Dahari celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2023! A decade of commitment to the rural population and biodiversity of the Comoros. To mark this milestone, we invite you to explore 10 figures that represent the evolution and impact of Dahari from 2013 to 2023.

Growing evolution thanks to our collaborations

On February 16, 2013, Dahari was officially created when the first meeting of the Board of Directors was held. It was the start of an independent Comorian institution as a major result of the project Community Commitment for Sustainable Development (ECDD) which lasted five years from 2008 to 2012.

Dahari's first year was not easy. With only €67,000 in funding, all 15 staff had to accept reduced salaries to make the NGO emerge.

10 years later, Dahari has 64 employees and has reached €780,000 annual budget. A big thank you to all our donors who enabled this development but especially to the three main ones for this period: the European Union, the Darwin Initiative of the British government, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).

Since 2013 we have signed agreements with 67 technical and financial partners all combined (some several times); these different collaborations have been a key to our success. We were fortunate to be supported by internationally renowned institutions as well as loyal national partners.

Our results in the field

With 10,000 farmers supported since 2013, 2750 reforesters supported since 2017, and 1300 fishermen supported since 2016, that makes a total of 75,000 direct beneficiaries including families (the size of an average family in the Comoros is 5.37 individuals according to the World Bank). The number of indirect beneficiaries is even greater if we want to count the impacts on ecosystem services, the examples of techniques replicated by neighbors, etc.

In collaboration with these beneficiaries we ensured:

• Planting 420,000 trees, including 200,000 fast-growing cuttings. These trees are planted by producers in their fields thanks to a participatory approach. The result, a recovery rate of 72% after one year.
• The planting of 280,000 sought-after food seeds (banana trees, cassavas, yams, tarots, sweet potatoes) by farmers, who continue to multiply them, contributing to empowerment improving productivity.
• The protection of 228 hectares of reefs through local management measures (permanent ou temporary) thanks to a gradual increase in number of fishermen engaged in initiatives as members of associations (from 58 in 2016 to 501 in 2023).

Regarding the counting of Livingstones that Dahari has carried out biannually since 2013, the number of known flying foxes increased by more than 75% to 1489 individuals thanks to the discovery of new roosts and the conservation efforts undertaken – seven roosts are now protected by conservation agreements.

These field results are based on numerous studies carried out by our teams, by Comorian and foreign trainees, or with our colleagues. Thirty documents – including reports published in scientific journals – are available on our website.

Towards even more impact!

We are proud of our results and our impact in ten years, but we are also aware that we are far from achieving our objective: the restoration of the ecosystems of the Comoros with rural populations.

However, we are confident – ​​thanks to our strategic plan published in early 2022 and the evolution of our three forestry, agroforestry, and marine programs since – that the best is before us. Instead of being satisfied with past successes, we are in the process of resuming all our interventions to go further and ensure greater impact.

Ten years after his birth, Dahari is a strong institution thanks to a solid and united team, a remarkable Board of Directors, and links of trust from our villages of intervention to the international level. This institutional anchoring is perhaps the greatest success for Dahari, and we intend to capitalize on these achievements to make a significant difference over the next 10 years.

We thank everyone and all the institutions who contributed to the first ten years of Dahari, and we hope to have your support for the decade to come!