Another VIP said: "Thanks for giving us some scientific evidences about the affects of the land uses on the
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://p4ges.org/news/VIPvisitblog.php.en
 
Description Sharing results with policy makers in Antananarivo, Madagascar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We put a lot of effort into presenting our results from the four years of research we did on the p4ges project to partners in Madagascar. We held an academic conference, a final policy event (attended by two ministers), various visit days at the field sites and many events at the community level to share results (see here, here, here and here).Our PI Julia Jones has even met the president of Madagascar!

However we knew there were stokeholders who weren't aware of our results so I spent a month visiting offices of relevant organisations in Tana and explaining specifically which of our results are most useful to them, sharing copies of reports and policy briefs and explaining their relevance.

The visit of different institutions would help to share and to discuss directly with practitioners who were very involved in conservation and development project. We targeted around 20 institutions which include Departments at the ministry of environment, society civil and NGOs working in conservation. Most of those institutions have been working in the country since many years or/and could have a strategic position in decisions making.

From the state, we have visited the Department of Development and Ecology partners (DDPE), the department of protected areas (DSAP) which are at the ministry of Environment Ecology and Forest . The DDPE are in charge of promoting Payment for Ecosystem Services, ecological certifications and the collaboration with private organisations. The results from the project are very useful to develop the strategy about payment for ecosystem services. For them, it is important to know the social cost for conservation and the others benefits from forest ecosystems.

We also shared our results to national Environmental Office (ONE). ONE is a key office for the conservation areas in Madagascar. It is in charge of delivering environmental permits, engaging in Environmental Impact valuation of the activities carried out by societies or organism and disseminating information and knowledge around conservation. For those purposes, P4ges is relevant because it would provide new insights to help ONE for it missions. The restitution was done with some team member of department and communication and was well received.

The Director of this department underlined the need of collaboration between researchers and practitioners. She also brought remarks about the main causes of the forest destructions in Madagascar despite that the extend efforts to conserve since many years now. She also asked about the lack of engagement from local communities. Fortunately, the project has done a lot of investigations according these issues. The institutional and social work packages for example are looking at the complexity of natural resources management, the local cost of the conservation, and some reasons which might cause the lack of motivation from local people. They are agreed about the results and encourage the team to continue to share the results and to support the results of this project highlighting the values of the tree fallows.

The other meetings with GREET, WCS, ALLIANCE VOARY GASY, ONG PARTAGE,TANY MEVA were mainly focused of the current needs of conservation and the relevance of joining research and practices. For example, GRET has worked in the Corridor Fandriana Vohindrozo and has developed the RHYVIERE project which aims to promote the rural electrification. Now, GRET want to extend the same project by including many localities, they are very keen about the local implication and the approaches used from the project and how they can apply them. From Alliance Voary gasy part, the information and results we provided could help them in understanding the different issues on forest ecosystem conservation.

I conclude that it was very valuable to spend time visiting these institutions and doing bespoke, highly targeted restitution of our results for them.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://p4ges.org/news/madagascar-rina.php.en
 
Description Solar panel for local hospital 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact As the project was coming to an end we wanted to find a good way to use our solar panels and batteries. We had received a formal request from the Mayor of Andasibe commune that they needed light for the hospital and asking if we could help. The team (from University of Zurich, Twente and Antananarivo) were coming to the end of their field work and were able to donate solar panels and batteries. The team worked together with the community members and staff from the hospital to install the equipment. This was extremely well appreciated. I met some people from the area 4 months later (when in another part of Madagascar) and heard what a difference this installation has made to the hospital as they now have reliable light at night. This is not a research output but we thought it is worth recording what we did with this valuable equipment at the end of the project to ensure it benefited as many people as possible.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/chandrasolarblog.php.en
 
Description TV item on Malagasy National news about the p4ges project launch 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact When the p4ges project was launched, the event was closely followed by the Malagasy press - here is a story which went out on the TV evening News: News clip (The broadcast was in Malagasy, the language of Madagascar)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://p4ges.org/news/video_news2.php.en
 
Description WaterWorld and Co$ting Nature ecosystem service mapping and policy support tools trainning 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact As part of p4ges, King's College London, together with Bangor University, Conservation International and University of Antanarivo delivered a training workshop on 23 January 2017 in Antananavaro, Madagascar, on applying WaterWorld and Co$tingNature ecosystem service assessment tools focusing on the CAZ. A total of 30 participants included representatives from the Ministry of Water, Ministry of Environment and Forests, university departments, ministry of finance and local and international conservation (WWF, Conservation International, WCS) and development-focused organisations.

