Dispatches From The Field

10 June 2003 -- Nora Bynum

Dispatch from Madagascar
Nora Bynum, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC)
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and
Adjunct Associate Professor, Nicholas School, Duke University.

The town of Ranomafana lies nestled at the bottom of a misty and verdant mountain valley in eastern Madagascar. Early last Saturday morning, the town was bustling with excitement- people young and old in their Sunday best, the boy scouts and civic organizations all headed up the road some 7 km for the inauguration of the new Centre Valbio at Ranomafana National Park

I had the good fortune to be traveling in Madagascar this month for activities related to my primary appointment at the American Museum of Natural History, and along with Eleanor Sterling, director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, and CBC/Columbia University student Vanessa Rasoamampianina, I was able to attend the ceremonies and festivities. As a teacher at the Nicholas School and a long time Dukie, it was incredibly gratifying to see so many people that are or were affiliated with Duke at the important center for biodiversity conservation. Such people include former Duke professor (Biological Anthropology and Anatomy) Patricia Wright, now professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York Stony Brook and Executive Director of the International Center for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE) which has been closely connected with Ranomafana National Park since its founding almost fifteen years ago.

Also in attendance were Luke Dollar, currently a doctoral candidate at the Nicholas School and long time researcher in Madagascar, two Nicholas School MEM students, Kimberly Marchant and Boris Liu, working on Master's Projects with Luke, and entering Trinity undergraduate Ted Gilliland, also working with Luke. Duke Primate Center Registrar and Photographer extraordinaire David Haring was also present for the Inauguration. For me, it was especially gratifying to see Matthew Banks, Trinity '98 and currently a doctoral student at SUNY-Stony Brook, who attended the Inauguration before departing for the north of Madagascar to conduct pilot research on a rare and endangered species of sifaka (Propithecus perrieri). Matthew was a student in the first class I ever taught at Duke, a freshman seminar in 1995 titled "Evolutionary Theory and Conservation Biology". I could not be prouder of the work that he is doing today.

The Centre ValBio will be a great addition to the infrastructure of Ranomafana National Park, which is considered one of the jewels of the Malagasy protected area system. The Centre is capable of hosting up to three courses at a time, and will have a well-equipped library and computing facility. It is my hope that an increasing number of Duke students and faculty members might travel to Madagascar to conduct ecological, sociopolitical, economic, or anthropological research, or consider the site for education and training events. As I looked around at the faces of the community members at the Inauguration, I reflected that while the opening of the Centre Valbio is a great step, the real measure of its success will only be measured in the years ahead with the people who come to work there, and the projects and training that take place.