Dear Representative of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests

Members of Donors Community

Ms. the Country Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and representatives of other partners and SCAPES consortium, including WCS, CI and TRAFFIC,

Ms/Mr. Representatives of Civil Society Organizations

Honorable Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to join you today for the closing of the “Preserving Madagascar’s Natural Resources Program”, also known as SCAPES.  USAID has been proud to fund this three-year program and we’re proud of the results.

As Ms. Nanie has just well said, there have been many strong achievements, including some that will have a lasting legacy of protection for Madagascar’s natural resources.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your work, contributions to and participation in the SCAPES program implementation.  We can say, with conviction, that the SCAPES project has been a great success.  All your support has been invaluable, and we must continue to work hard to consolidate the gains made under SCAPES.   

It has been tremendous how this consortium of organizations have rallied together, working in effective cooperation. We have supported and complemented each other. We have shared with and learned from each other. It is a good model and a building block for our continuing, collective work supporting the protection and development of Madagascar’s environmental wealth.

USAID is strongly committed to further strengthening environmental governance in Madagascar, to promoting the sustainable management of natural resources and growing an inclusive, green economy that benefits the country and its people. As most of you know, we are working on a new environment program that will carry the work of SCAPES forward. We want to continue building civil society to be an effective advocate and spokesperson for biodiversity and to develop and improve management of areas of high biodiversity value. We face many challenges. But SCAPES has equipped us with reliable data and innovative tools to find solutions.

Thank you all again for your full dedication, your continued commitment and your collaborative work. Each one of you has been a valued and important contributor to our partnership that provided a sustainable base for an improved protection of the biological and ecological heritage of Madagascar.

Thank you.