The Lemur Conservation Foundation helps conserve lemurs through managed breeding programs, outreach, and on-the-ground conservation.
Saving lemurs through managed breeding programs, educational outreach, and on-the-ground conservation efforts.
Critically endangered mongoose lemur born at LCF in 2014.
The Lemur Conservation Foundation (LCF) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the primates of Madagascar through managed breeding, scientific research, and education. The foundation and accompanying lemur reserve focus on fostering natural lemur behavior to encourage a dynamic population.
LCF supports educational programs started by the late Dr. Alison Jolly in Madagascar and is developing content to bring those programs to classrooms in the United States. In addition, LCF provides financial support to assist in the establishment of a tourist and research camp in Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve in northeast Madagascar, home to the elusive silky sifaka and a unique population of indri with black pelage.
Related Blog Posts
A Visit to LCF’s Reserve in Florida A Look at LCF’s Work in Madagascar
What lemurs does the Lemur Conservation Foundation protect?
At their reserve in Florida, the Lemur Conservation Foundation is home to over 45 lemurs of six different species, most of which are critically endangered or endangered. LCF is a Certified Related Facility with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and participates in their Species Survival Plans which work to maintain a genetic safety net for a variety of lemur species. The species currently housed at the reserve are:
- Collared lemurs (Eulemur collaris)
- Mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz)
- Sanford’s lemur (Eulemur sanfordi)
- Common brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus)
- Red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra)
- Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)
How is the Lemur Conservation Foundation protecting habitat for lemur conservation?
Demarcation signs funded by LCF to outline the boundary of the Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve.
Lemur Conservation Foundation is supporting projects in Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve (ASSR), a large mountainous rainforest in northeastern Madagascar, which has long been recognized as a lemur priority site that has received little attention. LCF has partnered with the Madagascar National Parks to provide boundary demarcations for this protected area and is working towards developing a site called Camp Indri into a functioning base camp for tourists and researchers. At least 11 lemur species are found here including:
- Indri (Indri indri)
- Silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus)
- Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)
- Mittermeier’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus mittermeieri)
- Northern bamboo lemur (Hapalemur occidentalis)
LCF also collaborates with École Normale Supérieure (ENS), the teachers’ training arm of the University of Antananarivo. This partnership supports the students of ENS in their field research and field work theses at the Berenty Reserve, a private wildlife reserve in southern Madagascar. Research done at Berenty includes lemur census surveys and plant phenology.
Helping lemurs in captivity
A family of Lemur catta in one of LCF’s semi free-ranging forests, where field students can observe lemurs in a natural environment.
The Lemur Conservation Foundation operates a 100 acre reserve in Myakka City, Florida. The reserve is set up with two semi free-ranging forests, each approximately ten acres, and two traditional enclosure buildings. As a Certified Related Facility with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, LCF participates in the Eulemur Species Survival Plan (SSP), Ruffed Lemur SSP, and Ring-tailed Lemur SSP, which include a global network of institutions working towards the propagation of selected lemur species in order to ensure the healthy existence of those species whose survival is in peril.
LCF also hosts field training programs, in which professors and their students utilize the facility and the lemur colony for behavioral observations and research on social dynamics and cognitive skills, as well as habitat use and food selection. These training programs produce future primatologists and conservation biologists which will carry the conservation imperative forward for lemurs and other endangered species and fostering and inspiring conservation based careers is an invaluable part of LCF’s mission.
Partnering with local communities
Educational Outreach
The first book in the Ako Project series, Ako the Aye-Aye.
LCF has the pleasure of continuing on Dr. Alison Jolly’s legacy with the Ako Project, in collaboration with Dr. Hanta Rasamimanana, Dr. Jolly’s former colleague, professor at ENS, and Madagascar’s “Lemur Lady”. The Ako Project, sponsored by EnviroKidz, is an educational children’s book series, translated in both English and Malagasy, which is intended to teach Malagasy children about different species of lemur in a fun, tangible way. The books come with matching curriculum to help teachers convey the conservation themes and concepts envisioned for the stories.
Dahari shapes sustainable and productive landscapes with Comorian communities.
The organization, which currently works in northwest Madagascar in the area surrounding the Ankarafantsika National Park, has a two-part mission: 1) teach life skills and character development to young and underprivileged people all over the world through amateur sports instruction and competition; and 2) promote the benefits of, and provide financial support for, education and job skills training.
In this effort, the Human Development League partners with the local basketball association in Andranofasika – the town at the East entrance of Ankarafantsika National Park – to help engage the local community and give them ownership of the project and decision-making authority from planning to implementation. In addition, they plan to work closely with the local mayor’s office, the Madagascar National Parks (MNP) park director, and other stakeholders.
Hazo Tokana Tsy Mba Ala undertakes research and reforestation efforts in northern Madagascar.
Chances for Nature aims to spread, communicate, and promote sustainable natural resource use techniques as well as raise awareness for Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity. Chances for Nature achieves these goals through outreach, education and capacity building in small villages in rural Madagascar. Chances for Nature currently focuses many of its efforts in Central Menabe (west Madagascar), but does not limit its education initiatives to just this region.
This area where Chances for Nature has focused many of its efforts – in west Madagascar – is home to the largest remaining dry deciduous forest of Western Madagascar. This unique ecosystem is home to high floral and faunal diversity, including the world’s smallest primate: Microcebus berthae.
In order spread information about the need to use natural resources in a sustainable manner, Chances for Nature uses Malagasy-language multimedia presentations and films to promote sustainable use techniques and practices. In 2013, they produced a film designed to illustrate the uniqueness of Madagascar’s biodiversity; the film also explained the consequences of unsustainable use of natural resources and presented three alternative sustainable techniques and behaviors that could be used to improve the lives of local people while reducing natural resource depletion. This film – as well as other multimedia presentations – reached Malagasy communities in 2013 and 2014 through the help of a mobile cinema. This mobile cinema works exclusively through pedal (bicycle) power and thus reaches a large amount of people – even in remote areas without electricity. The cinema was even used to raise awareness and supplement environmental education in several Malagasy schools.
The first campaign designed to actually implement behavior changes in local communities, supplemented the media-based education program with workshops designed to teach the construction of ecologically friendly stoves built using locally available materials. As 80% of the energy consumption in Madagascar is used for cooking, the use of environmentally-friendly stoves can have a positive impact on habitat protection. Chances for Nature’s approach of combining environmental education, the promotion of sustainable techniques and behaviors, and modern media turned out to be very successful and motivated two communities to built and use the stoves.
Biodiversity Conservation Madagascar (BCM) was established in 2002 as the conservation arm of Bioculture (Mauritius) Ltd., a for-profit company that provides most of its funding. BCM’s main goals are to conserve threatened forests in east and west Madagascar that are of high biodiversity value, especially those rich in lemur species. BCM currently works in the 2,400 hectare lowland rainforest in Sahafina (east Madagascar) and the Beanka dry deciduous forest in the Maintirano region (west Madagascar).
BCM manages the conservation of two forests on behalf of the Malagasy government through “Conservation Leases.” Since 2003, BCM has been responsible for the protection of 2,400 hectares of humid low altitudinal forest in eastern Madagascar. In 2007, BCM started managing a second site—the Beanka New Protected Area in Western Madagascar. This 17,000 hectare forest is of significant ecological value and harbors a rich diversity of plants and animals. BCM is currently working to secure long-term protection of these two sites.
Eucalyptus and fruit tree plantations
Water wells
