Misconstrued land use in Vohibazaha: participatory planning in the periphery of Madagascarʹs Mantadia National Park

At the end of the 1996–1997 farming season, several groups of farmers were expelled from land inside the Mantadia National Park in eastern central Madagascar, leaving them struggling to salvage meager harvests from fields within the villageʹs oldest cultivated lands. This paper examines the roots of this crisis, examining the history of traditional land-use practices as mediated by relations with national and international institutions. Drawing on concepts recently elaborated in the political ecology and common property literature, the paper demonstrates how the crisis was avoidable, and explores the possibilities for more productive co-management arrangements.