We sustainably develop ecotourism in the Antongil Bay, Masoala, Makira, Nosy Mangabe. We launched our Ecolodge concept on the western part of the Masoala Peninsula in 2001. So far we have had more than 4000 visitors who have been able to discover the exceptional local terrestrial and marine biodiversity.
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
We protect Northern bamboo lemurs by planting bamboo, their food plant, in the Arol Ecolodge surroundings on the edge of Masoala forest. Around 100 bamboos have been planted and this has encouraged bamboo lemurs to visit near the lodge.
Northern bamboo lemur December 2019 Olivier Fournajoux
What Lemur Species We Protect
In the vicinity of the Arol Ecolodge there are Northern bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur occidentalis) which are a focus of our conservation efforts. These lemurs were classified Vulnerable in 2016 (Lemurs of Madagascar Strategy for Their Conservation) and are threatened by hunting and trapping.
How We Support Local Communities
By increasing rice production for the local community with the aid of an agricultural technician
Since 2007, we have been helping run the village school
The village is supplied with hydroelectricity and running water via standpipes with our contribution
Village associations gain direct benefits from ecotourism with our visitors
Our mission is to infuse the public with curiosity and interest about STEM fields, inspire people to explore, discover and learn about how science is integral in all aspects of life, and make positive impacts for Madagascar.
ExplorerHome invites the public to explore the wonders of the world through the eyes of scientists.
Our work is designed to reach children (5 to 15 years old) and their families. ExplorerHome’s field-based and online programs give a platform to STEM fields, scientists and offer science outreach, education, and entertainment!
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
Our work helps to protect Madagascar’s precious ecosystems by doing the following:
Training the scientists of the future who will help contribute to important research to inform conservation in Madagascar
Delivering field programs which raise the profile of the primatology discipline and teach important scientific skills such as field methods and data collection
By providing education on and raising awareness of important global issues such as loss of biodiversity and climate change
How We Support Local Communities
We provide science education, hands-on training and help raise awareness of scientific disciplines in Madagascar. This creates opportunities within communities and a platform for STEM communication.
Training
Our field programs “Sciencing Out” and “Bioblitz” allow students to experience practical science and exploration. On “Sciencing Out” knowledge is shared by professional scientists leading each topic, and students gather experience of field methods and data collection. On “Bioblitz” students have access to apps such as iNaturalist and Seek to observe and identify species.
Online programs
We have developed 5 programs all centered on three main components: STEM fields, Scientists, and non-scientists. These programs provide a platform for scientists to share their works and incorporate adapted science communication tools to make information more accessible to communities in the form of video. ExplorerHome staff edit and share short storytelling videos to convey messages. Social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are used to broadcast these short educative and informative videos featuring the 5 programs: Ask A Scientist, One word a day, Science facts, Happy Place and the SCiTia program.
PICC 2020 students from Ambodiforaha, Masoala, Madagascar. Photo by Pascal Elison
Our organisation Photography Inspiring Children in Conservation (PICC) is based on the concept of engaging with the natural world through visual arts. Our goal is to inspire Malagasy students to become lemur conservation leaders within their communities by providing them with knowledge of lemur ecology, as well as local conservation issues and solutions. Malagasy students gain skills in photography, illustration, and storytelling, providing an effective foundation upon which they may seek conservation-oriented careers. PICC was designed with a goal of building local capacity for sustainable conservation through educating and empowering both students and the broader community, including local teachers and elders.
The act of creating an image with photography or sketching rewires us to be truly present and see details and beauty on a deeper level of appreciation.
~Kathy West, PICC Director
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
Over a two-week period, Malagasy students use customized coloring and activity books, worksheets, field journals, and DSLR cameras to document their local forests and develop scientifically accurate stories and illustrations.
They are encouraged to develop unique lemur conservation ideas, making contributions to their communities using their new skills. A village-wide gathering at the completion of the project celebrates the students’ works and recognizes participants as “Forest Ambassadors”. Equipment remains onsite, accessible to the students and teachers for sustained learning, career development, and conservation work. About 3,000 tourists visit Masoala National Park (NP) per year. One of our goals is to give Malagasy students the opportunity to develop the skills needed to have future careers in ecotourism and conservation, improving their own lives while also protecting lemurs and their habitats.
