Madagascar - Context and Land Governance

^{Photo: Rhett A Butler/Mongabay (CC-BY-NC-ND)}

The Malagasy population have diverse ancestral roots in part due the island’s positioning on long established Indian Ocean trade and slaving routes. Contemporary Malagasy culture and society have been shaped multiple influences: East Asian, Indonesian, African, Arab, Indian and European, “although a precise chronology describing the timing and origins of waves of human settlers to Madagascar remains elusive”². Indeed, the colonial period saw officials allocate ‘tribal names’ to people in living different locations across the island “as simply ecological descriptions”³ of place, rather than as a reference to distinct ethnic groups. While legacies of enslavement profoundly shaped early Malagasy society, contributing to the emergence of a social system distinguishing between clans associated with royalty, freemen and slaves, these social boundaries have since eroded⁴, though they have yet to disappear⁵. The imprint of colonial systems of forced labour, population removals and ‘commandist’ ecological management⁶, coupled with the colonial consolidation of local elites as intermediaries, segued into successive post-colonial socialist and neoliberal economic turns. Cumulatively these factors have entrenched contemporary Madagascar as a deeply stratified society⁷. 

Almost 80% of the population lives in rural areas, where in 2015 it was reported that poverty rates are almost twice as high as in urban areas⁸. Extreme poverty rates are higher in the southeast of the country.  In 2019 74.3% of the population were recorded as living on less than the international poverty line of $1.90 per day⁹. In 2020 this rose to 77.4% as a consequence of Covid-19. Social differences and access to land and resources vary widely, according to setting and circumstance. 

Madagascar has suffered from periods of debilitating social conflict and political instability throughout its history. This has generally impacted more heavily in urban areas where instability causes “severe cyclicality in urban and formal sector development”¹⁰. Because of the “substantial disconnectedness of the rural economy from the urban areas”¹¹ the rural sector is buffered from downturns in the formal and urban sectors, except in cases where urban migrants may be forced to return home.

Historical backdrop

Most archaeologists agree that the island was first settled between 1100 and 1350 years ago, although there are some who claim a much longer period of occupation. Language, cultural practices and genetic evidence trace the origins of many of the current inhabitants of Madagascar to Austronesian speakers from island South-East Asia¹². People enslaved from the African mainland also came to form part of the population. It has been argued that “slaves probably made up an important part of the population of Madagascar as early as in the 10th century”¹³. This contributed to a diverse population which is comprised of some 20 ethnic groups. Between 1770 and 1820 European slavers trafficked an estimated 70,000 slaves from the highlands of Madagascar to the French colonies of Mauritius and Reunion. 

The period 1810- 1861 saw the Merina establish themselves as rulers of much of the island. The Merina launched military raids to enslave members of other groupings on the island. “From the early 1820’s up to ten or more military expeditions were launched each year against other peoples of the island... Between I828 and I840 it is estimated that over 100,000 men were slaughtered, and over 200,000 people enslaved”¹⁴. The Merina also imported large numbers of East African slaves to the island from the mid-nineteenth century. This rise of the Merina kingdom was in part facilitated by British patronage, while Merina social dominance was entrenched by the work of the London Missionary Society who documented an ‘official’ Malagasy history in which particular identity histories of dominance were formalised¹⁵. 

Between 1820 and 1885 other Malagasy polities such as the Sakalava and Betsimisiraka raided for slaves in northern Madagascar, as well as in Mozambique and the Comoros¹⁶. The Arab Antalaotra, an Islamized group with Arab antecedents living on the west coast of Madagascar also played a role in the regional slave trade¹⁷.

Madagascar was subsequently annexed by the French and administered as a French colony (1896 - 1945). While slavery was abolished and the Malagasy slave trade was extinguished by early in the twentieth century, the French system of indirect rule cemented existing power relations, promoting local elites to act for the colonial administration with powers to conscript labour and enforce the payment of taxes¹⁸. 

During the colonial period social and economic divisions widened between people living in the coastal cities and those in the interior of the island on the plateau. It is estimated that the French forcefully expropriated around 1/5 of the arable land in production. Under French rule the Torrens registration system and cadastre was introduced to record land concessions issued to colonialists, coupled with reservation of land for the Malagasy. By 1921 there was a legal separation of registered land and land which was held under customary law. 

Following World War 2 French colonial policy changed, and for the period 1946 - 1958 Madagascar transitioned to the status of an overseas territory of France. Malagasy resistance to French rule mounted during the post-war period and the Mouvement Démocratique de la Rénovation Malagache (MDRM) was founded in 1946 as the first Nationalist party. In 1947 the MDRM initiated an armed rebellion on the eastern part of the island, which was crushed a year later, with huge loss of Malagasy life – estimates range between 30,000 and hundred thousand deaths¹⁹. 

By 1958 the French faced overwhelming pressure to decolonise. French overseas territories held referenda to decide their future in which the Malagasy voted for autonomy. Madagascar gained independence from France in 1960, and its first president Philibert Tsiranana held power until 1972. His presidency was marked by continuities with French colonial rule, and little changed for the majority of the population. By May 1972 Tsiranana handed power to General Ramanantsoa in the face of massive political and social protests. This ushered in a period of military rule and the advent of a Marxist political turn in Madagascar. 

