SPECIAL POINTS DECEMBER 2016 OF INTEREST: Vol. 5, No. 2 ñ Workshop for Forest GuiDes ñ Brief but Meaningful Conservaton news from the Sambava-Andapa-Vohemar-Antalaha region of NE Madagascar ñ WorlD Lemur Festival Strengthening Protecton of Marojejy Natonal Park INSIDE THIS by Charlie Welch ISSUE: Earlier this year DLC- Strengthening Protec- 1 tion of Marojejy Na- SAVA was fortunate to tional Park receive a grant from Workshop for Forest 3 Save Our Species (SOS) Guides to increase the Brief but Meaningful 4 protecton of Marojejy Natonal Park, in World Lemur Festival 8 collaboraton with “Climate Change and 9 Madagascar Natonal Lemurs” Workshop Parks (MNP). The grant Environmental Educa- 12 supports clearly tion Teacher Training establishing and marking DLC-SAVA “Lamba” 13 the boundary with Now Available! metallic signs to prevent First CURSA Gradua- 14 both intentonal and unintentonal intrusion into the park. Although DLC-SAVA had already tion includes Sylvio sponsored delineaton of certain priority sectons of the park boundary, extensive areas in Exploring Human and 15 remote parts of Marojejy remained unmarked. There was no way for local people to know Environmental Health exactly where the boundary was supposed to be. Agricultural land ofen extends right up to in the SAVA Region the boundary around much of the park, and if Duke Engineers in 18 the limit is not clear, burning and cultvaton SAVA can actually extend into the park. A clear Closing Comments 20 boundary also discourages other illegal actvites in the park, such as wood collecton and huntng. Teams of local people, organized by MNP, installed the signs, which were made in Andapa. With a clear and defnitve boundary, there is no confusion about where the park begins. At 55,500 hectares (137,134 acres) Marojejy Natonal Park is one of the few protected areas in which the critcally endangered silky sifaka can be found, making protecton of the park a partcularly important conservaton actvity. Many thanks to SOS for supportng the delineaton of Marojejy Natonal Park, and to MNP for organizing and managing the installaton. VOL. 5, NO. 2 PAGE 2 Strengthening Protecton of Marojejy Natl Park Contnued Newly made boundary signs at the MNP office in Andapa. The rare silky sifaka can be found in Marojejy Cultivated land and degraded forest extenDs up to the Marojejy boundary. DECEMBER 2016 VOL. 5, NO. 2 PAGE 3 DLC-SAVA Hosts Workshop for Forest Guides Leading Class Visits by Lanto Andrianandrasana SAVA Conservaton contnues to improve the environmental educaton aspect of the project with trainings and workshops. In August we hosted educators from diferent organizatons to share experiences and discuss about how to make DLC-SAVA organized school visits into forested reserves or natonal parks more efcient at raising environmental awareness of the students and communites. We organized a two day workshop in Sambava to ensure consistency and quality of the school visits to reserves and park forests. The frst day, an environmental educaton specialist from MFG (Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group), André Ratsimbazafy shared informaton about their environmental educaton actvites around Ivoloina Park and Betampona Reserve. André also spoke of their experience afer a year of working with the “Saturday Class” program, to prepare students for their CEPE ofcial exam at the end of their primary school level. Other parts of MFG environmental educaton programs covered were school visits to Ivoloina Park for diferent ages from primary to high Standing (from the left to right) Rénaud Zamanilaoko, Libby Davis, schools, environmental educaton training for Desiré Razafimahatratra, Rinot NaDège, Claudio Nandrasana, Vita teachers, public magazine and radio programs. Afer Modeste, RaDo Rakotondrabe, André Ratsimbazafy, Desiré Rabary. that, the coordinator assistant from Sifaka Lower (from left to right) Marina Blanco, Jacques Harison Tonkasina, Conservaton talked about their environmental Ertice Iarozafy, Bruno Randriarimanana, Lanto Andrianandrasana. educaton actvites and challenges at their sites which are stll ongoing such as the process of getng the status of ofcial protected areas. However, they contnue work on environmental educaton with actvites such as school tree nurseries and community capacity building in agriculture. The second day we focused on the guide’s experiences leading school visits at the diferent sites where DLC-SAVA sponsors class visits – Marojejy Natonal Park, Antanetambo Reserve, and Macolline Reserve. We ended the workshop with recommendatons agreed upon by all partcipants for school visits organized by DLC-SAVA, including the preparatons when guides share knowledge about the environment in general, and about the specifc site the students will visit. During the visit, there is more focus on observaton and explanaton about fauna and fora. Importantly, the visit should end with questons, discussion and messages for the students and their