Since 2005 Madagascar has significantly expanded it protected area network. This ongoing effort has already seen some of the largest remaining forest blocks come under improved management. In 2008 we worked with communities in the Alaotra Mangoro Region in eastern Madagascar to develop new protected areas. These have since been awarded temporary protected area status by the Malagasy government but major work is ahead to complete the process.

Six of these provisional protected areas are relatively small in size (< 1,000 ha) but are hugely important to local people, the local economy, endemic species and long-term adaptatoin to climate change. Forest patches of this size are easily overlooked by international organizations and donor (they are somtimes called  orphan forests for this reason) but we beleive that their importance, value and contrlbution are large even if their surface area is small.

Mangabe forest though is larger (23,000 ha) but all of these provisional protected areas are being developed on the principles of sustainable and legal use of biodiversity in forests managed and conserved by locall community associatons.