The implementation of the Kobaby decentralized environmental project has just been extended for six months, that is to say until the end of June 2024. Because its overall disbursement rate is around 50%.
Kobaby, care in the Northern dialect, is a project started in July 2018, but the overall disbursement rate of the project is currently around 50%. Reasons are given to explain this low disbursement rate, but one of them is the Covid-19 pandemic. Let us also mention the impossibility of using the allocated funds for two years.
However, its mission consists of combining the objectives of conservation and development, while strengthening protected areas so that they are the pivot of local development in the Diana region. It also contributes to the protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, while improving the living conditions of local populations.
Six managers of nine protected areas, four aggregators of four agricultural sectors (fragrant rice, mangrove and terrestrial honeys, fruits, fishing) and twenty-six rural municipalities are committed to a common challenge of preserving these protected areas in the Diana region while improving the income and well-being of the populations living near these protected areas.
However, according to the explanations of the project coordinator, Hanta Rabetaliana, it is too early to evaluate the results and the first effects of this integrated and decentralized approach promoted by Kobaby.
Today, the municipalities concerned have become full stakeholders in the governance and management of protected areas. Farmer producers and fishermen on the outskirts of protected areas form associations or cooperatives to improve the quality and quantity of their products. However, by mid-June 2024,
Activities launched
“A protected area must be seen as a territory offering benefits for all stakeholders. The manager of a protected area and his partners must implement activities that generate income and/or well-being. The manager can also integrate stakeholders into protected area management activities, taking a form of capacity building or compensation for loss of access to a space or natural resources of a traditional territory. explains Hanta Rabetaliana.
Thus, since 2020, subsidies have been granted to the six managers of the nine protected areas to implement physical demarcation, patrolling, monitoring activities, but also the fight against various offenses. The funding also helps to promote ecotourism activities which include developments, marketing and rehabilitation of access trails. In 2022 until mid-2024, subsidies are also allocated to agricultural sector aggregators.
They identify beneficiary communities, strengthen their know-how, help market quality products and instill the spirit of sustainable development and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. On the institutional level, the Steering Committee (Copil) was set up in 2018, before the official launch of the project. Its main mandate is to supervise the implementation and provide the political and strategic orientations of the project.
This is why a meeting of the Copil, in person and by videoconference, was held on Wednesday, upstairs at the Hôtel de la Poste. This meeting, considered the seventh and penultimate meeting, allowed members to assess the progress of the project, in terms of technical and financial achievements, by becoming aware of the realities and conditions of implementation.
It was also an opportunity to have an estimated amount of funds available for 2024, knowing that this will be the last year of implementation of Kobaby and that the technical completion date of the project is set for December 31 2024, as well as the payment deadline. by becoming aware of the realities and conditions of implementation.
It was also an opportunity to have an estimated amount of funds available for 2024, knowing that this will be the last year of implementation of Kobaby and that the technical completion date of the project is set for December 31 2024, as well as the payment deadline. by becoming aware of the realities and conditions of implementation. It was also an opportunity to have an estimated amount of funds available for 2024, knowing that this will be the last year of implementation of Kobaby and that the technical completion date of the project is set for December 31 2024, as well as the payment deadline.