World Bank unlocks fund to improve Madagascar's natural resource management

The World Bank has unlocked 78.7 million U.S. dollars to support integrated management of natural resources in Madagascar, World Bank officials said in Antananarivo on Tuesday.

The amount includes a credit of 65 million dollars to halt the degradation of Madagascar's natural resources, improve access to irrigation system, agricultural inputs and agricultural and forestry services, as well as 13.7 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

"This new project for Madagascar intends to tackle the complexity of the environmental challenges by putting in place a more integrated multi-partner approach," GEF Program Chief Jean-Marc Sinnassamy told Xinhua.

"It will restore and sustainably manage the natural heritage, including agricultural land, forests and protected areas, and benefit more than 38,000 people in rural areas," Sinnassamy added.

Gianni Ruta, chief of projects at the World Bank office in Madagascar, told Xinhua that the project will work to reduce land and forest degradation, better manage water resources and integrate productivity and income generation.

According to World Bank, four out of five Malagasy people depend their lives directly on land, water and forests, while agriculture is the main or secondary economic activity of 81 percent of households. However, Madagascar's development potential and rural productivity are being severely hampered.

Between 2005 and 2011, Madagascar lost 10 percent of its total wealth in real terms and 26 percent of its natural capacity, a decline related to a 33-percent drop in the value of potentially cultivable land, 31 percent in pasture land and 42 percent of non-timber forest products, according to World Bank data. Enditem