Application of Results

Local Community Benefits

This project and its results have been shared with and have benefited the local communities in which the research is taking place in many ways. These include:

• Extensive biodiversity conservation education programs in local villages and schools

• The founding of a village-based research camp, all proceeds from which enter into said community

• The founding of a formal ecological monitoring team comprised exclusively of local citizens

• The incorporation of seven Malagasy graduate students into research subportions of this project

• The development of a domestic animal husbandry and veterinary health outreach (and vaccination) project

• The creation of a fund to sponsor local students in continuing their education at national universities

• The formalization and training of villagers’ activities/events to support future ecotourists to the area

• Tented revival-style conservation “rallies” for fossa (and biodiversity) conservation

• Providing an alternate, sustainable (non-destructive) employment base for ~50 local citizens

• The development of a locally-staffed onsite Center for Conservation and Research Training

Over the course of the last three field seasons, our team has grown in both size and breadth of activities. We arrived at the Ampijoroa Research Station in 1999 specifically and solely to carry out research on the ecology and behavior of the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) and other carnivores in and around Ankarafantsika National Park. Since then, we have been successful in these pursuits and others, particularly as they apply in affecting the local communities in which our work is carried out. The depth and breadth of our projects in Ankarafantsika have been expanded to include additional research as well as conservation and development programs. Biological studies currently underway have been expanded to include several projects undertaken and conducted by Malagasy graduate students. Two have been completed and five more are underway in conjunction with an accord established between our research team and the University of Antananarivo. At the request of Park officials and following the immensely successful design for the development of Ranomafana National Park in southeastern Madagascar, we have also initiated a program with local villagers in training to become Ankarafantsika’s first ecological monitoring team.

In order to further promote conservation in and around Ankarafantsika, our teams spend a considerable amount of time year-round engaged in education and outreach on wildlife and habitat preservation in local villages. If villagers are nearby when fossa are captured and anesthetized, they are given the opportunity to look at and in some cases touch this top predator that is the basis of such large amounts of folklore and unfounded fear. In addition, local villagers, tourist guides, and schools are given training sessions on animal husbandry and ecology by the PI or permanent members of the field staff. These conservation messages are then passed on to visitors, colleagues, classmates, or friends in and around Ankarafantsika. In this way, we are encouraging a sustainable balance between Ankarafantiksa’s wildlife and the human populations around the Park. Also in 2000, our field project co-sponsored a program to build a regulation-size basketball and volleyball court. This project, led by local Peace Corps volunteer Joe Paulin, was logistically and financially assisted by our field team and funded by Earthwatch and Conservation International. The courts have artwork and numerous conservation messages painted on them by a local artist. This court is regularly used by uniformed sports teams from throughout the region.

Celebrations involving the entire research team and open invitations to the entire Ankarafantsika community are held at the end of each Earthwatch team. Multitudes of local villagers from all around Ankarafantsika gather together with members of the field team and local officials in a spirit of friendly, open interaction. Several times each evening, all activities are halted for exercises involving all people present in which conservation messages are delivered and received. These celebrations provide excellent opportunities for dissemination of conservation education messages to local villagers. It is made very clear that these events, sponsored by the field team and Earthwatch are only made possible because of the group’s presence – and that presence is owed to the remaining local forests and preservation of the research animals contained therein. Conservation-based messages such as those mentioned above were happily accepted by local villagers via this medium, exemplified by the common shout of “Arovy ny fossa!” (Save the fossa!), regularly used by villagers when greeting field team members and staff.

Several times weekly, our team members (students, researchers, volunteers, and veterinarians) visit villages in and around Ankarafantsika to conduct studies of domestic animals and their health status. During these visits, villagers receive assistance and education on animal husbandry and veterinary medicine. In addition, domestic animals may be spayed or neutered to help control the feral populations of cats and dogs. Finally, each animal processed receives an identification tag and rabies vaccination.

As a part of our shared vision for collaborative development, conservation, and research expansion in Ankarafantsika and the surrounding region, we have entered into a formal collaborative accord for the development of a Center for Conservation and Research Training (CCRT). The CCRT is being established within Ankarafantsika to serve as an educational and research center to be used in collaboration between educators, researchers, ANGAP trainees, students, and other relevant parties. It has been developed with the mission to promote more thorough research support and instruction for all agents of conservation, education, and research, including those active in the immediate region and throughout Madagascar. Facilities housed within this large center will include classrooms, laboratories, computing facilities, dormitories for medium to long-term researchers, meeting areas, work areas, large multi-purpose tables, and secure storage areas.

