Ecotourism in Madagascar - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 18

around these protected areas 85 per cent of flora, 39 per cent of birds, 91 per
cent of reptiles, 99 per cent of amphibians and 100 per cent of lemurs are
endemic (MAP, 2006, p98ff).
With such a varied diversity of natural and cultural resources, one might think
that Madagascar has a very promising base for ecotourism development,
especially as the country's political and economic conditions have been stabilized
in the recent past. So why has Madagascar not been better recognized as a desti-
nation on the tourism map? Why has tourism development not increased living
standards for the local population in one of the most underdeveloped countries of
the world? 3 Why has a country with such outstanding natural and cultural
resources not been able to create a proper ecotourism niche and sustainably
manage their resources? These are the questions which this chapter will try to
answer by reviewing in detail Madagascar's tourism development history and
current ecotourism development.
Background
Before 2002, there was minimal but steadily increasing tourism development in
Madagascar. However, this was abruptly stopped in 2002 due to a political crisis
surrounding the presidential election. Tourism development came to a halt until
2004 when the few existing tourism operators slowly started to regain their
businesses. But they did not receive official recognition from the government and
they were therefore left to rebuild their industry alone. Finally, in 2005 when
tourism became a prominent foreign currency generator for the country, the
government recognized it as a vehicle for the development of the country. At long
last, tourism was seen as an instrument to tackle poverty and to increase the living
standards and level of education of the local population. To a lesser extent,
tourism was also seen as a way to preserve the country's unique biodiversity.
During these years the World Bank discerned a need to find ways in which
tourism could be used as a tool to improve the lives of local people as poverty
worsened during and after the political crisis in 2002. It therefore conducted a
major tourism sector study (Christie et al, 2003) which focused on sustainable
tourism and ecotourism. One of the main recommendations was to create sustain-
able tourism physical master plans for key areas as a first stage in a process to
improve livelihoods. This study was also the basis of further tourism-related
efforts by the World Bank (e.g. The Pôle Intégré de Croissance (PIC) Project).
In parallel to this the Malagasy Government decided to conduct a thorough
plan concerning future Malagasy tourism development supported by the
German government. The Malagasy Tourism masterplan (hereafter the master-
plan), officially adopted by the government, tourism stakeholders and donors in
April 2005, and is available and widely cited (Gato, 2005). Unfortunately, this
plan has not been implemented and its recommendations have not been
followed up. One reason for the lack of implementation of the plan was a lack of