Our project in Andriantantely, which has been made possible thanks to the support of IUCN Save Our Species, combines local community development with working alongside community members to protect and conserve the habitat and wildlife at the project site.
Black-and-White Ruffed Lemur in Ambodiatafana © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
Conserving and restoring habitat and increasing protection from illegal activities helps a broad range of wildlife but for this project we have a particular focus on four Critically Endangered lemurs: Black-and-White Ruffed Lemur; Greater Bamboo Lemur; Indri; and Diademed Sifaka.
Community Development - Supporting Schools
Whilst education is compulsory in Madagascar there is a significant lack of government investment, particularly in rural areas. The situation was made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, our team have observed a significant decrease in student attendance at schools due to financial constraints related to school fees, registration, and essential materials. To help address this issue, we decided that during the initial year of project implementation, we would provide a complete set of school supplies for 1,500 students. The intention is that each student would receive basic equipment such as colour pens, pencils, colouring pencils, eraser, compasses, square, protractor, ruler, pencil sharpener, slate, chalk, sponge, a school bag, and a pencil case.
Supplies have been distributed to schools in the project area © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
The practical support we provide always includes a focus on conservation, either through activities to be carried out, or by raising awareness and/or education. In 2012 when our first community-managed reserve for greater bamboo lemurs was created we organised a school trip for the children in the nearby village and they were the first recipients of our specially printed lemur notebooks. By the end of that year 3,000 notebooks had been distributed and it has become an annual event with thousands of notebooks given to schoolchildren across Aspinall Madagascar project sites every year. The distribution of notebooks has now been achieved for the first year of this project.
EPP Andonabe distribution of school notebooks © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
Habitat Restoration
Habitat loss is the main driver of lemur species decline in Andriantantely. We often provide updates on local community tree nurseries which cultivate saplings from endemic tree species within a project area and which are then transplanted into areas of degraded forest. Whilst this is an activity being carried out as part of this project we have also included invasive species control to assist natural regeneration of endemic and native species. There are several invasive plant species, which were originally brought to Madagascar by humans which are now a major cause for concern, like the Rubus moluccanus (Takoaka) brought to Madagascar because it was mistaken as grape vine and it has now become invasive, and the Desmodium uncinatum (Mandalodiaraikitra) introduced as cover crop in Agriculture but has rapidly became harmful to small bodied wildlife like chameleon, frogs and insects alongside with habitat loss. These species disrupt the delicate balance of the country’s natural ecosystems, prevent the native and endemic species from growing back and, as a result, push many vulnerable endemic species closer to extinction.
Local community members are involved in invasive species removal © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
It requires a team of local community members to carry out the work which is all done by hand. It is hard physical labour and requires skill in the use of axes and machetes to work on removing the invasive species.
It is a vital element of habitat restoration. Without the removal of these species the structure of the rainforest will be permanently altered as endemic species decline and saplings planted to restore forest areas will fail, unable to compete with the alien invasives. The impact on an ecosystem of losing any of its endemic species includes the potential destruction of other species making up the biota of that area. For example, at our project site invasive alien plant species are devasting sections of the bamboo thickets which are a crucial food source for both the lesser and greater bamboo lemur. There are implications for the human population too. Bamboo is used extensively by the local communities for a wide range of purposes, such as construction of buildings, furniture, irrigation systems, luggage carrying and much more.
Greater Bamboo Lemur at Ambodiatafana © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
Although bamboo is a resilient plant, capable of withstanding difficult growing conditions, the thickets have become so badly damaged that the team are planting fresh bamboo plants as areas are cleared.
Bamboo planted in an area cleared of invasive plants © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar
Conclusion
We believe providing support and development opportunities for the local communities alongside direct conservation initiatives is the most effective way to achieve sustainable outcomes. We will continue to share other updates with you in the future, but for now, as always, we would like to end by saying again that we are grateful to IUCN for their support.
IUCN Save Our Species aims to improve the long-term survival prospects of threatened species. It also focuses on supporting the species' habitats and working with the communities that share this habitat. It achieves success by funding and coordinating conservation projects into multiple initiatives across the globe.