It is important to foster the development of skills for conservation job opportunities because research has shown that Malagasy people who are involved in ecotourism, and earn their income from sharing wildlife experiences with visitors, will not hunt lemurs and will discourage others from doing so. At the same time, providing training and employability skills to Malagasy students improves livelihoods.
What Lemur Species We Protect
We began our program in June 2020 with the students in the village of Ambodiforaha in northeast Madagascar, adjacent to the stunningly beautiful Masoala National Park, an area rich in biodiversity. This National Park and UNESCO World Heritage site protects as much as 40% of Madagascar’s mammalian diversity. On the Masoala peninsula, 9 out of 10 species of lemurs present are vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, with the only remaining populations of some species found in this protected habitat.
PICC supports conservation of the following threatened lemur species in the Masoala NP and forest:
Red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) (Critically Endangered)
White-fronted brown lemur (Eulemur albifrons) (Endangered)
Recognizing that this national park belongs to local communities and the Malagasy people, we aim to help children understand how to identify and maintain healthy ecosystems, as well as to understand the cultural, environmental and economic benefits of protecting lemur habitat.
Pascal Elison teaching PICC 2020 students from Ambodiforaha, Masoala, Madagascar
Empowering Teachers and Community Elders in Education
In addition to focusing on children, the PICC program includes participation of teachers and elder leaders with traditional ecological knowledge, making the likelihood of program success much higher. This empowers the older community members who have extensive knowledge of native plants and animals and are related to many of the children in the program. Unlike teachers, these elders are seen as local leaders with ancestral ties to the land. This project acknowledges the importance of the Malagasy people’s place in their landscape. We are interested in learning from them, and in returning knowledge to the community through the workshops, books and posters of student writing, illustrations, and photographs. Participating teachers are expanding their knowledge base in order to educate other students and teachers in nearby villages.
Ary Saina is a group of Malagasy conservation biologists promoting scientific research and knowledge for the conservation of Madagascar’s unique but imperiled biodiversity.
Ary Saina was founded in 2017 with the following objectives:
Promote and facilitate scientific research in Madagascar
Contribute to the capacity building of Malagasy in science
Conduct scientific research to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in Madagascar
Ranomafana National Park by Onja Razafindratsima
Ihofa forest by Nancia Raoelinjanakolona
Ary Saina Study Sites by Angelo Andrianiaina
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
We lead and participate in several projects related to lemur conservation in Madagascar. Most of our members conduct research on lemur biology and ecology to help conserve lemurs in their natural sites.
The socio-economic development activities we plan to implement to improve livelihoods aim to reduce threats on lemur habitat.
What Lemur Species We Protect
Current projects are conducted in two rainforest sites: (1) in the eastern fragmented forest of Ihofa with a focus on an assemblage of different species lemurs, including the critically threatened indri (Indri indri) and black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata); and (2) in the southeastern forest of Ranomafana National Park with a focus on both large-bodied diurnal lemurs like the red-bellied lemur (Eulemur rubriventer) and small-bodied nocturnal lemurs like the brown mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus).
Indri indri by Finaritra Randimbiarison
Microcebus rufus by Vero Ramananjato
Black and white ruffed lemur in Madagascar. Photo: Onja Razafindratsima.
How We Support Local Communities
Our current focus is in supporting the local communities living near Ihofa forest in Andasibe. We implement socio-economic development activities to improve their livelihoods. We are in need of funding to support the building of an elementary school in the area. We currently teach children local to our field sites (who often have no opportunity to attend school, with the closest being 8 hours walk away) skills such as writing and counting. We also deliver skills training to empower Malagasy scientists to build a career.
At IMPACT Madagascar we believe it’s not possible to protect the environment without also considering the people who depend on its resources on a daily basis. Since 2013 we’ve been working with local communities to alleviate poverty and provide achievable and sustainable environmental protection through a variety of projects.
We focus our work on five project sites, in five different locations: Ankirihitra (region Boeny), Madiromirafy (region Betsiboka), Mahajeby (region Bongolava), Dabolava (region Menabe), and Vohitrarivo (region V7V). Each of these rural sites is unique in their biodiversity and communities, but across these locations, our projects hold similar objectives. These include reforestation and ecological restoration, lemur and habitat monitoring, environmental outreach and practical environmental education, community development, community health, and community conservation.
