Ala kely

The Tanalahorizon aid project

For decades, Madagascar’s fauna and flora has been threatened by slash and burn agriculture. Only few connected forest areas are left today, the fewest are under protection at all. And even officially protected areas are already threatened: Zebu cattle is grazing hills and slopes, people set fire to gain farmland and again and again, people have to fell trees in the forests to be able to get a warm meal. For many years, we have been watching Madagascar’s rainforests becoming smaller and smaller during our travels.


Sadly, cooperations with already existing projects often lacks information, where the donated money actually ends up and how much of the money goes to its original aim. Therefore we decided to take action ourselves. In cooperation with a reserve at the eastcoast of Madagascar, TANALAHORIZON founded project Ala kely, which means small forest in Malagasy, in 2015. The project cares about a forest of 85 ha total area, which is separated in two parts by a large, stark zone. Lemurs and other endemic animals hardly use this zone. For example, lemurs have not been entering this area for years, and the barren zone offers no shelter for reptiles and insects, too. These 8 ha shall be grown with trees again soon – with your help!

From now on, each booked travel with TANALAHORIZON brings a donation for reforestation to Ala kely. From these donations not even one Penny or Cent gets lost, because we bring them personally to the reserve. Any kind of administration effort as well as flights is funded privately by us – the donations are thus used for nothing else but buying young trees. Furthermore, we only use native plants when buying the saplings, which come from a sustainable tree nursery run by a NGO nearby. Palisander and ebony wood are among the growing plants, but also some fruit trees usable for lemurs and other animals. On a long-term basis, these slow and quicker growing groves shall become a conntected, large habitat as a home for endemic animals and plants again – as it was once a long time ago.