Dispatches From The Field

30 June, 2003 -- Luke Dollar

Our cultures are different. At home, if we have ideas and the wherewithal to implement them, we are almost guaranteed success. Here, things are different and move much more slowly. While we’re teaching an environmental education class for about 150 local schoolkids; we’re also students, learning why conservation doesn’t always work. In the absence of funds and immediate access to educational resources, anyone can have a more limited perspective. Without the luxury of the “bigger picture” and better education, the next generation may be as ineffective at conservation as the past ones have been. That’s not only true for Madagascar, but for the whole world. Slowly but surely, we’re gently pushing the envelopes of the status quo to improve conservation management and biodiversity science for future generations.

In the next weeks, we’ll be helping a new generation of rural Malagasy children learn to appreciate and protect what’s right in their own backyards. At the same time, we are collecting more and more information on the fauna and flora of the region, adding to that knowledge base we’re already working to develop locally.

Most people - ourselves included - don’t realize how important their natural resources are in supporting everyday survival. It is easy to take for granted those things we see everyday. Once they’re gone it may be too late. The need to ensure Madagascar’s final frontiers are not in their last stages of existence keeps us going. In the end, environmental stewardship can only be truly realized from within. That’s why we focus on development in addition to our conservation research. It is also why this year’s education project, inaugurated just yesterday, will be so important. While the original impetus was to teach a class, we’ll likely learn much more over the next few months than we’ll impart.

Keep checking back with us to see how these initiatives progress!