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
Lemur and habitat monitoring
Our lemur and habitat monitoring includes periodic inventories of diurnal and nocturnal lemur populations located at our project sites. These focus mostly on the mongoose lemur and crowned sifaka (though the surveys are inclusive of all lemurs in the area).
The Sifaka Conservation program aims to save the fragmented forests across the four locations (along the central highlands and northwestern areas), in order to protect crowned sifaka populations and the remaining rare dry and gallery forests. Additionally, our team identifies and monitors the pressures and threats these lemur populations and their habitats face. With identification at each site, we can develop better strategies to combat these harmful actions and to prevent future destruction.
Reforestation
Our activities focused on forest restoration include large-scale community reforestation events. During these events, community members come together and plant native forest and fast-growing tree species in the area. The saplings that are planted are produced by the communities themselves in tree nurseries on site.
Conservation Education
Our conservation education projects constitute an important strategy to address threats to biodiversity and to ensure community participation and the sustainability of conservation actions. This environmental outreach includes awareness campaigns at both school and household levels. Additionally, information sessions take place through multimedia presentations and focus on the fundamental roles of the forest, the causes of destruction and their impact on human life, biodiversity and conservation, environmental laws, the food web, wildlife, and its ecological role, and ecosystem services.
What Lemur Species We Protect
Our conservation work currently focuses primarily on the Mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz) and Crowned Sifaka (Propithecus coronatus), two critically endangered species present at our sites.
How We Support Local Communities
Community Development
To help improve the living conditions of the local population in conservation areas, we have many community development projects that aim to promote income-generating activities within these communities.
We work with the local people in order to increase their farming yield and agricultural production by monitoring and providing practical training in the use of modern farming techniques and improved livestock breeding programs, as well as promoting other alternative sources of income. In addition, we also encourage the production and sale of local produce to boost income within communities. As well as providing a more secure and sustainable future, this approach helps to reduce damage to biodiversity and forests from other farming methods.
Conservation education
Conservation education projects include practical activities such as healthy living, water purification, waste management, and how to recycle various types of waste. This aims to improve health and sustainability.
Establishment and support of VOIs
At each of our conservation sites, we have established local management committees, called VOIs. These committees help to manage the forests, and patrols are run by local people to monitor threats such as illegal logging and poaching, while simultaneously engaging local people in the protection of their forests.
Community Health
Additionally, we work to provide community health initiatives to these rural communities and offer them resources and care they do not otherwise have access to. These activities vary across sites and include medical missions in collaboration with health organizations to provide treatment and medical care, sexual and reproductive health education, and raising awareness about the importance of hygiene and water purification.
At Money for Madagascar (MfM) our mission is to enable Malagasy people to reduce poverty and protect their unique environment through sustainable, community-led initiatives.
Having long recognised the interdependence of people and their environment, MfM supports local solutions that enable Malagasy people to take charge of their own livelihoods and future. Through education, training, and practical support, we enable farmers and forest dwellers to provide for their families, whilst protecting and restoring their fragile environment and rich biodiversity.
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
Reforestation around Andasibe and Torotorofotsy with Association Mitsinjo
Since 2015, MfM has been working in partnership with Association Mitsinjo to gradually increase the area of restored forest around Andasibe at a rate of about 10ha per year. This has restored vital habitat for the forest’s wildlife.
In the areas already planted, reforestation has brought immediate benefits to the land in terms of erosion prevention and water absorption. In the longer term, Mitsinjo’s painstaking restoration technique provides the best conditions for the natural forest to regenerate. By using a mix of up to 60 carefully selected indigenous tree species, the Mitsinjo team harness the power of nature to complete the restoration process! By including a range of fast growing fruit trees, attractive to seed dispersers such as birds, fruit bats and lemurs, the Mitsinjo reforestation team ensure that wildlife is drawn to the replanted areas, bringing in seeds from other plants in their faeces and facilitating the return of the natural forest. Restoration of natural forest is not a fast process but replanted areas have seen the return of key indicator species such as the Blue Coua and brown lemurs.
What Lemur Species We Protect
By planting corridors to join isolated fragments of primary forest, the reforestation project around Andasibe and Torotorofotsy is extending the habitat for many endangered species such as the Indri (Indri indri) lemur.
