I was there to learn more than anything
Thinking back about those 3 months, my first thought is how much of a “humbling experience” it was. From the beginning to the end, every thoughts, ideas or mindset I had were challenged with local values, cultures and knowledge. At some point, I had difficulty answering a simple question like: “Why is it important to conserve the forest?” because my answers clashed with the local agricultural culture. But I realized I didn’t have to. All I had to do was to sit back, listen, ask questions and try my best to understand the reality of the Malagasy with who I was living.
But this was only the beginning of a wild adventure. One night, a villager came to us and asked, “What alternative can we give to families which are living from charcoal making? It involves cutting down the forest but provided them with money and brings us what we use to cook on an everyday basis. What are the alternative for all those people.” That day I understood that long term conservation of biodiversity is not much about creating national park of pristine nature, but more about giving access to tools and knowledge to the people benefiting and using the forest. That way, they will have the opportunity to use the forest in a sustainable way, since they are, most than anyone, aware of the importance of the forest. That way, the communities can become the agent of conservation of tomorrow rather than the agent of deforestation.
So we went out in the field, to live and work in the amazing Malagasy tropical rain forest. As we walked in, doing inventories and zoning, the WWF forest agents and the porters showed us lots of medicinal plants, like that beautiful little flower (which name I forgot) that was used against leukemia. From digestive diseases to headache, the forest was literally their hospital. But as we walk further more in the forest, I started to realize that every tree had a precise use, from cooking wood to making crafts and tools but also making houses. I was so impressed by the local knowledge of the forest because everything has a use and every need was filled with the forest.
During those few months of work in the forest, I came to understand a fact that is often forbidden by urban people like me. All our humans’ lives rely on a natural balance where everything we had, have or will have comes from nature. For example, in the Malagasy villages in which I worked, the water doesn’t come from the tap; it comes from the forest which captures it from the clouds that come from the Indian Ocean. They’re living on a direct relationship with their ecosystems. For most Canadians (and lots of other rich countries), this relationship is way more indirect and some people don’t even acknowledge their dependency on nature goods and ecosystems services.
