Whose knowledge counts? What four conservation projects in Madagascar reveal about decision-making

News June 3, 2026

A vegetable garden planted near a riverbed in northeastern Madagascar seemed like a reasonable idea. A local resident had proposed it, the project team had selected it, and technical support was in place. Then a cyclone passed through and the garden was gone. The project was abandoned, and the person who had tended it was left frustrated. The loss, the study suggests, might have been avoided had anyone weighed the area's flood risk and cyclone frequency before the first seeds went in. This garden account is one example in a paper published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation on 19 May 2026, which examines how decisions get made in conservation and development work. Drawing on 74 interviews conducted between May 2023 and December 2024, the researchers reconstructed the histories of four such projects in the Maroantsetra district, near Masoala National Park, asking three questions of each: who took part in decisions, whose knowledge was drawn on, and which kinds of knowledge were used. Across the four cases, local participation and the inclusion of local knowledge generally grew over time. But a recurring gap stood out. People were frequently consulted without being given real influence over what followed. Involving communities, in other words, is not the same as letting them decide, and inclusion that stops at consultation risks drawing out local knowledge while the actual choices are made elsewhere. A second pattern proved even more revealing. The team distinguished among three kinds of knowledge: understanding how a system works, agreeing on what a project is for, and working out how to get there. An explanation for why projects stumbled was the absence of one of these at a decisive moment. The riverside garden is a case in point. The know-how to plant was there; the knowledge about flood risk was not. 

Getting the diagnosis right: revisiting biodiversity loss in Madagascar

News April 30, 2026

Vanilla cultivation has often been cast as a driver of biodiversity loss in Madagascar. A new Matters Arising article in Nature , “Overestimating outsourced biodiversity loss may misguide policy,” led by former Wyss Academy colleague Dr. Dominic Martin and co-authored by researchers including Dr. Ntsiva Andriatsitohaina and Prof. Julie Zähringer, questions that claim and argues that the picture is more complex. The response article addresses a widely cited global analysis that, according to the authors, misattributed biodiversity loss in Madagascar to international vanilla trade. Instead, the authors find that forest loss is largely driven by local land-use dynamics, particularly small-scale shifting cultivation for rice production, a system in which families clear land, farm it for a period, and then move cultivation as plots are left fallow and regenerated. That distinction matters because different diagnoses lead to different policy responses. If biodiversity loss is linked too narrowly to vanilla cultivation, governments or NGOs may push against farming systems that are not, in themselves, the main cause of forest loss. In Madagascar, vanilla is often grown in agroforestry systems under tree cover. These systems are not the same as natural forest, but they can fit within more forest-friendly landscape mosaics when compared with more destructive forms of land conversion. 

Co-creating sustainable futures for people and nature in Madagascar

News February 26, 2026

The Madagascar Solutionscape is located on a remote, forested peninsula in northeastern Madagascar, next to the world-famous Masoala National Park. It encompasses a valley stretching from the ocean to the mountains, along with five villages currently facing significant challenges linked to deforestation.Madagascar is home to unique species, 90% of which exist nowhere else on Earth. Combined with rapid forest loss, this makes the region one of the planet’s most important biodiversity hotspots. At the same time, local communities are among the poorest in the world. Due to the region’s remoteness, access to essential public services such as education and healthcare remains limited. Squeezed into buffer zones surrounding protected areas, and with unequal access to agricultural land, younger generations in particular struggle to secure sustainable livelihoods. Without secure land access or compensation for conserving forests, many households resort to shifting cultivation for upland rice production or turn to cash crops such as vanilla and clove.Isolation further compounds these challenges by restricting access to markets, infrastructure, and technical knowledge. Conservation initiatives and commodity production are often shaped by uncoordinated and sometimes conflicting agendas involving both local and external actors.

Exploring sustainability pathways in Madagascar: balancing forest conservation and human well-being

News January 11, 2026

Clara’s PhD focuses on the district of Maroantsetra in northeastern Madagascar, where the Wyss Academy’s Solutionscape is located. Using a case study approach, she examines several conservation and development initiatives to understand what helps—or hinders—their ability to achieve both social and ecological goals.  “My goal is to identify what supports or limits their ability to achieve both social and ecological goals, and what lessons can be drawn for similar efforts elsewhere,” she says. One of her first studies looked at participation and knowledge inclusion. “We found that while all studied cases were initiated externally, local participation and knowledge inclusion tended to increase over time,” Clara explains. “However, participation often remained consultative, meaning that people were asked to share their knowledge and opinions but could not directly influence decision-making. This brings the risk that external actors impose their priorities and override local perspectives.” Her analysis also explored how different types of knowledge—systems, target, and transformation knowledge—are integrated into projects. “We found that conservation and development initiatives often experienced failures and necessitated redesign if they neglected one or more knowledge types in their design and implementation,” she says. One case shows how design choices matter. Residents proposed a vegetable garden through a community process. The site’s flood exposure was not fully assessed by the team, and a subsequent cyclone destroyed the garden. The effort had to be discontinued. The takeaway is to embed climate-risk assessment and adaptive design in community-led projects from the outset. For Clara, this example highlights a key lesson: “Even when local actors are empowered to make decisions, projects can fail if important types of knowledge are overlooked. We therefore argue that explicitly addressing all three knowledge types from the outset–understanding how things work, defining shared goals, and finding strategies to achieve these goals–can strengthen both the fairness and effectiveness of conservation and development initiatives.” 

Gaining Momentum in Madagascar

Project Update April 7, 2024

Our Coalition for Change is gaining momentum in Madagascar. Over the past year, the Wyss Academy has been working diligently on co-designing our Solutionscape, bringing together key stakeholders and hosting several events focused on establishing a shared vision for the Mahalevona Valley.  This region comprises five villages: Ankovana, Fizono, Antanambao, Mahalevona, and Masindrano. Through meetings and workshops, diverse groups of stakeholders and local partners have utilized scientific evidence and valuable local knowledge to explore pathways for transformation and share ideas on addressing current social and environmental challenges.  Madagascar is renowned as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, yet it is threatened by deforestation. Despite challenges, the collective efforts of stakeholders represent a promising step towards sustainable development in the Mahalevona Valley.  Our local network and efforts for positive change continue to grow, with village visions gaining endorsement from local authorities. At the same time, collaborations with partners are thriving, and new valuable research contributions are being made on topics such as deforestation agents, soil values, basic incomes for conservation, and transformation pathways. 

Beyond education, stakeholder collaboration is key

Project Update March 17, 2022