How We Support Local Communities
Reforestation work has provided vital employment opportunities for local people and environmental education has helped to raise awareness of the value of the forests.
MfM’s reforestation work with Mitsinjo has always considered the needs of the local population and has emphasised ensuring local employment in reforestation, protection and ecotourism. Funds in 2020 made it possible to embark on sustainable livelihoods development in the hamlets of Sahatay and Sahakoa, in the Torotorofotsy buffer zone.
Supporting the development of sustainable livelihoods in these isolated communities is vital for the long-term success of Mitsinjo’s conservation and restoration efforts. 90% of the population living around the Torotorofotsy Protected Area are extremely poor and heavily dependent on the forest and wetland to meet their basic needs. Away from the eco-tourism hub of Andasibe village, they see less of the obvious benefits of keeping the forest intact. However, without their support for forest restoration and conservation, unsustainable subsistence agriculture, wildlife poaching and illegal logging will continue unabated, transforming this unique ecosystem into rice fields and destroying its rich biodiversity.
We urgently want to scale up the pace of this important work and to increase investment in both reforestation and strengthening livelihoods as a long-term strategy to restore and protect the forest.
Betampona Reserve Livelihoods Project
In Betampona we are working with our partner SAF to offer people living around the Special Rainforest Reserve practical alternatives to deforestation and wildlife poaching. By providing training, tools and long term technical support, we enable local families to improve food security and increase income whilst protecting precious wildlife habitats.
MfM takes a long-term approach to supporting families living around the Betampona special rainforest reserve. For over 30 years, MfM has focused on helping people to overcome their problems, to value and protect the land and to live off it in a sustainable way.
The project, which began in 5 communities surrounding the reserve, has now spread to 100 communities covering over 600km2.Thousands of subsistence farming families have been able to sustainably improve their lives and build a better future for their children, which is a key factor in keeping the Betampona rainforest in tact.
One of the secrets of the Betampona project’s success is the long term, people-centered approach taken by SAF’s committed team of technicians and community workers. The dedicated staff team has established deep respect and trust with the villagers. Their long-term commitment and support mean that benefits are durable and far-reaching. Instead of cutting down new forest every year to try to meet their basic needs, forest communities invest in infrastructures such as rice fields, dams, ponds and animal pens, to get more out of their existing land. Instead of poaching lemurs, farmers are able to improve their diets with fish and poultry. By planting productive trees farmers gain a stake in the forest and are motivated to value and protect it.
Ny Tanintsika works to empower communities to conserve lemurs through a multifaceted approach that builds local capacity, addresses livelihoods concerns and promotes stakeholder collaboration and communication.
Lemurs are crucial to Madagascar’s rich and thriving biodiversity. The decline in lemur populations and the rapid extinction of a number of species, due to habitat loss and hunting, is jeopardising this biodiversity.
Currently, a number of forest communities hunt and eat lemurs as a primary source of protein in their diet, or keep them as pets. Although protection legislation exists, it is not widely known, understood nor enforced. Habitat loss due to forest in-migration for ‘slash and burn’ agriculture, deforestation and logging is an equally crucial factor in this project.
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
Whilst focusing on Golden Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur aureus) species, we are gathering data on all primates in the previously unresearched forests of Ambohimahamasina and three neighbouring areas. Data collection on lemurs is conducted by local stakeholders, and forest inhabitants will become lemur monitors to ensure project sustainability.
Additionally, 12 signs encouraging lemur conservation are being erected along Ambohimahamasina’s 3 main forest footpaths crossing to the eastern side of the forest ‘corridor’.
What Lemur Species We Protect
We target lemur taxa that are categorized as being Critically Endangered, and in a listed action plan locality site (the COFAV). The Lemur Conservation Strategy lists the COFAV as being home to 21 lemur taxa of which 6 are critically endangered, 7 endangered, 4 vulnerable, 1 near threatened and 3 data deficient.
COFAV has the highest number of lemur species of any protected area in Madagascar – of which a disproportionate number are in elevated threat categories. However, scientific research on biodiversity has largely been limited to national parks.
