Almost all of Anjouan's forest areas are already occupied by farmers, often for several generations, based on customary land rights. The lack of social cohesion and the large size of the villages (the smallest with approximately 1500 inhabitants) complicate collective approaches – Dahari experimented with collective forest management systems in Anjouan for ten years without success. Families own, on average, more than three fields, which allows for plots located in the forest, often difficult to cultivate, to be put into fallow.

We mapped the forest areas used by communities around the Moya forest, as undertook an assessment of the state of the forests and land tenure to better target high-risk areas. We then worked with community leaders and farmers from the villages of Ouzini and Adda to co-develop the approach and terms of the agreements. The first pilot agreements were signed in Adda in 2024 and in Ouzini in 2025. Below you can see the key steps towards the signing of an agreement:

The conservation agreement model relies on farmers' commitment to stop logging on the plot in question and to leave the field in fallow in order to protect the remaining large trees and allow the forest to regenerate. Here are the commitments made by the signatories of the agreements on their fields:

The signatories of the agreements receive bi-annual payments based on the size of the field included in the agreement. In addition, if no infractions have occurred on the plot and the signatory decides to renew the contract, they are awarded a loyalty bonus equivalent to two years' payments.

The most important issue for our partners in the villages in this program is water. That's why we came up with the name with them of ‘Walezi wa ya maji’ or 'Guardians of the Water'. Each signatory becomes a walezi wa ya maji and receives a waistcoat (for men) or a shawl (for women), with the logo. These symbolize their role in protecting the forest, and underlines the importance of collective benefits and social recognition that go beyond the financial aspect of the program.

We are in an experimental phase that allows us to test our initial hypotheses and adjust the program based on the results before scaling up. In parallel, we are developing monitoring and evaluation methods with technical partners to measure the program's impact on reducing tree felling, forest regeneration, hydrology, and on the livelihoods and behavioural changes of the farmers involved.