Antsara, the “Valley of Beauty,” lies between our two beaches, Ampohana and Amparafa, nestled within the stunning natural landscape of Madagascar. For PARADISA – a world apart, the valley is the perfect launching point for various pilot projects and a place of connection between us and the Malagasy communities from the surrounding villages. It is a space where ideas, visions, and knowledge can be exchanged freely and allowed to flow.
1. What is planned for Antsara?
Antsara is the valley where our permaculture project is taking shape. It spans a total of eight hectares and offers fertile soil, natural water sources, and a truly beautiful environment to cultivate sustainable agriculture, develop the planned food forests, and collaborate on shared projects with local residents.
Permaculture in Antsara includes not only growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits but also raising tree seedlings that will be potted in the carpentry’s reforestation project and planted out later.
The goal of PARADISA – a world apart is to achieve complete self-sufficiency in food production within five years and to become independent of supply chains. Antsara aims to be a place where the original and natural way of life is preserved—through sustainable cultivation, conscious interaction with nature, and meaningful connection between us and the local communities.
2. Permaculture & the First Settler
For the past two weeks, the Antsara homestead has welcomed its first resident: Fidelius coordinates the practical implementation on site, organizes the gardeners and workers, and thrives while planting cuttings and seeds, nurturing young plants, and experimenting with different crops.
Alongside rice, legumes, numerous varieties of vegetables and fruits, medicinal herbs, and spices, Antsara is also home to various animals. Chickens, ducks, and goats are already here; zebus, horses, sheep, and cats will eventually also find a home on the Antsara farm.
In the video, Fidelius shows you around Antsara and explains in detail how the Antsara pilot project is being implemented.
3. Communal Kitchen & Food Forest
A large outdoor kitchen enables the realization of various projects, the hosting of workshops, and shared cooking and baking directly in nature. Among other things, we plan to produce sauces and spreads made from seasonal, locally sourced, and home-grown ingredients—freshly harvested and freshly processed.
The outdoor kitchen will also serve as a space for the women from neighboring villages to use independently. Our aim is to create an intercultural meeting point, offering our Malagasy neighbors the opportunity to benefit from the resources we bring, while we in turn learn from their knowledge, ideas, and practices in sustainable agriculture and the cultivation of regional foods.
The food forest is closely intertwined with the permaculture project and is rooted in the idea of farming in harmony with natural forest ecosystems. This concept also forms the foundation of our permaculture design. The idea is to combine our goal of achieving food sovereignty with a commitment to helping nature, biodiversity, and forests regenerate in a sustainable way. This allows us to bring together both sides: preserving and creating habitats for nature and plants while also cultivating delicious abundance for ourselves.
The small forest next to Antsara serves as the pilot site for our first food forest; additional food forests will be established in Amparafa and surrounding regions. Shade-giving trees are already present, and herbs and edible plants—such as passionfruit, papaya, and other native fruits—will be planted in the next phases.
4. The Carpentry’s Reforestation Project
What many of us once learned in school—that Madagascar is still more than 80% forest—has not been true for a long time. Deforestation is a pressing issue, driven largely by the demand for construction materials and the production of charcoal. Madagascar also exports significant quantities of timber abroad.
To build a village of the scale envisioned in the PARADISA Beach Village, our carpentry naturally depends on this essential resource. Yet, “the flow of life follows giving and receiving.” This is why the carpentry returns resources to nature through a dedicated reforestation project structured as follows:
For every wooden board the carpentry sells, an additional 1,000 Ariary (about €0.20) is charged. This contribution is invested in tree seeds, which are cultivated in Antsara and later planted for reforestation—especially in areas that have been heavily deforested due to charcoal production or the extraction of construction materials.
Through permaculture and in harmony with the food forest initiatives, our goal is not to plant simple monocultures but to cultivate sustainable, diverse forests that provide real ecological value.
Here as well, we work hand in hand with the local community and share our resources:
The carpentry hosts a tool library where locals can borrow tools for their own projects. These tools are available to the entire community—just like the outdoor kitchen in Antsara, which, as mentioned, will be accessible to local women for their own initiatives.
5. Susanne’s Moringa Tree Project
Madagascar’s natural environment offers a remarkable variety of medicinal plants. Our team member Susanne is deeply passionate about traditional medicine and the healing power of local plants. She is now preparing to bring this knowledge back to our Malagasy neighbors through a special initiative:
Every family will receive a gift of one Moringa tree, along with guidance on how to use the plant as both a remedy and a preventive health resource.
The Moringa tree (Moringa oleifera), often referred to as the “miracle tree” or “tree of life,” grows extremely quickly—up to four meters per year—and is considered one of the most nutrient-dense and versatile medicinal plants in the world. Moringa has been used successfully to support malnourished children, helping them develop into healthy, vibrant adults. It is also utilized as a treatment for tropical illnesses such as malaria.
Despite the vast traditional plant knowledge in Madagascar, the full potential of Moringa is still relatively unknown here. In Ethiopia, the Congo, and Uganda, however, impactful projects already exist that use Moringa to improve the health of malnourished communities. There, owning even a single Moringa tree is considered a form of wealth. Thanks to Susanne, each of our neighbors will soon have this “green treasure” of their own.
In Susanne’s garden, you will also find Artemisia annua A3, one of the most potent medicinal plants known worldwide. She reports that its cultivation is going extremely well—the first growing trials have been excellent.
There will be a separate blog article in a few months about natural medicine (in Madagascar, there is at least one natural equivalent for every pharmaceutical drug). The first small clinic we are setting up here will work with both types of medicine. But more on that later.... If our permaculture project has sparked your interest, you can support us here on site as a volunteer!