The Ramanantsoa government opted for a centralised Soviet style state socialist model, establishing producer cooperatives and state farms and bringing all unregistered land under the ownership of the state. This was a conflicted period in which factions within the military tussled for power. Ramanantsoa stepped down, but his successor was assassinated within five days of assuming office in February 1975. The country was governed by a military committee, before Lt. Commander Ratsiraka was sworn in as president in January 1976 to lead the country for sixteen years until 1992.

Ratsiraka attempted to consolidate centralised control of the economy, nationalising French owned companies and taking over plantations established in the colonial era to be run as state farms. However, by 1980, Madagascar faced serious economic problems and was forced to approach the IMF for a loan to meet the balance of payments deficit. Loan conditionalities included the implementation of an economic structural adjustment programme which included wide-ranging deregulation and the privatisation of state assets. Sources indicate that privatisation became a vehicle for elite capture for those close to political power, while simultaneously being associated with job losses and economic hardship for the majority²⁰. 

From 2002 the Ravalomanana regime pivoted away from its historical relationship with France, to favour relations with the US and South Africa. The Ravalomanana period prioritised neo-liberal policies which accelerated privatisation, saw the state withdraw from most productive activities, deregulate prices and currency exchange rates, while decentralising much decision making to the commune or local government level²¹. The formulation of the National Land Tenure Programme, the Malagasy mining code and the National Environmental Action Plan dominated the policy arena. The search for foreign investment and the pursuit of an export-led growth path created an enabling environment for large land and mining deals with foreign owned corporations.

The companion timeline details the many changes of government in Madagascar’s post-independence history – some brought about by military coup and others through elections in which the results have almost universally been disputed. Frequent, and often violent changes of government have failed to substantively raise living standards of the majority of the population and have impacted on transparent and sustainable land and natural resource governance in Madagascar.

Land legislation and regulations

In the policy sphere the management of land, biodiversity and forest resources have been a major focus of law and practice. These have seen significant shifts in approach. Post-independence between 1962 and 1991, the state was the legal manager of forest resources and until 1996 it sought to manage these unilaterally²². Then as part of its structural adjustment policy commitments, the Ratsiraka government committed to a wide-ranging focus on environmental management and in 1989 Madagascar published Africa’s first National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP)²³. This introduced standardised management of protected areas, as well as proposing major land tenure changes. The latter proposed “the replacement of the community-based tenure system with a formal land tenure system under which all land would be titled in the name of individuals”²⁴. However, this titling programme failed to gain traction. It was found to be too expensive and too difficult to reconcile individual ownership with the flexible fady, or social norms shaping access to land and land use management within customary tenure systems and their variations across the island.

^{Madagascan village scene, photo by Fred Albrecht, Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license}

An environmental law “Gestion local sécurisée des resources naturelles renouvelables” (GELOSE) was passed in 1996. This provided a legal framework for the transfer of natural resource management rights to local communities as part of a new decentralised resource management approach²⁵. At same time the law sought to put an end to the presumption that natural resources were common property which could be accessed and utilised free of charge²⁶.

A new round of political conflict delayed GELOSE implementation. The law was passed just as Ratsiraka’s successor Albert Zafy faced impeachment proceedings. Then after Ratsiraka was briefly returned to power, armed conflict broke out in the early 2000’s when his political opponent Marc Ravalomanana claimed that the Presidential elections had been rigged. After the Constitutional Court declared him the winner, Ravalomanana accelerated implementation of reforms required by the IMF.

In 2001 enabling legislation to give effect to GELOSE was passed, ostensibly to transfer forest management rights to communities. In 2003 Ravalomanana announced plans to expand protected areas from 1.7 million hectares to 6 million hectares by 2012²⁷. By 2004 GELOSE resource management transfer contracts had been implemented in 451 communities. However, this approach had paradoxical consequences. In several cases resource management authority over natural resources was transferred from legitimate community leaders and structures to control by local elite minorities, better positioned to manage the complex institutional arrangements required by the globally dictated legal and policy frameworks²⁸. In this setting ‘community forest management’ frequently gave way to elite capture and resulted in diminished access rights for the majority. 

In other land related developments, the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) entered into a compact with the Republic of Madagascar in 2005 to “help the rural population secure formal property rights to land”. A land tenure project was initiated which aimed to “increase land titling and land security and improve the efficiency of land service administration”²⁹. The MCC compact also aimed to develop and adopt new land legislation and establish decentralised land management offices. 

Madagascar passed a suite of new land laws starting in 2005.

Law No. 2005-019 distinguished land tenure types and provided procedures for land registration. The law specifically recognized the rights of individuals and groups to unregistered land, which had previously been considered state land³⁰. “Land that had been untitled but developed, cultivated and or built on by generations of users was no longer considered as property of the state, but rather as private property. The law also recognised de facto land occupation and land use as a form of ownership”³¹.  State land was reclassified as untitled private property (UPP). 

Law No. 2006-031 empowered local government (communes rurales) to establish local Land Registry Offices (LRO) with authority to issue individual or collective certificates to the rights holders of local and customary property rights on UPP land . Local Recognition Committees (LRC) were established, made up of locally elected representatives and a designated municipal official. The LRC were responsible for local processes to determine/confirm and allocate individual and group land rights, demarcate boundaries and authorise the issue of certificates by the LRO. 

