Final report of Tropical Research and Development on a contract (11/91-12/96) to establish, under the Sustainable Approaches to Viable Environmental Management (SAVEM) project, a National Association for the Management of Protected Areas (ANGAP) in Madagascar. The report focuses on the 1994-96 period. The contract was a success: the Government of Madagascar has recognized ANGAP, a private association that manages the country”s network of 39 national parks, as Madagascar”s national park service. ANGAP has developed a mission statement and organizational procedures and structures, as well as a process for monitoring its evolution and that of the protected area program over the next 5 years, and employs professional accounting systems at the central and park/reserve levels. In addition, ANGAP has established an energetic training program for ANGAP Tana staff and integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) national partners in professional park management. The Association”s staff of 52 highly motivated individuals is expected to continue to increase dramatically as it progressively assumes direct management of Madagascar”s national parks and reserves. Efforts to secure the new institution”s financial sustainability have focused on ecotourism development, including entrance and other service fees (i.e., filming, research permits, and concession fees), and royalties, and a trust fund within the Malagasy Tany Meva Foundation. In addition, the MacArthur Foundation made a first foundation award to ANGAP, and a $90,000 USAID grant helped establish a marketing fund that has grown through profits of sales of posters, videos, calendars, maps, and brochures related to the parks system. Through the Department of Information and Valorization of Biodiversity (DIVB), ANGAP has become the hub for many private and public institutions, using an outstanding, and ever-growing, geo-referenced database that comprises the most recent census information and digitized imagery from satellites, videography, and historical research findings from internationally known institutions. ANGAP produces a quarterly catalogue on data available in the database, and has used the database to produce new maps on national parks and to define research in the ICDPs. Norms and standards have been established for classification, collection, and entry of all vegetation information. The ANGAP database had been linked to national (CIDST) and international (IBISCUS) networks. In addition, ANGAP has a well-managed and computerized protected area documentation center that includes well over 100 professional articles and documents (most of which exist in French and English) on the protected area program, community and park relationships, monitoring techniques, and biodiversity and environmental issues in Madagascar. A network-wide protected area socioeconomic and ecological monitoring program has also been established, with baseline data dating from 1994. The parks management part of the contract was originally carried out by NGOs operating ICDPs. ANGAP is in the process of assuming direct management of the parks, with four priority parks currently under its wing. For these parks, ANGAP has delineated boundaries and described peripheral zones; completed park management, zoning, tourism facility, and ecotourism plans, as well as a park pricing system; and conducted studies on tourism, target markets, craft product identification, and quality assessment. Architectural plans for an interpretation center have been developed for two of the parks. Finally, ANGAP has started to develop partnerships with the private tourism sector for coordinated activity in park regions, and considered ways to work with neighboring communities.
