The Baobabs Alley is one of the most visited sites in the Region Menabe. The alignment of a few baobab trees on each side of the road linking the town of Morondava to that of Belo on Tsiribihina, at kilometric point 15, associated with the majestic aspect of the Baobabs offer a gripping scenery, extraordinary but attractive. The horizon of the surroundings of the alley is dominated by a huge cylinder bole and a flattened tuft , 2 of the most distinctive features of Renala (A. grandidieri). In his never- ending search of wooden products and fertile land and through his actions, man has gradually logged, cleared primary forests and the base of the baobab trees were made naked. We must not forget that the baobab is a tree typical of dry dense forests, a tree which grows inside stands. The baobabs Alley as well as the trees which are now at present in rice fields and savannahs are relics proving the existence of the large forest which, not so long ago (not more than 50 years ago) was at the gates of the town of Morondava.
Such relics continue to be subjected to bad treatment and will certainly disappear if nothing is done.
They have already been saved from selective logging, often illicit logging for the supply of building and construction wood, and also of firewood. Such forest logging is the first action violating forest stands, which so far were closed and remained untouched as they were not accessible by track or road. The baobab is not exploited as timber, given the spongy structure inside its trunk.
Later on, the baobabs survived again to successive land clearing which followed forest logging and which were practised to grow corn, cassava, groundnuts using slash and burn method of cultivation. In general, the first year, the villagers cut and burn underwood and shrubs. Then they cut and incinerate what remains of the wood, already burnt but still standing the first year. The ashes obtained fertilise the soil during the 2nd and 3rd year.
Because of the thickness of their barks, baobabs resist to such successive operations of burning in their environment. That accounts for the present scenery of savannahs and rice fields interspersed with baobabs. At present though, they are observed to be withering and this may be the fatal blow to the baobabs, including those of the famous alley. The baobab trees, because of a bad drainage of the site ( the track has been rehabilitated without draining system, and a kind of dam is formed in rainy season), because of waste water discharged from the sugar plant, because of new rice fields, are flooded for a very long period of the year if not all the time. The result is that their roots and the base of their trunks are rotting. With the slightest blow of wind ( let alone cyclones), the baobabs lean , are beheaded or simply fall over. This happens nearly every year and the number of trees rotting on the spot is growing. The Mayor of Bemolanga adds that removing the baobab tree from the forest , even if there is no flood, is enough to make it more fragile.
Actions to save the baobabs of Menabe :
How to preserve the present scenery, even if it has already undergone changes, which is the case of the baobabs Alley and the surrounding environment? What can be done for the baobabs to exist in the forest for ever?
1- Inform /raise awareness/ Build communities’ sense of responsibility : Fokontany, Municipalities, Region;
2- Apply a social agreement, « Dinan'ny Tontolo Iainana », a code for environment with specific provisions for the protection of Baobabs
3- Formalise the Baobab Technical Unit to initiate the classification process of the site Baobabs Alley into a protected area managed by the CTD and develop mechanisms to raise funds for the preservation of each baobab tree ( sponsoring of inventoried trees,…).
4- Initiate mechanisms to integrate the landscape of baobabs into a larger scale, at the scale of the Region Menabe for example, through the creation of an MAB Baobab- Man and Biosphere.
5- Manage the remaining forest stands in a sustainable way, with zoning and forest managements in the whole region of Menabe
6-Actions under way to protect the Baobabs Alley
- Establishing a Baobab Technical Unit for the Region, led by FANAMBY, comprising development and conservation organizations working in Menabe
- The rural municipality took its responsibility by resolving in municipal council to develop the immediate surroundings of the alley
- Identifying what to be developed and when to start the works on the field
• Developing a technical plan for the protection of the alley (with a drawing) as directed by the Baobab Technical unit.
• Topographic survey of a drain of about 500m long upstream the alley.
Rural engineering department DRDR, based on the development plan
• Prohibiting the creation of rice fields upstream the alley; this measure is applied by the Municipality of Bemolanga.
• Negotiating with SUCOMA and filling in the waste water intakes on the drains and used by the villagers since 2005
• Identifying an alternative project to irrigate new parcels of rice fields to replace those which are upstream the alley
• Project of reforestation in the area near the alley ( baobab seedlings are available since March 2006)
• Raising- awareness on the benefits of conservation and protection of the baobabs; for example, the social agreement « Dinan’i Tontolo Iainana » has been finalised and applied.
• Establishing fund-raising mechanisms for the protection of each baobab tree ( sponsoring of inventoried trees,…)
• Initiating procedures for the classification of the Baobabs Alley into a Protected area.
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Impossible not to be moved by such gigantic trees.
They are surrounded by a veil of mystery: their age, from 200 to 500 years, even 1000 according to some Japanese researchers. And their position: aren’t they trees which have been put upside down? Their roots climb up to the sky. A legend says that God uprooted them and planted them the wrong side up as a punishment for their big size.
But this does not matter, the sight is so grandiose when at sunset, His Majesty the Baobab is set ablaze with sun ochre colour.
From the top of his 30 metre height, in the evening, he watches his next-of-kin on African land; as out of 8 species of Baobabs on earth, 6 are endemic to Madagascar against only one in Australia and one on the African continent.
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Identification sheet 20 kilometres to the north of Morondava, on National Road 8 A, taking the road in direction of Belo on Tsiribihina, the Baobabs Alley protected area will open you the way to innumerable tourist sites in the northern part of the region Menabe. This spectacular stand of Baobabs Adansonia Grandidieri is under temporary protection, pursuant to order n° 16231/2007-MINENVEF. The Baobabs Alley is one of the units managed within the Menabe Antimena protected area to be awarded its own classification category (category III-IUCN) and a specific method of management with a large participation of the village communities. This area featuring a great concentration of Baobab trees, stretching over 320 hectares, will be dedicated for the preservation of this characteristic scenery and of each baobab tree. The whole of the protected area comprises cultivated fields, temporary and permanent lakes, woody savannahs ( relics of dense dry forests, secondary forests of jujube trees. |
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