The MCC project was terminated in 2009, following the popular uprising and military coup which overthrew the Ravalomanana Presidency – in part a backlash against secret government plans to lease Malagasy land to different multinational corporations. (See section on land investments below)

In 2015 the government of Madagascar reiterated its commitment to land tenure security through land certification. It approved an updated land policy and launched the second National Land Tenure Programme (2016–2020). This promoted the local issue of land certificates at low cost by using ‘fit-for-purpose’ registration systems.

Subsequently in 2016 the World Bank funded the Madagascar Agriculture Rural Growth and Land Management Project. Component 2 of this project, worth US$13.40 million aimed to expand support to land policy and land rights registration. 

In addition, two updated laws have recently been drafted and approved – one on ‘Titled Private Property’ which confirms the legal value of the land certificate for any transaction, and a second on ‘Non-Titled Private Property’ which regulates the use of land certificates as collateral³².

There are reports of contentious draft legislation on the designation of “special status lands” for agricultural development by global corporations which is due to be presented to the National Assembly in upcoming parliamentary sessions in 2021³³.

Land use trends

Madagascar is a world-renowned biodiversity hotspot with important natural forests and unique fauna and flora. About 22% of the island is forested with different forest types – rain forest, humid and dry forests³⁴. 

^{Village with baobabs, photo by Ralph Kranzlein, Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license}

However, these globally significant natural resources are under threat from a complex mix of human impacts associated with agriculture, mining and logging. Attribution of natural resource and biodiversity loss is heavily influenced by degradation narratives which have long singled out extensive farming systems as a primary cause³⁵, often to the exclusion of the substantive impacts as a consequence of mining, plantation agriculture, commercial logging concessions and associated land dispossession³⁶.
   
Persistent narratives about the causes of environmental degradation in Madagascar have their origins in the French colonial period. This resulted in the propagation of a single story, characterised by some as a ‘degradation myth’, which singled out the extensive tavy ‘slash and burn’ farming system as a primary driver of loss of forest integrity and biodiversity.

^{The extensive tavy farming system involves burning to clear land for cropping, photo by Rhett A Butler Mongabay, Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license}

According to this foundational narrative, forests originally covered the entire island, before burning to clear land for cultivation resulted in massive deforestation. Despite this story being challenged by hard evidence from pollen core analysis which shows that the highlands and the west of the island were never all forest, this simplified explanation of “anthropogenic transformation of Madagascar’s environment”³⁷ continues to influence conservation policies today.  Other aspects, such as the deforestation impacts of logging concessions and alienation of land for cash crops in the first 30 years of colonial rule – which resulted in the logging of between one and seven million hectares of primary eastern forest – feature less prominently in contemporary environmental discourse³⁸.

A recent review reported that deforestation rates have increased from less than 0.9%/year for 2000–2010 to more than 2%/year for 2010–2017³⁹. However reliable estimates of deforestation and forest degradation rates are affected by the lack of unified baseline data against which to accurately assess changes in forest cover. Contemporary studies highlight significant regional differences in deforestation and degradation rates in Madagascar with deforestation in lowland evergreen moist forests being the highest, while deforestation rates in the medium altitude moist evergreen and dry deciduous forests are considerably lower⁴⁰. 

The combination of commercial pressures on natural resources and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change, amplify the vulnerability of land-based livelihoods and have impacted on household food security. Currently the country suffers from the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition globally⁴¹. Agriculture is largely based on low input, small scale household production for local consumption and markets, although there is foreign investment in plantation agriculture which has been a source of conflict.

Land tenure classifications

Two land tenure systems have existed side-by-side since the colonial period – private titling in terms of the Torrens system (introduced in 1896 by the French colonial state) and the customary tenure systems with local variations. Private titling catered for the elite and was both costly ($600/ title), and time consuming, taking 6 -10 years to finalise registration. 

For much of Madagascar’s recent history most landholders have relied on social tenures, endorsed by locally recognised informal systems for securing land rights, known as petits papiers (small papers). In rural villages/ administrative areas known as fokontany, customary leaders have long allocated land rights to both the local inhabitants and approved newcomers, using these systems. Transactions in land were uncommon – and were restricted mainly to those linked to inheritance, leasing and sharecropping arrangements.

Although unregulated, the petits papier system was found to be surprisingly uniform throughout the country. Under this system, the current landowner drafts a document describing the land and the origin of the land right. The local community recognizes and records the document⁴². 

In 2003, the government acknowledged that “without explicit authority or specific skills, communities had managed to implement land tenure practices that acknowledge ownership being established from the ground up”⁴³. It was agreed that local communes/municipalities should be granted new powers and functions to give legal effect to managing land rights and undertaking broader management of land under their jurisdiction.

The new legal framework outlined above identified different forms of ownership, together with leasehold and concession arrangements to facilitate foreign investment in agriculture.

Ownership: The land laws enable land to be owned by the state, individuals or groups. Landowners have the rights of exclusive possession and use of their land, and land is freely transferrable. Land can be held in ownership, if it is titled. Alternatively, the ownership rights of an individual or group are recorded by certificates issued by a local decentralised land registry office. 

Leasehold: Leaseholds are by mutual agreement. This primarily relates to agricultural land leased for cropping. Sharecropping agreements can also be entered into where the leaseholder provides the land rights holder with an agreed share of the crops harvested, but carries the costs of inputs and labour.

Concession: Government can issue concessions on state land up to a period of 30 years, subject to terms agreed. Land use and rental agreements can be revoked for non-compliance. In 2020 foreign investors were reported to lease 588,000 hectares of agricultural land in Madagascar⁴⁴.