Such an undertaking is not possible without the collaborative efforts of many organizations, groups, and agencies. Those involved include Earthwatch, ANGAP, Conservation International, Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences (Nicholas School), ICTE/MICET, and the University of Antananarivo, among others.

Public Policy Benefits of this Project

Our work continues to contribute to the formation of public policy by:

• Providing consultation and assistance to the local and national park management authorities

• Creating a long-term action plan for Madagascar’s science and technology policy development

• Politically assisting with the process of upgrading Ankarafantsika to National Park status

• Providing satellite analysis of conservation “problem areas” in Ankarafantsika and Madagascar

• Consulting directly with foreign financiers (embassies) of regional management initiatives

• Participating in priority-setting and management planning workshops

• Formation of a collaborative management and development accord with park authorities

• Agreement to develop a center for confiscated lemur husbandry and care on-site

• Building of monitoring and fire towers within Ankarafantsika park boundaries

Educational and Economic Benefits of this Project

Educational and business communities benefit from our work in many ways as well:

• National graduate student support and development

• Local student educational support and financing

• Formation of collaborative educational development accords with national universities

• Formal agreement to develop and logistically support the park’s first ecolodge

• Formal agreement to develop and logistically support a confiscated animal husbandry and tourism center

• Development and training for local marketing initiatives

To promote entire local business development, our team collaboratively established the Ambodimanga (“under the mango trees”) campsite. Entirely village-run with all profits being managed by the Ambodimanga village women’s group for further development, the Ambodimanga campsite can now easily support up to 25 tourists and researchers long-term and 40 for short-term junkets. Three national TV crews and three national newspaper / journalism teams have visited in the last year for footage, photos, and interviews promoting and advertising the site within Madagascar. This project is an open collaboration between members of our team and the villagers of Ambodimanga. This site provides an additional facility for housing ecotourists and researchers – with 100% of the proceeds raised delivered directly into the village. Via this exemplary and immensely successful project, local people are immediately reaping the benefits of preserving the forests around them.

In addition, our Conservation and Research Team has developed a series of folklore dances with the women’s groups of Ampijoroa and Ambodimanga. At these events, which can be put on with a half-day’s notice, a number of traditional songs and dances are performed by the women’s groups for ecotourists staying overnight in the Ampijoroa or Ambodimanga campgrounds. The profits from this one night’s activity is the equivalent of a month’s wages in other less-conservation oriented jobs available in the area. CCRT members have also helped test and critique the women’s groups “dress rehearsals,” helping them to further perfect their performances.

We are also working to promote local and national education in other ways. Conservation cannot be readily enacted, and the advance of a society as a whole cannot be achieved, without first ensuring that the populations targeted for conservation and development input are reaping the benefit of improved education. Our team is comprised mainly of University of Antananarivo graduate students gaining a valuable field perspective of conservation biology, equipping them with the necessary experience to make efficient and correct conservation decisions when they become agents and authorities of conservation in Madagascar in the very near future. In addition, our team has joined our sister development group (the Madagascar Ankizy Fund) in developing and inaugurating a number of new primary and secondary schools throughout the Mahajunga basin. Finally, an accord of scientific cooperation with the University of Antananarivo has been made by our team on behalf of the Nicholas School.

The CCRT has conducted, developed, and funded a number of conservation-based commercial ventures within the villages of Ampijoroa, Ambodimanga, and Andranofasika. We also funded the construction of a glass-fronted display case at the Ampijoroa Station’s Welcome Center. Specific ventures include embroidery training by an expert from Antananarivo, textile and batik making, stuffed animal design and creation, hand-made postcard artwork, and simple jewelry fabrication. Each of these ventures has been successful in marketing the conservation wares produced, turning a sustainable profit for citizens in and around Ankarafantiska.