Threatened Species Targeted:
Golden Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur aureus): Critically Endangered C2a(i)
Other threatened species benefitting from the project:
Support is being given to forest inhabitants to make their lifestyles more sustainable, which is beneficial to human communities and nature. Agricultural production on deforested land is boosted through training on improved techniques, with 6 community tree nurseries operational to provide saplings for agroforestry, reforestation and forest restoration to meet both human and lemur needs. Numerous awareness-raising initiatives are combined with promotion of alternative sources of income and protein, including small-scale fish-farming and chicken-rearing, and the capacity-building of Community Forest Management associations to reduce lemur poaching and habitat loss.
The Madagascar Lemurs Portal aims to improve the conservation state of lemurs by addressing existing data gaps and facilitating exchanges and sharing of expertise and data between a wide group of stakeholders with a role in lemur conservation.
It is an online project which aims to reach the public at large: both Malagasy and international users. The project is supported by the Madagascar Biodiversity Fund.
Our office is based in Antananarivo, yet several capacity sessions are conducted by the lemur portal team in different regions of Madagascar where local NGO and partners are based. Training has so far been provided in Toamasina (Eastern region), Mahajanga (Western region), Ranomafana (Southeastern region), Morondava (Southwestern region), Mahajanga (Western region), and Antananarivo (Central region).
How We Protect Lemurs And Other Wildlife
We help protect lemurs and Malagasy wildlife through championing the sharing of conservation information and knowledge to inform research and policy.
The unique biodiversity found in Madagascar is under extreme pressure from anthropogenic activities including agriculture and hunting. As the country’s most emblematic species, Madagascar’s 112 lemur species, of which most are now endangered, represent a clear example of the biodiversity threat dynamic operating in Madagascar.
Despite awareness within conservation and research circles of the growing threats to lemur species, and a passionate international and national conservation community that has leveraged significant support for investment in research and field-based conservation actions, efforts to date have failed to reverse negative trends in lemur conservation status.
Knowledge Dissemination
Data collection on lemur and awareness raising to the local communities
A contributing factor to this failure is related to weak biodiversity information and access to knowledge on the part of stakeholders involved in conservation activities. Specifically, there is a lack of a robust mechanism to create positive feedback loops between research, policy decisions, and on the ground conservation actions.
Following a technical meeting with over 40 representatives of lemur conservation organizations in February 2016, a consortium of local conservation partners (FAPBM, WCS, and GERP) proposed to address this problem by developing the ‘Madagascar Lemurs Portal’.
This online platform aims to be a technically and scientifically robust, user-friendly, open-access tool that is regularly used by a wide range of user groups; and provides essential information for conservation evaluation and decision making processes (e.g., IUCN Red List assessments and donor and partner monitoring of protected area effectiveness); and that is continuously evolving with the addition of new data shared among users.
How We Support Local Communities
Collaboration with protected areas manager – Madagascar National Parks in Zombitse Vohibasia
The Lemur Portal ensures collaboration between a wide ranges of stakeholders related to lemur conservation from decision-makers to the local community.
Information, communication, and education (ICE)
CE includes our key activities for supporting local communities, especially local technicians and protected areas managers. We gather data/information on lemurs while also engaging local communities to format and insert these collected data in the portal. Our team builds local capacities on biodiversity data management, geographical information, and strategic planning for the academic student, local technicians, and those involved in protected area management.
Over two years, we have trained more than 300 local technicians from various regions of Madagascar.
Data/information from local NGO’s and community will be transferred via the lemur portal to decision-makers, tourists, and international organizations for lobbying and raising awareness.
We focus our work on five project sites, in five different locations: Ankirihitra (region Boeny), Madiromirafy (region Betsiboka), Mahajeby (region Bongolava), Dabolava (region Menabe), and Vohitrarivo (region V7V). Each of these rural sites is unique in their biodiversity and communities, but across these locations, our projects hold similar objectives. These include reforestation and ecological restoration, lemur and habitat monitoring, environmental outreach and practical environmental education, community development, community health, and community conservation.
Community Development
What We Do
It is an 
The unique biodiversity found in Madagascar is under extreme pressure from anthropogenic activities including agriculture and hunting. As the country’s most emblematic species, Madagascar’s 112 lemur species, of which most are now endangered, represent a clear example of the biodiversity threat dynamic operating in Madagascar.
