Madagascar is considered a biodiversity hotspot because it combines a high biological richness with some of the highest rates of endemisms found in the world. In the island, some areas act as ecotones, where fauna and flora from different biogeographic regions coexist within a few square kilometres.
Such ecotones tend to harbour much higher biodiversity than more homogenous areas, while they also host local endemic species not found in other ecosystems.

The high levels of biological diversity encountered in the Loky-Manambato region explain why Daraina has been repeatedly designated as a high priority area for biodiversity conservation.
Presently, under Madagascar's Management Plan for the National Network of Protected Areas (Plan GRAP), the Daraina region is considered a national priority for the establishment of a new protected area. Yet, the fragmented distribution of natural ecosystems in the Loky-Manambato region prevents the straightforward approach of selecting a large forest tract for the establishment of a core reserve. Thus, protected area planning must encompass the concept of conservation gradients, allowing for different levels of protection depending upon the forests' potential role in biodiversity conservation.

The Loky-Manambato area belongs to the Vohémar region, a region where people feel proud of managing their own land but where pressures such as wood extraction, slash-and-burn agriculture, bush fires, gold mining, and poaching threaten the long-term existence of natural ecosystems. Altogether, the Daraina region highlights the notion that conservation cannot be achieved without integrating natural resource management and rural development in the surrounding human-inhabited areas. Today, the region is seeking a resource management strategy that enhances the sustainability of economic practices and the maintenance of natural ecosystems. It is within this context that FANAMBY is playing the role of catalyzer for conservation and natural resource management throughout the Loky-Manambato region.

PRIORITY ACTION LINES

The proposed action lines are designed interact with each other to warrant achievement of the ultimate goal of sustainable natural resource management in the Loky-Manambato region.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES for priority action lines are as follows:

1. STRATEGIC PLANNING : Define main strategies for sustainable natural resource management in the Loky-Manambato region.
2. CAPACITY BUILDING: Improve the existing community and regional organizational structures to ensure effective planning and implementation of natural resource management and conservation.
3. TRAINING: Establish local and regional expertise to ensure effective and sustainable management of natural resources.
4. PROTECTED AREA ESTABLISHMENT: Establish a network of protected areas following conservation gradients that can encompass preservation and development activities.
5. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: Increase the value of natural ecosystems and the productivity surrounding areas to ensure sustainable use and long-term management by local communities.
6. RESEARCH: Gather and provide necessary information for adaptive natural resource management.
7. EDUCATION: Change and improve local attitudes, values, and knowledge, that have traditionally lead to ecosystem degradation.
8. OUTREACH: Communicate and disseminate program activities and results to promote participation in the conservation process at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
9. FLAGSHIP SPECIES CONSERVATION: Implement research, education, training, and outreach activities to conserve the golden-crowned sifaka, using it as a reason and a resource to support the overall conservation process.
10. MONITORING: Promote improvement in natural resource management through consistent monitoring and evaluation.
11. FUNDRAISING: Promote financial investment that will support ecosystem and species conservation through private enterprise development and fundraising activities

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