GBFF in Focus: Strengthening locally managed marine conservation in Madagascar

Since 2024, the Global Environment Facility's Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) has moved from launch to full-speed operation with over $288 million in projects approved. GBFF In Focus is a series showcasing how the new biodiversity fund is changing the game for how countries can invest in nature.  The latest three projects are in Colombia, Indonesia, and Madagascar. The inclusive, integrated approach of these are examples of how to build a more nature-positive future.

Madagascar’s coastal and marine ecosystems are among the most unique and biologically significant in the world. Situated in the Western Indian Ocean at the heart of the Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems, the country hosts rich habitats that sustain both biodiversity and coastal livelihoods. Through the GBFF, a newly approved project with an investment of $5,294,722 is now supporting efforts to safeguard these vital ecosystems. With over 250,000 hectares of mangroves, representing roughly 2 percent of global coverage, and around 1,400 km of coral reefs and seagrass beds supporting more than 300 coral species, Madagascar’s marine environment stands out for its exceptional ecological value.

These ecosystems shelter more than 5,000 marine species, including approximately 1,540 fish species (30 endemic), 123 species of sharks and rays, such as critically endangered sawfish, and nine species of marine mammals, including dugongs and several whale species. Despite this natural wealth, coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on them face mounting pressures from unsustainable practices, climate change, and coastal development, which are further compounded by extreme poverty and weak governance.

Building on national commitments to marine conservation

Over the past decades, Madagascar has made a series of high-level commitments, through World Parks Congresses, Conferences of Parties, and national strategies, to conserve its marine biodiversity. These commitments include tripling the number of marine protected areas (MPAs), diversifying management options, and closing long-standing policy gaps that prevented local communities from holding management rights over traditional fishing grounds. To address these gaps, the country has advanced important legal and regulatory frameworks enabling community-based management of coastal and marine resources.

In this context, Madagascar has pioneered an inclusive coastal governance model that brings together formal MPAs and community-led management systems known as locally managed marine areas (LMMAs). This approach reflects national efforts to align biodiversity conservation with strengthening socio-economic resilience, particularly amid climate challenges and chronic underfunding of conservation systems.

The newly approved GBFF project, Sustainable Financing and Inclusive Management to Perpetuate Madagascar’s Locally Managed Marine Areas, builds on these foundational efforts and on the achievements of the earlier project Expanding and Consolidating Madagascar’s Marine Protected Areas Network. With an investment of $5,294,722, the project supports Madagascar’s continued leadership in community-based marine conservation.

Project goals

LMMAs are essential tools for sustainable marine stewardship in Madagascar, yet gaps in legal and institutional recognition continue to limit their effectiveness. Without formalized community rights, LMMAs face challenges in governance, in securing sustainable financing, and in implementing community-driven conservation solutions. At the same time, illegal and destructive fishing, combined with unsustainable resource use, threatens both marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities.

The project takes a holistic approach to strengthening coastal and marine conservation in Madagascar by strengthening the legal and financial enabling conditions to support locally-led conservation in perpetuity while advancing on-the-ground conservation across three seascapes in western Madagascar. It seeks to reinforce inclusive and effective management practices, develop durable sustainable financing mechanisms, such as the new Marine Biodiversity and Community Resilience Facility, a novel initiative that provides financial support to locally-managed marine areas and incubates sustainable livelihoods in coastal communities and ensure that community-led governance systems are supported and sustained.

Centering inclusive governance with local communities

Customary management has long been central to governing marine and coastal areas in Madagascar. Today, approximately 280 LMMAs in Madagascar are supported by more than 25 national and international non-governmental organizations. These areas balance biodiversity conservation with fisheries needs, cultural values, and participatory governance, involving local users, government representatives, civil society organizations, and community-based organizations

Efforts are underway to connect and scale LMMAs, positioning Madagascar as a leader in the Southwest Indian Ocean region on community-led management grounded in customary social codes governing natural resource access, conflict resolution, and social cohesion.

The project will directly benefit at least 5,450 people, including 5,100 people from local communities, through learning and knowledge-sharing events, capacity building on sustainable financing and strengthening of LMMA structures and inclusive functioning as well as adoption and support for sustainable and improved livelihoods. The project will ensure that 50 percent of its final beneficiaries are women, as well as people in vulnerable situations. 

A broad partnership for marine conservation

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development serves as the executing agency and leads overall project oversight, working closely with Malagasy foundations and organizations such as FAPBM, Tany Meva, and Mihari. The Ministry also chairs the National Steering Committee, which brings together key government entities, including the Ministry of Decentralization and Land Use Planning, the Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy, the Ministry responsible for marine transport, the Ministry of Mines, and members of the Marine Resources Governance Cluster. World Wildlife Fund serves as the GEF Agency supporting this project.