Lucky Lemurs in Madagascar's Newest Park; Others at Risk
10/8/99
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Title: Lucky Lemurs in Madagascar's Newest Park; Others at Risk
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 8, 1999
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, October 8, 1999 (ENS) - The island nation
of Madagascar off Africa's east coast dedicated a new national park
today that protects its unusual landforms and unique plants and
animals. The Andringitra National Park in the southeast of the island
has great tourism potential, offering opportunities for research,
environmental education, rock climbing and hiking.
Forty kilometres (25 miles) of hiking paths and four camping sites
have been prepared within the park. It has the best ecotourism
possibilities in Madagascar, the conservation organisation World Wide
Fund For Nature (WWF) said. The activities undertaken in Andringitra
by WWF and other partners since 1993 have encouraged local
communities to participate in making decisions to conserve and
develop this area sustainably.
"With the sole exception of the spiny dry forests of the south and
south-west of the island, Andringitra is like a concentrated sample
of all the natural wealth Madagascar has to offer," explains Lantosoa
Ramarojaona, coordinator of integrated conservation development
projects at the WWF's Madagascar Programme Office.
The newest 31,160 hectare (77,000 acre) national park lies between
two older protected areas, Ranomafana and Isalo National Parks. As a
natural area it is in a class of its own, characterized by a very
high diversity in plant and animal life and a large variety of native
species found nowhere else in the world. Andringitra ranges from
tropical moist forests to dense montane forests and high mountain
prairies crowned by massive granite boulders.
"Perhaps the greatest strength of the project is the support it has
received from the local Betsileo, Bara and Tanala communities," says
Joseph Ralaiarivony, national director of the project. "They have
been a receptive audience and have allowed us to work within their
rich social and cultural traditions to address conservation issues
such as the need to prevent forest fires. Because of their great
sense of community, their commitment is very strong."
Some 196 villages, home to about 15,000 people, exist around the new
national park. Their full inclusion in the project is one of the main
reasons for their current enthusiasm for the new National Park.
WWF's management decisions aim at developing a type of tourism that
will protect the natural wealth of the area and help the social and
economic interests of local communities, while promoting their
traditional values.
Meanwhile, researchers from the Duke University Primate Center in
North Carolina are on their way to Madagascar today to rescue five
extremely rare lemurs from a small, doomed patch of forest in another
part of the island.
The objective of the researchers is to capture five diademed sifakas
- the largest living lemur and considered one of the most beautiful,
with lush fur of yellow, orange, gray, white and black.
The researchers hope that among the captured animals there will be a
Juliet for a young male diademed sifaka named Romeo at the Primate
Center. He is the only member of his species in captivity and has
waited six years for companion members of his species to arrive at
the center.
Primate Center scientists urgently seek to establish a captive
breeding colony of the animals before they go extinct from hunting
and habitat destruction.
Led by Primate Center director Ken Glander, the expedition will
search for the diademed sifakas in a 600-acre patch of forest that is
rapidly being destroyed by wood gathering and slash-and-burn
agriculture. The area to be searched is the Mahatsinjo forest south
of the Madagascar capital of Antananarivo. An expedition into the
forest by another group earlier this year reported the presence of
the rare lemurs.
The latest expedition is the third attempt to capture diademed
sifakas. The first two failed to bring back animals, Glander said,
because the animals in the areas searched were being hunted and fled
when the expedition members approached.
"The critical factor that gives us hope for success with this
expedition is that the animals in this forest are not hunted as far
as we know," Glander said. "This is probably one of the few places in
their habitat in Madagascar where they are not hunted." Capturing the
lemurs in the Mahatsinjo forest is particularly important because the
area is severely threatened.
"This forest is completely isolated, an island patch in an
agricultural area, and it is shrinking," said Glander. "It is not
protected and probably doomed, due to cutting of the forest for
subsistence."
The Duke Primate Center houses the world's largest collection of
endangered primates. Duke is also the only university-operated center
that concentrates solely on studying and protecting prosimians such
as lemurs, lorises, and galagoes. The center is supported by the
National Science Foundation, private donations and Duke University.
Lemurs, isolated on Madagascar, off Africa's east coast, for more
than 50 million years, evolved into almost 50 species, including
about 16 species of giant lemurs that are now extinct. The pressure
of human population increase on the island republic now threatens
many existing species.