Metal Detecting Laws in Madagascar

Searching for heritage objects in Madagascar requires authorization under the national research and excavation regime, including on beaches and private land. The rule for detecting solely for modern lost objects could not be confirmed. The purpose of your search matters, and protected areas have additional controls on entry and removing objects.

The rules, land by land

Even where detecting is allowed, archaeological and historic sites are protected, and you must fill every hole and follow posted rules. Always confirm the current rule with the land manager.

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Heritage searches and excavation

The Ordonnance n°82-029 relative à la protection, la sauvegarde et la conservation du patrimoine national (national heritage protection ordinance) requires authorization from the ministries concerned, after the commission’s prior opinion, for the searches and excavations covered by article 39. This includes searching for heritage objects. It does not expressly settle detecting solely for modern lost objects.

The Décret n°83-116 du 3 mars 1983 fixant les modalités d’application de l’ordonnance n°82-029 du 6 novembre 1982 sur la sauvegarde, la protection et la conservation du patrimoine national (heritage ordinance implementing decree) requires prior authorization and a research contract. Its annexes cover research and/or excavation. These provisions regulate heritage and research activities; they do not establish a blanket rule for every detector sweep or every hole. The source heading dates the decree March 3, 1983, while its annexes use March 31, 1983; that discrepancy remains unresolved.

Private land, beaches and state forests

The national heritage-search authorization applies on private land, beaches and foreshore, and state forests. The forest-law compilation does not establish a separate permission for hobby detecting. A confirmed rule for searches solely for modern lost objects remains unavailable.

For an excavation application on someone else’s land, article 40 requires the owner’s consent to accompany the application. The excavator bears the costs of degradation under article 41. Owner consent is therefore part of that application, not a substitute for the national authorization.

Protected monuments, national parks and reserves

Heritage searches on protected monuments and archaeological sites remain subject to the national authorization. Article 8(c) of the heritage ordinance prohibits work that modifies or divides registered heritage property; article 15 extends registration effects to classified property. That work restriction does not itself make every non-disturbing detector sweep a prohibited act.

The Loi n°2015-005 portant refonte du Code de Gestion des Aires Protégées (protected-area management code) adds separate controls. In legally recognized protected areas, removal or alteration of animals, plants, monuments or any other object needs authorization from the ministry responsible for protected areas after the manager’s favorable opinion. This is a removal rule, not a grant of ownership. Scientific research also needs ministry authorization, and entry needs the manager’s authorization.

Access to a Réserve Naturelle Intégrale (strict nature reserve) is restricted to research or very specific ritual purposes approved in its management plan. That access restriction belongs to this reserve category; it does not describe every national park. A heritage-search authorization alone does not authorize protected-area entry, research or object removal.

Heritage finds: ownership and reporting

Products of the excavations and research regulated by article 39 belong to the state unless covered by a special authorization under article 42. That rule concerns the regulated research finds, not every ordinary lost object.

Article 45 places a reporting duty on the researcher: potentially significant discoveries made during any work must be reported to local authorities within three days. The covered interests are art, history, prehistory, archaeology, science and technology. For a chance discovery, article 21 of the implementing decree directs the researcher to notify the président du Fokontany (Fokontany president).

During an excavation, the researcher must also notify the commission de recherches et de fouilles (research and excavation commission) within eight days of a discovery covered by article 39. The commission decides its final destination. This notice is additional to the three-day local-authority notice where article 45 applies.

A holder of property defined by the heritage ordinance must declare it to the ministry responsible for national heritage protection for recording and possible inventory registration. Article 5 gives no express deadline. The defined movable property includes products of archaeological and paleontological excavations and discoveries.

Ordinary lost objects and treasure

The complete current rules for keeping ordinary lost objects, and a general duty to report those objects, could not be confirmed. The current Malagasy ownership rule for legally defined treasure also remains unresolved.

The property provisions in the Code civil français avant 1960 (French Civil Code before 1960) are historical evidence whose present Malagasy applicability has not been established here. The reproduced article 2279 lets an owner reclaim a lost or stolen movable within three years of the loss or theft. Article 717 refers unclaimed lost things to special laws. These passages do not establish a complete current procedure for a finder.

The reproduced article 716 gives treasure to the finder on the finder’s own land, or half to the finder and half to the landowner on another person’s land. It defines treasure as a hidden or buried thing whose ownership nobody can prove and which is discovered purely by chance. This historical text is not a confirmed current entitlement to keep treasure in Madagascar, and it does not establish permission under the separate heritage or maritime regimes.

Maritime wreck: current rules unresolved

The Loi n°99-028 du 3 février 2000 portant refonte du Code maritime (Maritime Code) available in the evidence is the 2000 text with its 2000 errata. The Haute Cour Constitutionnelle (High Constitutional Court) considered the Loi n°2025-003 portant modification de la loi n°99-028 du 03 février 2000 portant refonte du Code maritime (law amending the 2000 Maritime Code) in its Décision n°03-HCC/D3 du 15 juillet 2025 concernant la loi n°2025-003 portant modification de la loi n° 99-028 du 03 février 2000 portant refonte du Code maritime (constitutional decision concerning the Maritime Code amendment). That decision records review before promulgation. The final full amendment, its commencement and its effect on the wreck provisions have not been established here, so the current ownership, reporting and authorization rules below remain unconfirmed.

In the 2000 text, ordinary wreck must be declared to the maritime administrative authority within forty-eight hours after discovery or arrival at the first port. The finder must put it in safety as far as possible, particularly beyond the sea’s reach. That chapter excludes archaeological or historical wreck. It also provides for return to owners or sale under conditions to be fixed by decree; finder remuneration is distinct from ownership. A current right to keep ordinary wreck could not be confirmed.

The 2000 text separately treats historical, archaeological or cultural maritime wreck as state property. Its definition concerns specified wreck objects immersed in Madagascar’s exclusive economic zone for more than thirty years, not every beach find of that age. For chance discoveries, it requires a declaration stating the discovery date, the finder’s identity and address, and the wreck’s nature and location. That provision states no express deadline and requires joint authorization from the ministries responsible for the merchant marine and national heritage protection before moving or modifying the wreck.

Under that historical text, prospecting for and/or raising heritage wreck requires a concession application to the maritime administrative authority, which submits it to an ad hoc interministerial commission for examination. The concession contract is signed for the state jointly by the ministers responsible for the merchant marine and national heritage protection. Those signing roles are distinct from receiving or examining the application. These historical procedures are not a confirmed current permission route.

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