Planet Action joins forces with the NGO Vakanala in its approach of reforestation and fighting against global warming in Madagascar. How? Through an annual provision of observation imagery and geographic information. This information will enable Vakanala to visualize the progress of their reforestation projects and to monitor the donors’ development efforts in a transparent way.

Planet Action is an initiative launched by Spot Image, a leader in the market for satellite imagery. Planet Actions goal is to encourage the Earth observation industry and geographic information professionals to support local projects searching for adaptive solutions to climate change problems. The products and materials available to these professionals – satellite images, geographic information systems, image processing and display software – are indispensable for studying the impact of global warming on our planet, on local and global scales.

Please visit the website of Planet Action where the project of Vakanala called "Biosphere Reserve of  Manambolo: Reforestation as a tools of rural development in Madagascar" is visible. This page will be documented, illustrated and updated under the responsibility of our scientific coordinator Jerome Lebeau, expert in conservation, monitoring, restoration of biodiversity and rural crowd sourcing.Jérome Lebeau is the man behind the http://fire.vakanala.org/. This website provide a Google 3D spatial and temporal representation of fires that occurs In Madagascar and Comorros Islands. Fires are detected from two satelittes by NASA and University of Maryland, throught The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). Data are collected for Madagascar and dispatch by Conservation International Fire Altert Project.

To be expected on the Planet Action website: The monitoring of plants for reforestation; monitoring of biodiversity through géophotographie and GPS field survey. All carried out directly by the rural communities.

The population in the village of Manambolo, our pilot site in Madagascar, is already surprisingly sensitive to the interest of forest conservation as an essential asset to their development. Anxious to preserve their "forest capital" and aware of the massive increase in traffic of illegal wood and slash and burn activity in the country, they have appealed to the NGO Vakanala for the establishment of a sustainable management of their resources.

This project that Vakanala team has proposed is in line with the program "Man and Biosphere (MAB) of the UNESCO. This form of protected area has the objective to integrate both conservation of natural resources (and hence biodiversity), and sustainable development of local populations into one single process. Launched in the early 1970s, it targets the ecological, social and economic dimensions of biodiversity loss and the reduction of this loss. It uses its World Network of Biosphere Reserves as vehicles for knowledge-sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision-making.

Vakanala project is funded entirely with online donations. Until July 30 2010 (10 days left), our project  is part of Global Giving Open Challenge to finance the reforestation of 3 fragments of forest in the south part of the Island  by the establishment of a community plant nursery.

We hope to have a permanent place in the Global Giving green open challenge.

The principle of Global Giving competition: you make an online donation and if the total donations received by Vakanala  reached U.S. $ 4,000 from at least 50 donors, we will be able  to submit several projects permanently on  the web site, and we will receive additional funding of $10 000.
Some of our projects that will need their place on Global Giving to implement a Biosphere Reserve in the village of Manambolo are:

• ecological studies (endangered species, soil erosion)
• the socio-economic studies (development of a specific economic model)
• the intercommunication between the communities, the region and the Ministry of Environment to obtain a classification of this area as a 'Biosphere Reserve' protected Area,  
• the design of a plan for the sustainable management of the future protected area,
• the establishment of long term funding mechanisms to continue the present and initiate future actions of Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Development.

Please Take part in this adventure of conservation of the unique biodiversity of Madagascar and create opportunities to increase resources revenue to the local community. A symbolic donation is within the reach of all. You can be sure that every penny that you donate is a penny that goes towards reforestation and tree planting projects. Off course for now we await the first rains (by september 2010)… If you give during the Global giving Competition, we will mark your tree on Google Earth and you will see it grow online. Donate by clicking this link http://goto.gg/5824 and pass the message to your friends.