As noted above, the 2005 land reform law enabled communes with land offices to issue land certificates which legally empowered rights holders to transact rights in land, legally equivalent to owning a land title. By 2009 land offices (CLO) had been established in 524 communes (33.8%) out of a total 1,550, through a donor funded programme.

This programme was badly set back following the 2009 coup. One third of the CLOs closed altogether; one third continued partial functioning and one third continued operating at full capacity. Since elections in 2014 and a new government under President Rajaonarimampianina, sanctions were lifted and international support for the CLOs resumed. Some 36 land registry offices were able to issue 450,000 titles since 1897, out of an estimated 8 – 10 million land parcels in Madagascar⁴⁵. Since 2015 under the new programme, CLOs are reported to have issued a total of 150,000 certificates of which 37,000 are in the name of women⁴⁶.  

Despite official optimism about the programme, concerns remain about the institutional sustainability of the CLOs and the precarious politics which persist in Madagascar. Donors funding the current CLO support programme are reported to have contracted external service providers to help process certificates faster, so as to meet project targets set by the funding agreement. It remains to be seen whether this strategy will build, or undermine the capacity of local CLOs.  Given that one of the government’s objectives in issuing certificates is to grow the local tax base, this could provide a disincentive to cash strapped households, as once their land is registered, they become liable to pay state taxes on this asset.

Land investments and acquisitions 

Agricultural investments in Madagascar showed a sharp increase after 2005 with some 70 agribusiness projects covering more than a thousand hectares listed as starting or ongoing⁴⁷. In 2006 the Ravalomanana government (2002–2009) established the Economic Development Board of Madagascar (EDBM) as a one-stop shop for investors. This was followed by an investment law in 2008 which authorised the EDBM to allocate land to foreign investors. The Ministry of Agriculture encouraged the demarcation of agricultural investment areas (AIA). On land acquisitions exceeding 1000 ha, the investor was required to obtain environmental authorisation to show how they would minimise impacts on natural resources and underlying land rights. 

According to the 2007 investment framework, lease contracts could be issued for periods ranging from 18 to 99 years, with land rental rates as low as one US dollar/ hectare/ year. The investment framework also permitted foreign investors to buy land if they registered a Malagasy legal entity⁴⁸.

Due to a global rise in food and energy prices, there was a sharp increase in investment demand for land in the period 2008–2012. This threatened the tenure security of thousands of Malagasy households⁴⁹. Although the new laws and policies discussed above were in place, this did not prevent officials in the state from entering into deals to lease land to investors, while overriding local land rights in the process⁵⁰. 

In 2008, secret plans for a massive land deal were exposed, in which the leadership of the then Malagasy government was negotiating with Daewoo Logistics, a South Korean company. This involved leasing of 1.3 million ha of land to the company for the production of palm oil and corn⁵¹. Much of this land was already occupied and farmed by local producers.  This prompted widespread resistance and accusations that Ravalomanana was stripping the people of their economic base and inheritance and selling it off to foreigners. The exposure of a second large-scale agribusiness deal with Varun International contributed to mounting popular discontent, culminating in a transfer of power by the Ravalomanana government to the military.

Both the Daewoo and the Varun projects were subsequently abandoned, and evidence suggests that 90% of foreign companies also abandoned agricultural investment projects following the political crisis in 2009. Those which remained scaled down their activities for a period.

More recently, other agribusiness investments on a smaller scale have been planned and are underway. Again, researchers highlight wide gaps between the application and authorisation processes required by law and the processes followed in practice. By 2012, twelve companies had started investing in plantations. Of these, it was reported that just two had obtained the required environmental permit, or secured a lease contract with the state⁵². Case studies highlight the complex processes through which local elites may engage with and encourage investors, so as to be able to capture land rents and project linked dividends. Such investments frequently run roughshod over local rights holders, particularly those with use rights on unregistered private property. 

Land investment deals have also been a source of conflict between different spheres of government. It has been argued that many officials in the national ministries continue to presume that land which is untitled is state owned – contrary to the 2005 land law⁵³. Local officials are more likely to recognise existing land and resource use practices.

In 2015 a New Letter for Land Policy established Special Economic Zones. Reportedly, this new dispensation restricted foreign companies to the acquisition of land through 99-year lease contracts⁵⁴. In recent developments the National Agribusiness Development Strategy seeks to allocate 4 million ha of land located within so called agricultural growth poles. A project to lease 60,000 ha of land to an Emirati company Elite Agro LLC which sources fresh produce globally and undertakes corporate farming projects and land development⁵⁵ has attracted strong criticism from civil society groups. These argue that agricultural policies should prioritise family farms and note that “neither the landowners, nor local municipalities, nor elected officials and actors, nor local communities were expected to be involved in how special status lands would be used, created and managed”⁵⁶.

There has also been significant investment in mining which has major implications for local land users. The Ambatovy mining project, which commenced commercial production in 2014 is one of the world’s largest lateritic nickel mines and is the single largest capital project in the history of Madagascar. The land on which the mine has been established was legally the property of the descendant of a French settler, while smallholder farmers who had long cultivated the land in the area were regarded as squatters. However, in this particular case the investor chose to recognise the claims of informal rights holders to compensatioⁿ⁵⁷. Several other mining ventures, which have ridden roughshod over local land rights have been met with violent resistance. In 2016 local land users in Soamahamanina protested the authorisation for gold mining issued to a Chinese company and forced it to abandon the claim⁵⁸.

