WWF Madagascar

• Client: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• Partners: Government agencies (e.g., MoEEF, MoT), Madagascar National Parks (MNP), Madagascar Tourism Board (ONTM), Confederation du Tourisme de Madagascar (CTM), coastal communities, NGOs/CSOs, and domestic & international private sector operators
• Project Duration: August - December 2025

Project Overview

Solimar International supported WWF-Madagascar and WWF-US to evaluate how coastal and marine tourism could be developed as a strategic tool to advance Madagascar’s biodiversity conservation goals—focusing on conservation outcomes and community benefits, not simply increasing visitation. Using WWF’s Conservation Tourism Scorecard as the core framework, Solimar assessed the enabling environment for conservation tourism at both national level and within WWF-priority coastal regions (including Diana, Menabe, and Atsimo Andrefana). The work identified where tourism could generate sustainable finance for conservation, strengthen stewardship, and support inclusive livelihoods.

A central feature of the approach was active private-sector engagement (operators, investors, and the travel trade), which ensured the recommendations were market-realistic and investable. Solimar also adapted the Scorecard—originally designed for terrestrial settings—for marine and coastal contexts, ensuring that indicators reflected coastal governance, protected seascapes, fisheries-community dynamics, and marine tourism operations (e.g., diving, snorkeling, boating, and wildlife viewing).

Major Activities

1. Preparation, Scorecard Adaptation & Stakeholder Mapping
   • Solimar modified WWF’s Conservation Tourism Scorecard for Madagascar’s coastal and marine environments.
   • The team conducted desk research and mapped stakeholders across public, private, and civil society sectors.
   • Solimar produced an Inception Report with a refined methodology, stakeholder list, workplan, and initial insights on market dynamics and conservation-tourism linkages.
2. Interviews, Business Surveys & Field Assessment Mission
   • Solimar conducted structured interviews and deployed a targeted business survey (distributed with support from CTM) to capture barriers, investment appetite, partnership potential, and site-level opportunities.
   • The team implemented an in-country assessment mission that focused fieldwork in Diana (Nosy Be/Antsiranana) to capture lessons from an evolving tourism hub and engage regional institutions, while ensuring perspectives from Menabe and Atsimo Andrefana were incorporated through stakeholder engagement.
3. Analysis, Reporting & Dissemination
   • Solimar synthesized findings into a draft report covering opportunities, barriers, and prioritized recommendations across policy, investment, infrastructure, private-sector engagement, and community benefit mechanisms.
   • The team revised materials based on WWF feedback and delivered a final report plus a summary presentation.