After wildfires damaged large parts of the Ala Programme’s Forest Corridor 5 (C5) in January, the SEED team, together with community members and landowners in Sainte Luce, responded by planting 400 additional native seedlings to reconnect the corridor to the green littoral forest 🌱 The damage to C5 was one of the worst across the corridor network. Approximately 99% of the Acacia trees in C5 were torched, and all native species in the corridor were lost. The dense Remnant 3 forest, located to the north of C5, also burned severely, with fire damage extending about 30 metres from the corridor edge. As a result, C5 was no longer viable for lemur use. This marks the first time the Ala Programme has planted native species without the shade of Acacia trees. Instead, small shelters made from dead Acacia wood, rope, and Ravenala (Traveller’s Palm) leaves were used to compare growth and survival rates between shaded and open planting techniques. Data collected from these monitored seedlings will inform efforts during the 2026 planting season, when, in response to the fire, SEED hopes to quintuple its efforts to more than 40,000 (!) seedlings 🧡🇲🇬

Posted by SEED Madagascar at 2025-05-27 07:38:12 UTC