^{By Joussia - Own work, CC0.}

In the last decade investments in mining have been accompanied by so called ‘off-set’ investments to compensate for loss of biodiversity. Where mining companies invest in conservation enforcement regimes, these often have adverse effects for local people, frequently excluding them from forests and other natural resources on which their livelihoods depend⁵⁹. 

At the same time illicit logging and export of high value rosewood timber and other natural resources⁶⁰ has seen government accused of protecting the “so-called timber barons who run the trade, many of whom are themselves politicians or have close ties to government figures”⁶¹.

Women’s land rights 

As both women and men have a legal right to own land in Madagascar, the land tenure reforms which were implemented in 2005 did not include a set of gender equality principles⁶². Research suggests that women have been less likely to obtain land certificates in their own names, through the processes of land rights recordal and certification. However, the World Bank reports that of the 150,000 land certificates issued since 2015, 24.6% are held by women⁶³. 

Likewise, the difference between statutory and customary marriage regimes has implications for property rights. Civil marriage legislation states that “the husband is the head of the family”, although stipulating that assets, including land acquired during the marriage are jointly owned; whereas property acquired before the marriage, or through inheritance, are regarded as individual property. For those married in terms of civil law, any sale of property must have the authorisation of both spouses. In practice, research suggests that it is frequently the husband who makes the decision to sell land, often without consulting his spouse. 

For those married under customary law, the general rule is that if the couple separates, two thirds of the property accrue to the man and one third to the woman. However, women will usually return to their family home and land when a customary marriage is annulled and may not receive anything in case of divorce⁶⁴.

Urban tenure issues

There is a significant rift between rural and urban areas in Madagascar. Some 14% of the population struggle to survive in the urban informal sector⁶⁵. In the capital city Antananarivo, informal settlements account for up to 70% of dwellings⁶⁶.

^{Conditions are poor in urban informal areas, photo by Indiana University, CC-BY-NC-ND license}

Those seeking to formally register a property face an onerous and costly process involving six procedures, 100 days and 9.1% of the property value to effect registration⁶⁷. As far as could be established, the land certificates issued by CLO’s do not extend to urban residential sites.

Community land rights issues

There is a complex interplay between local farming systems and national and global biodiversity protection initiatives in Madagascar. Research into deforestation and forest fragmentation reveals that many Malagasy households are caught in a vicious poverty trap⁶⁸. The majority of rural households are reliant on regional variations of the low input, extensive tavy farming system for their survival. This land use system has been central to household livelihood security. It is enabled by a flexible customary land rights regime which permits the expansion and resting of land holdings, enables associated cultural practices and provides access to common property resources. However, this security has been rendered increasingly precarious by a number of factors, including the rising frequency of extreme weather events, as a consequence of global climate change and conservation policies which seek to outlaw tavy practices. Cyclones, which are increasing in severity, regularly destroy crops and infrastructure. Many households are unable to produce enough to guarantee food security throughout the year. This forces household members to search for casual work to earn extra cash. This combination of factors disincentivises investment of scarce resources and labour into more capital-intensive ‘modern’ farming systems advocated by the state. It increases conflict over land use management as the tavy system is seen by conservationists as a driver of environmental degradation.

As noted above, global conservation organisations have played a significant role in lobbying to expand the area of land with protected area status. In 2003, then-president Ravalomanana pledged that protected areas would be expanded to cover 10% of the national territory. This had major implications for local community land rights, resource use and food security. In several areas across the country, land users have lost access to land and there are significant concerns about the adequacy of the compensation which has been offered⁶⁹. 

The cumulative conservation benefits of protected areas have also been questioned, as while deforestation has been reduced within protected areas, it has accelerated in the remainder of the countryside⁷⁰. To date it seems that there has been little success in finding biodiversity conservation solutions which are equitable, effective and environmentally just⁷¹. These remain particularly elusive in a development context characterised by social fragmentation, weak institutions and predatory elites. Such initiatives frequently fail to sustain and diversify the livelihoods of the majority of rural households, who are increasingly dependent on shrinking stocks of natural capital to survive. There remains little understanding in the policy sphere of the “complex social, ecological, and political processes [which] affect how people make a living and whether or not that living is satisfying and sufficient to maintain health and wellbeing”⁷².

With respect to the land rights of ‘indigenous people’ there is a literature on small ‘hunter gatherer’ groupings of people in southwestern Madagascar, known as the Mikea. Historically the Mikea communities were mythologised and were regarded by some as “tompontany, original inhabitants of the land, preceding all the others”⁷³, much like the San in Southern Africa. However, this framing of the Mikea as descendants of a primitive, pre-Malagasy population has been discredited, and contemporary researchers note that “the Mikea speak the same language and follow many of the same customs as other Malagasy people”. The Mikea are thought to have opted for a mix of foraging and cultivation in the remote and dry deciduous forest areas, as the means to escape social conflict and taxation by French colonial agents. The Mikea Forest were declared a protected area in 2007. This was followed by the establishment of the Mikea Forest National Park in 2012. With the declaration of the park, the Mikea population was only permitted to live in ‘controlled occupation zones’ with the rights to hunt and gather in the forest, but not to clear land for agriculture⁷⁴. Many have since left the park area and have settled in adjacent areas.

Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Tenure (VGGT)

Awareness raising workshops have been held in Madagascar to introduce the VGGT.

Timeline – milestones in land governance

A detailed timeline is available on the Land Portal as a companion to this profile. This provides a historical, socio-political chronology and includes key land related information which has been coded using LandVoc categories.  Key land governance dates have been extracted below.

1919 – French expropriation of 1/5 of arable land in production and associated forced removals

1921 – Introduction of the cadastre 
Titling of land and legal separation of land held under customary tenure.

1960 – Madagascar gains independence.

1968 – Law on inheritance confirms equal rights of inheritance for sons and daughters

1988/9 – Government commits to new focus on environmental management and releases the National Environmental Action Plan.

1996 – Community-Based Management of Natural Resources (GELOSE) Law

1997 – State opts for a community-based forest management approach. 

2000 – The GCF (Forest Management Contracts) Decree 
This transferred management of the forests to local communities. However, the management of forests frequently devolved in favour of local elites.

2003 – Promotion of neo-liberal economic and social policies and implements IMF reforms
Government agrees to triple protected areas from 1.6 million ha to 6 million ha.

2004 – Launch of National Land Programme
Move towards decentralisation. Extensive foreign investment in agricultural land with an estimated 800,000 hectares of agricultural land leased out to investors in the 2004–2009 period.

2005 – Letter for land policy 
This seeks to restructure and ‘modernise’ land ownership and topographical records and improve decentralized land management by creating Land Management Offices at the commune (subdistrict) level.

2005/6 - A suite of new land laws passed

2008 – Increase in international demand for land in the period 2008–2012 due to high food and energy prices. Daewoo, a South Korean company, enters into an agreement to lease 1.3 million hectares of land, equivalent to half of Madagascar’s arable land area. A second major land deal with an Indian conglomerate is also revealed. 

2009 – 2014 – Public resistance to Daewoo lease agreement and other deals culminates in a political crisis and a transfer of power to the military

2014-2018 – IMF and World bank resume ties
Resumption of support for land registration programme.

2020/1 – National Agribusiness Development Strategy
It allocates 4 million ha of ‘special status’ agricultural land for foreign investment. 

Where to go next?

The author’s suggestion for further reading

The recent analysis by Emilie Combaz examining the effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and the environment provides important context within which to locate land issues. The work of social anthropologist Amber Huff examines the role of neo-liberal land and investment reforms in exacerbating conservation and mining-related conflicts. The work of Christian Kull provides essential analysis of the origins and propagation of “degradation myths” which have strongly influenced the framing of environmental policies and programmes in Madagascar.  We also recommend the writings of anthropologists Denis Regnier and Dominique Somda which provide a nuanced and thoughtfully rendered overview of slavery and post-slavery in Madagascar and illuminates certain drivers of social fragmentation and recurrent political turbulence. 

The World Bank and USAID have published a great deal on land issues and environmental management in Madagascar. Zora Urech et al provide a useful review of deforestation and the tavi farming system from a livelihoods perspective, while Pollini and Lassoie critically examine how GELOSE legislation has favoured resource capture by local elites.  There is a wide literature on global land grabs. Burnod and collaborators provide a useful framing of land grabs in Madagascar. Recently RSCDA-IO have critically reviewed policy and draft legislation to allocate 4 million hectares of agricultural land for investment in special economic zones.

There are also reports on the Land Portal reviewing the decentralised land administration and certification processes which provide valuable reflections on lessons learnt.

References

[1] Kantambwe, L. and J. Kaplan (2019). Madagascar. African Housing Finance Yearbook 2019, Centre for African Housing Finance.

[2] Huff, A. (2011). Vulnerability and wellbeing in the baintao lava, ‘the long wounded year’: Environmental policy, livelihoods, and human health among Mikea of Southwest Madagascar. PhD, University of Georgia.

[3] Southall, A. (1971). "Ideology and Group Composition in Madagascar." American Anthropologist 73(1): 144-164.

[4] Tucker, B., A. Huff, J. Tombo, P. Hajasoa and C. Nagnisaha (2011). "When the wealthy are poor: poverty explanations and local perspectives in southwestern Madagascar." Ibid. 113(2): 291-305.

[5] Regnier, D. and D. Somda (2018). Slavery and Post-Slavery in Madagascar: An Overview. African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization. T. Falola, D. Porter-Sanchez and J. Parrott, Rochester University Press.

[6] Sodikoff, G. (2005). "Forced and Forest Labor Regimes in Colonial Madagascar, 1926--1936." Ethnohistory 52(2): 407-435.

[7] Combaz, E. (2020). Effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and environment. K4D Helpdesk report. Sussex, IDS.

[8] World Bank (2015). Madagascar: Systematic country diagnostic. Washington.

[9] World Bank. (2020). "Madagascar."   Retrieved 15 December, 2020, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/madagascar/overview.

[10] World Bank (2015). Madagascar: Systematic country diagnostic. Washington, The World Bank Group.

[11] Ibid

[12] Mitchell, P. (2020). "Settling Madagascar: When Did People First Colonize the World’s Largest Island?" The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 15(4): 576-595.

[13] Regnier, D. and D. Somda (2018). Slavery and Post-Slavery in Madagascar: An Overview. African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization. T. Falola, D. Porter-Sanchez and J. Parrott, Rochester University Press.