communites. We hope this workshop is very important for all partcipants improving the environmental messaging and conservaton in general, but also making the visits organized by DLC-SAVA more valuable. Workshop partcipants are listed below. Claudio Nandrasana MACOLLINE RESERVE guide Ertce Iarozafy MACOLLINE RESERVE guide Desiré Razafmahatratra MAROJEJY NATIONAL PARK guide Jacques Harison Tonkasina MAROJEJY/AGNOLAKELY guide Desiré Rabary ANTANETIAMBO RESERVE guide Rinot Nadège ANTANETIAMBO RESERVE guide Libby Davis Peace Corps Volunteer in Ambohimanarina Rénaud Zamanilaoka EPP (primary school) Director in Ambohimanarina Bruno Randriarimanana DLC-SAVA teacher trainer in environmental educaton Vita Modeste DLC-SAVA teacher trainer in environmental educaton Rado Rakotondrabe coordinator assistant SIFAKA Conservaton André Ratsimbazafy MFG Environmental Educaton specialist DECEMBER 2016 VOL. 5, NO. 2 PAGE 4 Brief but Meaningful: Last Expediton to Tsihomanaomby (the Story of Elie, Celia and Sylvio) by Marina Blanco Early in May 2016, I began to plan our July expediton to Tsihomanaomby, a patch of disturbed forest about 50 km north of the town of Sambava. We were going to return and search for the radio-collared dwarf lemurs and study their hibernaton paterns. I knew there were some risks, 1) only few individuals had been radio- collared for tracking back in February/March, 2) the fact DegraDed landscape with fragmented forest around Tsihoma- that, being a low elevaton naomby. forest, there was a chance individuals hibernate up in the trees, and thus, at inaccessible locatons, 3) the fact that it was a degraded forest where predaton pressure was likely stronger than at other places. Back in May, I had outlined a 2-week expediton with a team of 5 people: a cook, a local guide, a climber specialist, a Malagasy student and myself. I was going to search for a Malagasy student from the nearby town of Antalaha, where the University of Diego has an academic “branch”, called CURSA (Centre Universitaire Régional de la SAVA). This was going to be our frst experience with a CURSA student, following up a formal contract of partnership that DLC had signed a few months ago. We would bring equipment to the forest and retrieve hibernatng lemurs to study their physiology. What follows is a descripton of the actual expediton, which turned out to be about a week long and had to rely on data gathered from a single dwarf lemur. My detailed account on this single capture means I don’t have much else to report, but I must say that, in many ways, the experiences derived from this short and scientfcally-meager expediton were important and very insightul. This writng is meant to be more Team at work, from top to bottom: Elie, Landry and of a tale of cooperaton, perseverance and fght against Sylvio trying to find dwarf lemur’s hibernaculum. prejudices (or brain tricks). DECEMBER 2016 VOL. 5, NO. 2 PAGE 5 Brief but Meaningful: Last Expediton to Tsihomanaomby Contnued Story of “Elie” on perseverance: It was a warm, sunny morning, and our long queue of porters and guides broke of, leaving the three of us (climber specialist, Elie, Malagasy student, Sylvio, and myself) wandering at our own pace. Elie and I have been at the campsite before and we were confdent in fnding our way following the clear trail ahead of us. Yet, we got lost and arrived at the campsite a couple of hours later, much to the surprise of the porters. The rest of the day quickly vanished setng up camp and trying to keep things relatvely protected from the persistent rains. Our second day started with promise but turned grey quickly, both literally and fguratvely: we tracked the frst out of 4 individual dwarf lemurs, but only found the Marina and Sylvio – Monitoring EEG data recordings collar on the ground…no lemur. We then moved to our second target and afer a long search we found…another collar and no lemur. By mid-morning half of our lemur sample had just evaporated in front of our eyes. We then tracked the signal from the third individual, which came from the top of a large Sambalahy tree, about 12 meters high, meaning the lemur was possibly safe, but impossible to retrieve. We had ONE last chance and slowly hiked to the most recent known sleeping site of our last lemur. We quickly identfed a tree hole as a potental hibernaculum (I assume the dwarf lemur was in hibernaton mode in July). Elie got to work and climbed the tree to reach the hole. Afer a few minutes checking the radio signal and trying to enlarge the hole to atempt a manual retrieval, he looked pale and said “bibilava” (snake in Malagasy language). He had seen snake scales when fashing a light inside the hole. Based on our prior experiences earlier the same day, I sat on the forest foor trying to hide my face of despair. I “knew” our last hope had been eaten by yet another predator. I was already startng to plan our retreat from the forest, when Elie tried the radio receiver again while hanging from a branch.