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DLC Conservation Update, September ‘21
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Greetings DLC conservation supporters,
I hope that you enjoy this Conservation Update’s news of what we have all been up to both in Madagascar and in the US in the past two months. Most activities continue to move forward, despite the COVID pandemic, and as you will see, we are developing some exciting new programs to help us achieve our conservation objectives.
We invite you to join us from the comfort of your own home on Friday, Oct. 1 for our virtual gala offerings: a live broadcast directly from Madagascar from 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. EST, and our main event from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. EST. If you miss these live broadcasts, check back later to view the recorded versions.
From all of us at DLC and working in Madagascar, a heartfelt thank you for enabling and empowering us to continue and expand our conservation activities through your loyal support. We absolutely could not do it without you!
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Education & Outreach
Congratulations to the Association Manome Tanana (‘To give a helping hand’) for receiving a grant from a UK entity in Madagascar. This grant will support public events focused on adapting to climate change for rural farmers, and how biodiversity conservation also protects against the negative impacts of the climate crisis. DLC is co-sponsoring these events, held at four rural communities which are most significantly impacted by recent droughts and decreasing farm yields.
Lemur awareness sessions held at Andrapengy and Belaoka-Marovato. These sessions focused on parents in the communities, because environmental education isn’t just for kids! The parents had many unique and interesting viewpoints, which helps us better understand the local context of our activities.
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Three guided school visits to Evrard’s New Generation School Garden. After significant renovations to the school garden, parents are now visiting along with the students. The parents are really amazed at the diversity of plants Evrard grows, and express that they didn’t know that such a resource exists in Sambava. Read more about it at our colleagues’ latest update.
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Malagasy videographer, Zahava Communication, continues to compose films on DLC-SAVA project activities for outreach. We look forward to the first public showing at the Virtual Gala event on Oct. 1.
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Landscape RestorationAnother successful tree planting and maintenance with CURSA at Andrapengy. 800 more seedlings were planted, replacing those that died during the dry season. The team also cleared invasive weeds which smother the seedlings, and are evaluating seedling survival rates.
Tree nurseries installed and nursery technicians trained at Andrapengy and Amboronala. These nurseries will each raise 25,000+ seedlings in preparation for the 2022 reforestation campaign, with a goal of 100,000+ trees to plant.
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The tree nursery team at Amboronala. CURSA lead, Anicet (third from right), has organized all the DLC-SAVA landscape restoration activities this year, and has big plans for 2022.
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Empowering Local PartnersCURSA students made DLC-SAVA sponsored field trip visit to Volamaitso plantation as part of agroecology training. Michel Besinoa of Volamaitso led students on an immersive experience in his diversified operation which includes cash crops like cacao (some of the world’s finest chocolate comes from Madagascar), pepper, bananas, and rice.
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Michel Besinoa (in white shirt, middle), presenting what healthy soil looks like for all the diverse crops (10+) in his operation. CURSA students and staff (mostly in red CURSA polos) carefully took notes, videos, and audio recordings to capture the depth of knowledge Michel shared with them.
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In collaboration with Virginia Dare Madagascar, leading spice company, an intensive five-day training workshop on vanilla was held for CURSA students at the VDM agro-demonstration site.
Our Malagasy colleagues at CURSA have proudly graduated another class of skilled students. To complete their degrees, students must conduct research projects and defend a thesis. DLC partnered with CURSA to strengthen students’ capacity in research through workshops, a competitive research grant program, and more. Read more about this program on the DLC web site, Part 1 and Part 2.
A third lemur survey mission in the COMATSA was carried out by Edgar and the CURSA survey team. A DLC blog reporting on the first two surveys can be found at COMATSA surveys.
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Global HealthWomen’s reproductive health interventions with MSI at Belalona (35 women served) and Tanandava (26 women served).
Duke faculty Charlie Nunn’s NIH funded research project on infectious diseases leads another mission in the SAVA, facilitated by DLC-SAVA. The fieldwork is being carried out by Malagasy students/colleagues from both University of Antananarivo and CURSA.
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After multiple tour cancellations through 2020 and 2021, working with Terra Incognita Ecotours and Duke Travel, a new Madagascar tour schedule for 2022 has been established. Reservations are being made/held/shifted for three tours in 2022 – 1) in June/July, 2) in July, 3) in October. Hopefully, a year of three tours will help to relieve the backlog of waitlisted travelers – we do not expect to continue with that number of tours each year. Many thanks go to Beth Ray-Schroeder, director at Duke Travel, for her consistent and enthusiastic support of the Madagascar tour program, especially through these difficult COVID times.
We welcome back Bethany Old, Coverdell Fellow at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, who continues to work on her Masters project alongside her outreach and educational services for the DLC-SAVA Conservation project.
DLC-SAVA is collaborating with Daniel Roper-Jones of Fauna in Focus to create the interactive ‘Lemurs of the SAVA’ digital lesson plan for our lemur awareness efforts in the region, and potentially link to the DLC education program in Durham. Dan began the project and will work closely with James and I. Volunteers Bethany Old and longtime volunteer Pat Massard are compiling lemur information and media. Hoping to have a sampler for the Virtual Gala event!
We began another year of collaboration with Duke Carbon Offset Initiative and Duke Nicholas School of the Environment, refining our study of the carbon credits available from our reforestation efforts that started last year. This year, two Masters students will be working with DLC-SAVA on the project, mentored by Dr. John Poulsen of the Nich School.
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Madagascar Conservation and Science News
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In an article by conservationist Felix Ratelolahy – “My activities are only a drop in the ocean of conservation efforts across the globe. The most significant lesson I’ve learned during nearly two decades of experience is that animals, plants and people are completely interdependent. Conservation is a task for everybody, from small children to older generations, and we need to raise awareness of the magnitude of the task and how it can be achieved. It’s a long-term activity, a work without end. But with perseverance, respect and trust, and through working together, I believe we can achieve anything. We can restore Madagascar to the island it once was, in all its green glory.”
Madagascar’s marine resources are under no less threat that its terrestrial biodiversity. Offshore fishing vessels from China and other countries are vacuuming up fish in Mada’s waters at an alarming rate and as with much in resource-rich Madagascar, there is a complete lack of transparency as reported in this well researched article from Mongabay.
With half of all species of coffee worldwide and more species than in the entire African continent, Madagascar once again demonstrates just what a treasure-trove of botanical diversity the island country is. And now six new Madagascar coffee species have been recently described and added to the list. According to the Sprudge article's author “Still, even without any defined impact on the future of coffee, the discovery of these new species is exciting. Here are six as-yet-unknown species of coffee existing in the wild, without any need for human intervention. One of these species could provide new insight into resiliency in coffee production, perhaps even suitable to hybridize with Arabica. Or maybe the future of coffee isn't in girding Arabica but in diversifying the number of species commercially produced.”
Enjoy your morning mug-full with thoughts of Madagascar!
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