[14] Campbell, G. (1981). "Madagascar and the Slave Trade, 1810–1895." The Journal of African History 22(2): 203-227.

[15] Larson, P. M. (1996). "Desperately seeking ‘the Merina’ (Central Madagascar): reading ethnonyms and their semantic fields in African identity histories." Journal of Southern African Studies 22(4): 541-560.

[16] Regnier, D. and D. Somda (2018). Slavery and Post-Slavery in Madagascar: An Overview. African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization. T. Falola, D. Porter-Sanchez and J. Parrott, Rochester University Press.

[17] Campbell, G. (1981). "Madagascar and the Slave Trade, 1810–1895." The Journal of African History 22(2): 203-227.

[18] Huff, A. (2016). "Black Sands, Green Plans and Conflict: Structural Adjustment, Sectoral Reforms and the Mining–Conservation–Conflict Nexus in Southern Madagascar." IDS Open docs  Retrieved 8 May, 2021, from https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/10057.

[19] Wantchekon, L. and O. Garcia-Ponce (2014). Online appendix for Critical Junctures: Independence Movements and Democracy in Africa, Princeton University.

[20] Combaz, E. (2020). Effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and environment. K4D Helpdesk report. Sussex, IDS.

[21] Huff, A. (2016). "Black Sands, Green Plans and Conflict: Structural Adjustment, Sectoral Reforms and the Mining–Conservation–Conflict Nexus in Southern Madagascar." IDS Open docs  Retrieved 8 May, 2021, from https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/10057.

[22] Raik, D. (2007). "Forest Management in Madagascar: An Historical Overview." Madagascar Conservation and Development 2(1): 5-10.

[23] Ibid

[24] USAID (2010). Madagascar: Country Profile Resource Rights and Governance. Washington, USAID.

[25] Pollini, J. and J. P. Lassoie (2011). "Trapping Farmer Communities Within Global Environmental Regimes: The Case of the GELOSE Legislation in Madagascar." Society & Natural Resources 24(8): 814-830.

[26] Rives, F., S. M. Carriere, P. Montagne, S. Aubert and N. Sibelet (2013). "Forest management devolution: Gap between technicians’ design and villagers’ practices in Madagascar." Environmental Management 52(4): 877-893.

[27] Raik, D. (2007). "Forest Management in Madagascar: An Historical Overview." Madagascar Conservation and Development 2(1): 5-10.

[28] Pollini, J. and J. P. Lassoie (2011). "Trapping Farmer Communities Within Global Environmental Regimes: The Case of the GELOSE Legislation in Madagascar." Society & Natural Resources 24(8): 814-830.

[29] Millennium Challenge Corporation. (2020). "Madagascar compact."   Retrieved 16 December, 2020, from https://www.mcc.gov/where-we-work/program/madagascar-compact.

[30] USAID (2010). Madagascar: Country Profile Resource Rights and Governance. Washington, USAID.

[31] de Satgé, R., K. Kleinbooi and C. Tanner (2011). Decentralised Land Governance: Case Studies and Local Voices from Botswana, Madagascar and Mozambique. Cape Town, PLAAS, University of the Western Cape.

[32] World Bank (2019). International Development Association project paper on a proposed additional grant to the Republic of Madagascar for the Madagascar Agriculture Rural Growth And Land Management Project. Washington.

[33] RSCDA-IO (2021). Madagascar: Worse than the Daewoo project, the National Agribusiness Strategy, Research and Support Centre for Development Alternatives - Indian Ocean.

[34] USAID. (2020). "Madagascar." Land Links  Retrieved December, 2020, from https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/madagascar/.

[35] Kull, C. A. (2000). "Deforestation, Erosion, and Fire: Degradation Myths in the Environmental History of Madagascar." Environment and History 6(4): 423-450.

[36] Huff, A. and Y. Orengo (2020). "Resource warfare, pacification and the spectacle of ‘green’ development: Logics of violence in engineering extraction in southern Madagascar." Political Geography 81: 102195.

[37] Kull, C. A. (2000). "Deforestation, Erosion, and Fire: Degradation Myths in the Environmental History of Madagascar." Environment and History 6(4): 423-450.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Vieilledent, G., M. Nourtier, C. Grinand, M. Pedrono, A. Clausen, T. Rabetrano, J.-R. Rakotoarijaona, B. Rakotoarivelo, F. A. Rakotomalala, L. Rakotomalala, A. Razafimpahanana, J. M. Ralison and F. Achard (2020). "It’s not just poverty: unregulated global market and bad governance explain unceasing deforestation in Western Madagascar." bioRxiv: 2020.2007.2030.229104.

[40] Yesuf, G., K. A. Brown and N. Walford (2019). "Assessing regional‐scale variability in deforestation and forest degradation rates in a tropical biodiversity hotspot." Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 5(4): 346-359.

[41] World Bank. (2020). "Madagascar."   Retrieved 15 December, 2020, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/madagascar/overview.

[42] USAID (2010). Madagascar: Country Profile Resource Rights and Governance. Washington, USAID.

[43] de Satgé, R., K. Kleinbooi and C. Tanner (2011). Decentralised Land Governance: Case Studies and Local Voices from Botswana, Madagascar and Mozambique. Cape Town, PLAAS, University of the Western Cape.

[44] USAID. (2020). "Madagascar." Land Links  Retrieved December, 2020, from https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/madagascar/.

