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Sustainabilities, Care and Ecotourism Among the Tsimihety in Rural Northeastern Madagascar

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Perceptions and Representations of the Malagasy Environment Across Cultures

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies ((IOWS))

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Abstract

In 1998, Marojejy National Park was established in northeast Madagascar, following intensive environmental conservation efforts in the island. Environmental conservation efforts, focused on achieving a sustainable future, were based on the conventional view that the Malagasy did not care about their environment. However, this chapter demonstrates that the Tsimihety who lived in the proximity of the park did care for their environment, in ways similar to the manner in which they related to their kin. Such relationships, essential for Tsimihety well-being and prosperity, were at core exchange relationships. Moreover, the Tsimihety carried such concepts into their work in ecotourism. As conservation actors and funders promote ecotourism as a sustainable solution to environmental degradation, this inevitably results in the need to negotiate differences and expectations with the Tsimihety.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Maro= many; jejy= spirit, rain or rock.

  2. 2.

    This was a preparatory fieldwork. During this time, I collaborated with the ESSA-Forêt institute at the University of Antananarivo, studied the Malagasy language, and visited the SAVA (Sambava-Antalaha-Vohemar-Andapa) region in order to prepare for a second period of more extensive fieldwork.

  3. 3.

    I conducted the interviews in the very beginning of my stay (September–October) in order to get a general sense of the people and the place and to get to know the people in the villages.

  4. 4.

    National Archives and IRD (Institute de Recherche pour le Développement).

  5. 5.

    From 3–10 percent of Madagascar’s area, approximately 17,000 km2 to over 60,000 km2. The Durban Vision was later entitled the “Système d’Aires Protégées de Madagascar” (SAPM) (System of Protected Areas in Madagascar) (Corson 2011).

  6. 6.

    Transnational and national conservation efforts have intensified throughout Madagascar during 1990s (see a well-covering description by Kull 2014).

  7. 7.

    The System of Rice Intensification (Le Système de Riziculture Intensive in French) was developed in the early 1980s by Fr. Henri de Laulanié, S.J. who collaborated with the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) (SRI-RICE 2015).

  8. 8.

    Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, “Reconstruction Credit Institute”.

  9. 9.

    Vanilla triangle consists of Sambava, Andapa and Antalaha.

  10. 10.

    From 1993 onwards, the vanilla market in Madagascar has been gradually liberated by easing the licensing system and reducing taxes on vanilla exports. Today, the state’s role has been making sanitary and quality inspections and setting the date and place of vanilla marketing every year. Observations have reported of increased violence (Cadot et al. 2008: 400–3; Osterhoudt 2020: 250).

  11. 11.

    Four sectors in 2021.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the editors of this volume and anonymous reviewers for comments on preliminary drafts of this chapter. For their support, I thank the Kone Foundation, as well as the Academy of Finland’s “Human ecology, land conversion and the global resource economy” project (#253680), and the “ALL-YOUTH” project (#312689). I am grateful to Mieja Razafindrakoto for her research collaboration.

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  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jenni Mölkänen

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  1. Jenni Mölkänen
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Correspondence to Jenni Mölkänen .

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  1. Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Frank Muttenzer

  2. Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Gwyn Campbell

  3. German Agency for International Cooperation GmbH, Kindu, Congo, Demographic Republic (Zaire)

    Jacques Pollini

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Mölkänen, J. (2023). Sustainabilities, Care and Ecotourism Among the Tsimihety in Rural Northeastern Madagascar. In: Muttenzer, F., Campbell, G., Pollini, J. (eds) Perceptions and Representations of the Malagasy Environment Across Cultures. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23836-9_3

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