Action | Student News
Living a Double Life
For Six Months of the Year, Grad Student Luke Dollar Trades
Number Crunching in Durham for a Chance to Track the Elusive
Fossa in Madagascar p.3
That might seem like a tall order, even for a man whose enthusiasm
seems undimmed by hazards ranging from political instability
to malaria (despite taking prophylactic anti-malarial drugs,
he's had the disease four times). However, Dollar believes
his ambitious, activist approach is the only way to ensure
long-term survival of the animals and ecosystems he studies.
"If researchers aren't paying attention to the conservation
implications, they shouldn't be doing research," he said,
leaning forward to emphasize the point. "And if they
don't have policy implications, they shouldn't be there either."
Dollar acknowledges that his views may seem harsh to some
of his fellow scientists. The spectre of extinction, however,
is very real, and he takes it seriously. A committed animal
lover - he answers his telephone with a cheery "Hello,
animal house!" - Dollar is the only biologist in Madagascar
who keeps a full-time veterinarian on staff. The extra expense
has paid off: no research animals have died under the team's
care.
At times, Dollar even gives the impression that the fossa's
survival is a matter of personal scientific pride, and an
experience early in his career explains why. When he joined
Pimm's team, "The Family" was based at the University
of Tennessee. There, Dollar worked next door to the man who
had been the world's expert on ivory-billed woodpeckers. But
the last ivory-bill had perished years before, leaving the
scientist with only stuffed specimens and reams of data to
show for his life's work.
"I realized pretty quickly that if I didn't want to
know a lot about an extinct species when I retired, I had
to look towards conservation as well as pure science,"
Dollar said, noting that one of the first fossas he ever trapped
was later killed.
So, by utilizing Pimm's expertise with Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) data-managing software, the team launched a
broad survey of Madagascar's protected areas. Using images
taken by LANDSAT Earth-mapping satellites, the group tracked
10-year deforestation rates in and around seven protected
regions. Such satellite-based tracking, Dollar said, is an
"easy, cheap and effective" way of monitoring and
quantifying the success of conservation efforts. By quantifying
conservation, scientists can hold ineffective managers accountable.
He cited the Ankarafantsika Integrated Natural Reserve as
an example; under kleptocratic local management, the reserve
actually lost habitat faster than nearby unprotected areas
- a phenomenon Dollar compared to "a conservation Enron."
On a more encouraging note, parks with tourism or research
development did significantly better at keeping forest cover
than undeveloped parks or surrounding areas. The reason, Dollar
said, is that the presence of outsiders cuts down on poaching
and illegal habitat destruction, and jobs in research or tourism
offer local Malagasy better-paid alternatives to farming.
"In the absence of some other way to survive, they're
going to do what they can, which is slash and burn agriculture,"
Dollar said. "But growing rice is hard work, and if people
have options, they'll take them. Someone who's just worried
about survival hasn't necessarily put together the fact that
if they keep cutting down forest, they'll ruin the watershed.
And then they'll starve to death. Since I care about people
as much as I care about habitat, I want to help them strike
a balance."
Fortunately, for a man who lives in two cultures, life is
all about balance. "I have the best of both worlds,"
he says, grinning. "And I love going to Madagascar. But
it's still nice to be eating something besides rice and beans."
Margaret Harris T'03 is a physics major
with a medieval/renaissance studies minor and a side interest
in science writing. She will enter physics graduate school
in the fall
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