"Madagascar: What happens to villagers when a graphite mine comes knocking?" 27 April 2023

"When representatives of an Australian mining firm arrived in Ambohitsy Haut village in southern Madagascar, they told residents they wanted to drill holes looking for graphite in their village. The villagers agreed, but they were clear; you can dig, but away from our ancestral tombs."

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“No one has private ownership of the land there. It’s all traditional ownership,” Revy said. “We will honor the ownership as if it was legally binding.” He added that the company will compensate villagers based on consultations with them.

The Malagasy state ultimately owns the rights to subsoil mineral resources. However, what happens aboveground is far, far trickier. In Africa, more than 75% of extractive projects for minerals essential to the clean energy transition lie in the orbit of Indigenous and peasant lands, home to people who live off the earth, according to a 2022 study."

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"Malagasy law offers little protection for citizens who don’t hold legal claims to land when a mining company comes calling. And most people in Madagascar don’t have formal titles to their land, said Mamy Rakotondrainibe, president of Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches, a Paris-based NGO that works on land rights issues in Madagascar. The number could be as high as 80%, she said, because registering land claims is an arduous affair and rural residents often don’t have the time or means to go through with it.

Even registering traditional rights to land doesn’t guarantee communities will have a say in what happens on this land.

The principle of “free, prior and informed consent” doesn’t have legal standing in Madagascar."

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