[45] World Bank (2019). International Development Association project paper on a proposed additional grant to the Republic of Madagascar for the Madagascar Agriculture Rural Growth And Land Management Project. Washington.

[46] Ibid

[47] Burnod, P., M. Gigembre and A. Ratsialonana (2013). Competition over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar. Governing Global Land Deals: 163-184.

[48] Widman, M. (2014). "Land Tenure Insecurity and Formalizing Land Rights in Madagascar: A Gender Perspective on the Certification Program." Feminist Economics 20(1): 130-154.

[49] Holden, S. T. and H. Ghebru (2016). "Land tenure reforms, tenure security and food security in poor agrarian economies: Causal linkages and research gaps." Global Food Security 10: 21-28.

[50] Burnod, P., M. Gigembre and A. Ratsialonana (2013). Competition over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar. Governing Global Land Deals: 163-184. 

[51] Ibid.

[52] Burnod, P., M. Gigembre and A. Ratsialonana (2013). Competition over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar. Governing Global Land Deals: 163-184.

[53] Ibid

[54] Kantambwe, L. and J. Kaplan (2019). Madagascar. African Housing Finance Yearbook 2019, Centre for African Housing Finance.

[55] Elite Agro. (2021). "Fresh Investment Solutions."   Retrieved 13 May, 2021, from http://www.eag.ae/.

[56] RSCDA-IO (2021). Madagascar: Worse than the Daewoo project, the National Agribusiness Strategy, Research and Support Centre for Development Alternatives - Indian Ocean.

[57] Widman, M. (2014). "Land Tenure Insecurity and Formalizing Land Rights in Madagascar: A Gender Perspective on the Certification Program." Feminist Economics 20(1): 130-154.

[58] Combaz, E. (2020). Effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and environment. K4D Helpdesk report. Sussex, IDS.

[59] Huff, A. (2016). "Black Sands, Green Plans and Conflict: Structural Adjustment, Sectoral Reforms and the Mining–Conservation–Conflict Nexus in Southern Madagascar." IDS Open docs  Retrieved 8 May, 2021, from https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/10057.

[60] Sharife, K. and E. Maintikely. (2018). "The Fate of Madagascar’s Endangered Rosewoods."   Retrieved 18 December, 2020, from https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/8480-the-fate-of-madagascar-s-endangered-rosewoods#:~:text=Logging%20rosewood%20in%20Madagascar%20is,the%20 forest%20has%20been%20destroyed.

[61] Ong, S. and E. Carver. (2019). "The Rosewood Trade: An Illicit Trail from Forest to Furniture." Yale Environment 360  Retrieved 31 March, 2021, from https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-rosewood-trade-the-illicit-trail-from-forest-to-furniture.

[62] Widman, M. (2014). "Land Tenure Insecurity and Formalizing Land Rights in Madagascar: A Gender Perspective on the Certification Program." Feminist Economics 20(1): 130-154.

[63] World Bank (2019). International Development Association project paper on a proposed additional grant to the Republic of Madagascar for the Madagascar Agriculture Rural Growth And Land Management Project. Washington.

[64] Widman, M. (2014). "Land Tenure Insecurity and Formalizing Land Rights in Madagascar: A Gender Perspective on the Certification Program." Feminist Economics 20(1): 130-154.

[65] Combaz, E. (2020). Effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and environment. K4D Helpdesk report. Sussex, IDS.

[66] Kantambwe, L. and J. Kaplan (2019). Madagascar. African Housing Finance Yearbook 2019, Centre for African Housing Finance.

[67] Ibid.

[68] Urech, Z., J. Zaehringer, O. Rickenbach, J.-P. Sorg and H. Felber (2015). "Understanding deforestation and forest fragmentation from a livelihood perspective." Madagascar Conservation and Development 10(2): 62-75.

[69] Combaz, E. (2020). Effects of Madagascar’s political economy on development and environment. K4D Helpdesk report. Sussex, IDS.

[70] Ibid.

[71] Ibid.

[72]  Huff, A. (2014). "Weathering the 'Long Wounded Year': livelihoods, nutrition and changing political ecologies in the Mikea Forest Region, Madagascar." Journal of Political Ecology 21.

[73] Stiles, D. (1998). "The Mikea Hunter-Gatherers of Southwest Madagascar: Ecology and Socioeconomics." African Study Monographs 19(3): 127-148.

[74] Tucker, B. (2020). "Où vivre sans boire revisited: Water and political-economic change among Mikea huntergatherers of southwestern Madagascar." Economic Anthropology 7(1): 22-37.

[75] Regnier, D. and D. Somda (2018). Slavery and Post-Slavery in Madagascar: An Overview. African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization. T. Falola, D. Porter-Sanchez and J. Parrott, Rochester University Press.

[76] Urech, Z., J. Zaehringer, O. Rickenbach, J.-P. Sorg and H. Felber (2015). "Understanding deforestation and forest fragmentation from a livelihood perspective." Madagascar Conservation and Development 10(2): 62-75.

[77] Pollini, J. and J. P. Lassoie (2011). "Trapping Farmer Communities Within Global Environmental Regimes: The Case of the GELOSE Legislation in Madagascar." Society & Natural Resources 24(8): 814-830.

[78] Burnod, P., M. Gigembre and A. Ratsialonana (2013). Competition over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar. Governing Global Land Deals: 163-184.