The workshop included presentations on specific developments of the WaterWorld and Co$tingNature ES tools for Madagascar and the CAZ and participants were trained on how to use both of these tools. For WaterWorld participants carried out a baseline assessment and explored the implications of a business as usual deforestation scenario for the CAZ. For Co$tingNature, participants assessed a baseline analysis for the whole of Madagascar focusing on analysing spatial and temporal trade-offs in ES provision.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://blog.policysupport.org/2017/01/using-waterworld-and-coting-nature-to.html
 
Description Why should rice farmers care about forest conservation? (video and open educational resource) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We produced a Malagasy language video (with English sub titles) which explains the hydrological research our project has done aimed at local Malagasy stakeholders. The video is available online but has also been shown at universities in Madagascar and in some of our local engagement events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/p4gestv/rice-farmers.php.en
 
Description p4ges PI meets president of Madagascar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact P4ges PI Prof Julia Jones discusses conservation and development in Madagascar with the president of Madagascar.

Prof Jones took part in a round table discussion at Kew Gardens with His Excellency the President of Madagascar, the UK Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey MP, and delegates from the International Climate Fund, DEFRA, Durrell, Fauna & Flora International and TRAFFIC to discuss the future of conservation in Madagascar.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.kew.org/blogs/kew-science/madagascar%E2%80%99s-wildlife-%E2%80%93-a-president%E2%80%99s-...
 
Description p4ges holds an academic conference to share results of the project with the academic community in Madagascar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We held an academic conference at the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques (ESSA), University of Antananarivo in Madagascar to share our results with the academic community, before a policy-focused event next week. The event was very well attended with standing room only in ESSA's largest lecture theatre.

We had a table loaded with various outputs from the projects including summaries of many of our published papers (in English and French) and the project summary booklet which our guests really appreciated.

The event was chaired by Dr Patrick Ranjatson and opened with and introduction to the project from the project lead Prof Julia Jones from Bangor University. Following this, Dr Ramboazanaka Murielle, the Director of research for the University of Antananarivo, Dr Rabemananjara Zo, the head of Water and Forest department and Prof Bruno Ramamonjisoa, Director of the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques each gave a short speech to put the conference in context.

Dr Ranjatson explained that we had chosen to focus the event on three branches of our research in detail rather than trying to cover everything. However he pointed people to the summaries of our papers for more information.

The first presentation was by Riana Hary Andrisoa (LRI) and was on 'Caron stock surveys I the framework of poverty alleviation in Madagascar: challenges and results'. She presented the very impressive work carried out by LRI during the p4ges project to quantify all five carbon pools (including the 'hidden' below ground pools) across the range of land uses in the swidden agricultural cycle. She emphasised the challenges that the very large stocks of carbon in these hidden pools poses for monitoring and evaluation of REDD+

This was followed by a presentation by Alexandra Rasoamanana (ESSA) looking at 'Who bears the cost of forest conservation in Madagascar?' which was a detailed economic analysis of the magnitude and distribution of opportunity costs of conservation and the magnitude and distribution of compensation under the World Bank social safeguard system.

Finally, Tokihenintsoa Andrianjohaninarivo (CI) continued with the social theme, with an excellent presentation 'Can small scale livelihood projects help contribute to both sustainable development and forest conservation outcomes?' This looked at local perceptions of the range of micro-development projects which have been implements around the CAZ corridor in the context of conservation and the REDD+ pilot project and discussed their role in delivering livelihood benefits and in reducing deforestation.

The talks were followed by a very lively discussion session with questions from researchers from many institutions. The debates continued over an open air reception on the lawn of the Ecole Supérieure des Science Agronomiques.

Dr Ramboazanaka Murielle, the Director of research for the University said in her closing comments: "Congratulations to the team for such excellent and useful research."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://p4ges.org/news/sharing-madagascar.php.en
 
Description p4ges project launch event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We held a launch event for the p4ges project to introduce the project and its objectives to potential stakeholders at the national level in Madagascar. This was very well attended and we got useful feedback on our planned research and it also helped identified additional pathways to impact.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://p4ges.org/news/madagascar-launch.php.en
 
Description p4ges project website and twitter account 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We have a really up to date project website (and linked twitter account with nearly 800 followers) which we use to promote the project's activities and research results. We post resources (including publications, conference presentations and posters, training materials etc) and regular blogs and videos about our activities. The website is bilingual English/French.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014,2015,2016
URL http://www.p4ges.org/
 
Description p4ges team take part in World Environment Day celebrations and share results widely with the public 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The 5th June is celebrated around the world as World Environment Day. There were a number of celebrations in Madagascar on this day including one at the Tsimbaza Zoological and Botanic gardens in the countries capital Antananarivo. A team from Madagasikara Voakajy had a prominent and well-attended stand at the celebrations where they shared research results from the p4ges project (alongside other activities they have been involved in over the last year). The stand was visited by many dignitaries, school kids and members of the public who looked at posters and demonstrations and watched Malagasy language videos about the p4ges project such as this one on our hydrological research and this one showing our local level community feedback of results.

Josue Rakotoarisoa from Madagasikara Voakajy said "Thousands of people visited stands during this day, and we did not have time to take a break. Flyers were distributed to visitors. 10 booklets describing all p4ges work were distributed to authorities and officials who visited our stand."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://p4ges.org/news/world-environment-day.php.en