Land availability and demographic characteristics of households in Hautes Terres, Madagascar, and implication for the environment and for development

Mustapha Omrane, Université de Paris V, Sorbonne

The present communication proposes to examine the relation between population and environment in rural Malagasy area of the Highlands. We propose to analyze here the demographic and environmental variables according to the land size exploited by household. More precisely, we will try to answer the following question: - is there a difference as regards behavior of the villagers vis-a-vis to the environment according to their demographic characteristics (size of the household, fertility, temporary migration) and to their landholding size? A survey about economic, demographic, social, agricultural and environmental topics was conducted on 1621 households in nine villages. The present analysis will be based on the results of this survey carried out in September/October 2003 and in which I took part, like on empirical observations in the villages during a six months training course. The first results show already a significant relation between the degree of access to land and demographic behaviors.