Thank You (and Farewell!) to our Project Manager

We'd like to extend a massive thanks to our Project Manager, Virginia Calvo Gonzalez, and send our best wishes as she moves on from her 2-year contract with Impact Madagascar to her next adventure!

For the past two years, Virginia has not only helped with research and data collection, but has also established a community health program and women's empowerment program at our Sifaka conservation sites. These programs are vital, allowing local communities to flourish, in addition to wildlife conservation alone.

If you’d like to find out more about these programs, in addition to our other activities we’re working on every day in Madagascar, please check out our 2018 Annual Report!

Virginia, we appreciate all your hard work and dedication...misaotra indrindra anao! 🌱

Updates From the Field!

As summer winds to a close and the rainy season approaches, our fieldwork in Madagascar continues!  Below, please enjoy a few updates and photos from the ground.  New collaborations, gardening woes, and even a few...lemurs in the roof?  Read on to find out more.

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Madiromirafy: Sifaka Project

Strengthening Collaboration, Supporting Local People for Conservation Success!

Training local people in pest control measures.

New signs announce the conservation activities taking place in the forest.

In Madiromirafy, the Sifaka Conservation Project has installed three signs to promote the Project’s activities and to raise local awareness of conservation activities taking place at the site. The panels have been erected in the Commune of Madiromirafy, at the entrance of the forest, and in the village of Anjiakely.

During the last month, the Sifaka Conservation team has also established a memorandum of understanding with the VOI. Ongoing cooperation between the Sifaka Conservation Project and local forestry authorities is important for the continued protection of Madiromirafy’s valuable and threatened natural resources. By maintaining an open channel of communication between those involved, we are able to strengthen these relationships and ensure the teams work together effectively and for the benefit of local communities.

VOI members have also taken part in training, given by the Sifaka Conservation team, concerning pest control and the protection of crops. Farmers in three villages benefited from this training ; Anosibe, Madiromirafy, and Anjiakely. Following the practical training sessions, each village was equipped with two sprayers, which can be used by members of the VOI Madiromirafy to control insect pests.

Finally, training and support of local patrol agents in the Mandrava gallery forest has been ongoing throughout the summer. In the weeks and months to come, the agents will continue collecting data and monitoring the habitat, and to assess the impact of the conservation actions on the Sifaka population.

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Supporting Market Gardening in Vohitrarivo

Training in market gardening practices at Volotara

Distribution of seeds and gardening materials at Volotara.

Earlier this year Ony and Ndimby, our community development officer and agricultural technician, initiated market gardening programmes at a number of sites in Vohitrarivo (central Madagascar) and its surrounding villages. The aim is to help local people earn a sustainable income through the selling of crops. Our team have also implemented an SRI programme in the region ; SRI stands for System of Rice Intensification, and the method aims to improve the efficiency of agricultural techniques in order to increase rice yields whilst also reducing the pressure that rice farming inflicts upon the environment.

This month, the team revisited the sites to monitor their progress. In Sahofika, the 11 beneficiaries of the programme have a total of 18 vegetable plots covering an area of 54 acres. Unfortunately, they found a low success rate of crops due largely to the prevalence of pests as well as water-logging. Regarding the SRI programme, our team found the average rice yield in the region to be 3.3 tonnes/hectare. Sadly, however, one of the beneficiaries of this programme had no harvest due to an attack of Prolemur simus (greater bamboo lemur).

Agricultural pests are a problem for farmers across Madagascar, and can lead to serious conflict between humans and wildlife. This in turn can become a conservation concern, particularly when the pest also happens to be a threatened species, such as in the case of the critically endangered P. simus. The Impact Madagascar team have already started to work with farmers in Vohitrarivo and the surrounding areas, to identify and implement effective methods of pest control, for the protection of both crops and of the local lemur population. So far, 75 of the 97 beneficiaries of the market gardening programme have received training in pest management techniques. Alongside this training, a further 263 seeds, 30 watering cans and 4 sprayers have been distributed amongst beneficiaries in Vohitrarivo, Vohimarina, and Volotara.

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Project Fotsife (Madena Conservation Zone)

Lemurs in the roof!

Three mouse lemurs peering out from their nest in the roof of the research station.

Deciding whether it’s safe to jump!

At our project site in Mandena, it wasn’t just during treks in the forest that our field team encountered their furry friends! The teams’ campsite in the Mandena Conservation Zone sat right at the edge of the forest. Each night, at around dinner time, the team would hear rustlings in the neighbouring research station and assumed they had a resident rat. But one evening, the culprit could be heard leaping from the roof of the research station into the trees at the forest edge.

The next night the team waited at dusk with their torches and headlamps to get a better look at the creature; peering down at them from a crack in the roof of the research station they saw five pairs of glowing eyes. It wasn’t a rat living in the research station, but a family of five mouse lemurs which, every night at dusk, would scuttle across the roof of the research station and into the neighbouring forest!

Impact Madagascar Field UPDATES! (Part 2) May, 2017

Sifaka Conservation Project at Madiromirafy (District of Maevatanana ; Betsiboka Region, Province of Mahajanga)

Reinforcing the Capacity of Local Management Committees (COBA or VOI AINA) in Madiromirafy

The rural commune of Madiromirafy is known for its rich biodiversity and for the fragility of its renewable natural resources. These resources, which include forest resources (gallery forest, dry forest, and savannah), crop area, pasture area, and wetlands, are currently under management of the Local Base Community (COBA) or Vondron’Olona Ifotony (VOI) Aina Madiromirafy.

The VOI objectives are to protect and conserve these natural resources in order to manage them in a sustainable way, for the welfare of the local population. To achieve these objectives, the VOI Aina and the Fishermen’s Association have set up monitoring committees called ‘forest police’ and ‘water police’.

The Sifaka Conservation Project supports the capacity building of the local Community Management Committees (COGE), and works closely with the technical departments concerned, namely the Regional Directorate for Ecology, Environment and Forests (DREEF) and the Regional Directorate for Fisheries (DRRHP) in the Betsiboka region. These organisations will provide theoretical and practical training to the VOI and management committees on the implementation of their activities. This training enables the VOI to independently manage renewable natural resources in a way which is sustainable, efficient and effective.

A training course on managing Associations and simple accounting was provided to the management committees,  organized by the Sifaka Conservation Project, the Betsiboka DREEF and the Betsiboka DRRHP. The rules and laws in force concerning clearing, bush fires and fishing were covered during the training. The roles and responsibilities of each member of the management committee were also clarified.

Training of the management committee

Training of the local forest and water police

Impact Madagascar Field UPDATES! (Part 1) May 2017

Sifaka Conservation Project at Ankirihitra (District of Ambato Boeni ; Boeny Region, Province of Mahajanga)

Evaluating Resource Potential in the Forests of Ankirihitra

Inventory of natural resources at Ankirihitra

An evaluation of the resources available in the conservation zone andcommunity-use zone was conducted in October and November 2016. The aim was to identify the stock available at these sites, with a view to the sustainable and efficient management of these existing resources.

According to the study, which was carried out in close collaboration with the local communities, Forestry Regional Department of the Boeny Region, and forest cantonment of Tsaramandroso, 73 species are listed over an area of 2.5 hectares.

In the community-use zone, the forest largely comprises naturally regenerating species. The ratio between the number of small and large diameter stems per hectare suggests a forest stand that has undergone severe disturbance in the past.  The small, or even non-existent, number of stems with large diameters indicates that it is mainly large diameter trees which have been exploited in the past.  For the conservation area, the forest is largely in a state of natural regeneration. Small trees are dominant, and density decreases as diameters increase.