Local educational and business communities will benefit from the establishment of the planned zoological facility and visitor’s center currently under development on-site. Our field team actively assists ANGAP and the Department of Water and Forests in caring for, rehabilitating, and placing confiscated lemurs in credible zoos and educational centers. In the last year alone, we have been responsible for the care and placement of one Eulemur mongoz (currently at the Madagascar National Zoo, Tsimbazaza), two Eulemur fulvus fulvus (currently at the Ivoloina Zoological Park), and one (Critcally Endangered) Propithecus verrauxi coronatus (returned to the wild at the Antrema Special Reserve). Representatives of the Department of Water and Forests have requested our help in establishing, funding, building and managing a large-scale center for confiscated animal rehabilitation and husbandry. This center will also be open to public visitors, promoting ecologically sound educational and business development in the region.

The educational and business community continues to benefit from our extensive media outreach programs. Conservation and research efforts are more easily sustained and facilitated when they are well-known and well-publicized. To increase both national and international exposure, a number of media resources have been recruited in collaborative projects to report on our team’s activities ongoing in Ankarafantsika. International film crews from Tierziet (Germany), Leo Productions (France), Survival Anglia (UK) and National Geographic Television (USA) have visited and reported on our projects via film. International magazines Terre Sauvage, Discover, International Wildlife, Earthwatch, and Forbes have covered the our Ankarafantsika projects in print. National TV crews from RTA, MaTV, TVM, M3TV have covered our activities via National TV news. Finally, numerous articles (including 3 front page) on our projects have appeared in L’EXPRESS, the leading national newspaper.

Ongoing and Future Data Collection and Benefits

With continued support from Earthwatch, those already received, and those likely to be obtained independently, our project has the following deliverables in the upcoming 1-2 years:

• Groundbreaking for the Ankarafantsika Center for Conservation and Research Training (CCRT). This structure is to be used exclusively as a base of research (carnivore projects and others) operations and conservation training for Ankarafantsika and Madagascar as a whole.

• We will continue ecological monitoring of all animal species at Ankarafantsika, with specific focus on carnivores and their prey.

• We will continue to expand on-site research, conservation and development activities for the indefinite future including the Earthwatch team and several Malagasy graduate students.

• It will produce a series of high quality scientific papers. A habitat risk analysis for Ankarafantsika and other Madagascar Integrated Conservation and Development Projects, using satellite image analysis, is in its final stages.

Continued long-term presence of our established field team will continue ongoing research pursuits and continue to provide logistical support to other projects otherwise unable to initiate or continue work in the Ampijoroa Station and surrounding areas. New and established projects incoming to Ankarafantsika already facilitated/assisted by the CERC team include a complete Madagascar primates population genetics project (Henry Doorly Zoo), a Microcebus behavioral ecology project (Hannover Primate Group), studies examining the impacts of forest fragmentation on primates in the region (SUNY @ Stony Brook), and long-term analysis of regional habitat trends and their effects on primate populations, using remote sensing (Nicholas School), among others. In addition, we have entered into a regional research and conservation development accord with the Madagascar Ankizy Fund and Dr. David Krause to promote research and development in the Mahajunga Basin, using Ankarafantsika as the flagship for these efforts. Additional conservation development activities are continuing and extending in many forms as well.

Ongoing ecotourism programs have been expanded to include additional aspects. The ecotourism potential for Ankarafantsika has increased exponentially in the last year and has the potential for much more expansion. International and local mass media will continue to be used in encouraging additional tourists to the area. Facilities continue to be upgraded in a collaborative effort involving local citizens, the Earthwatch Research Team, Madagascar authorities, and commercial interests. Ongoing conservation education efforts continue to be applied and expanded on a local, island-wide, and international level. Finally, additional conservation interests are being recruited to collaborate with us in continuing to assist in managing Ankarafantsika for effective conservation and development.

The additional deliverables of our ongoing plan include:

• Deforestation monitoring using remote sensing, including an island-wide comparison of ICDP success and carnivore habitat conservation.

• Facilities construction/improvement and research support staff in place – additional research support and logistical assistance.

• Continued development of ecotourist activities benefiting the local community.

• Finalize National Park Status for the Ampijoroa Forest Reserve.

• Place a hotel on site in Ampijoroa. We have permission to exclusively develop this initiative from the Department of Water and Forests.

Lay the groundwork for constructing a primate husbandry and rehabilitation center on-site (a duplicate of Ivoloina) at Ankarafantsika. We have received permission and a land grant on-site to realize this project, requested and initiated by the Department of Water and Forests and to be developed exclusively by the Dollar/Earthwatch/CI/Nicholas School team, in conjunction with Madagascar Faunal Group representatives.

the project | research objectives | methods