I work with Madagasikara Voakajy who are an incredible conservation charity that are using conservation science and community participation to protect endemic Malagasy species and habitats. In my role at Chester Zoo I support Madagasikara Voakajy with the project delivery in the Mangabe protected area in eastern Madagascar. 

Mangabe is a reserve established in the Alaotra-Mangoro Region, in 2015. It is a Protected Area (PA) under the IUCN category VI. It was created to preserve some of Madagascar’s endemic and Critically Endangered species from extinction, while maintaining key ecosystem services for human’s wellbeing. Mangabe’s main target species are the golden mantella frog (Mantella aurantiaca) and the lemurs including indri (Indri indri), diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema), Aye aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), and Black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata).


Mangabe is home to 1,500 households. Unlike strict protected areas, Mangabe is defined as a protected area with sustainable use of natural resources which means that low-level non-industrial use of natural resources is allowed. Therefore local communities are able to gain social and economic benefits from sustainable use of forest products.

Madagasikara Voakajy are working with the communities that live in and around Mangabe to support their applications to manage the reserve themselves, which means that the people that
live in the forest and rely on the forest will also be its legal guardians.

Forest

All 27,000 hectares of the Mangabe reserve were once covered by forest. Today only 44% of the area is forested, but Madagasikara Voakajy aim to increase that forest cover to 60% by 2030.

This involves not only enabling local communities to patrol the forest to monitor and report illegal activities, but also actively re-foresting the reserve. Currently there is only one nurseryman working in Mangabe, Solofo Andrianantenaina Robert. In 2021, he produced 5,000 seedlings and traveled around 10 km within the reserve to monitor the survival and growth of planted trees. In 2022, Madagasikara Voakajy
will train and employ additional nursery staff, and establish additional
nurseries so that they can increase tree planting and monitoring efforts.

Animals

Mangabe is home to a number of threatened animal species including frogs, lemurs, geckos and birds.

The largest remaining population of the critically endangered golden mantilla frog is found in Mangabe and scientists from Chester Zoo and Madagasikara Voakajy have been studying this species for a number of year.

In 2021 the critically endangered black and white ruffed lemur was rediscovered in Mangabe having not been seen in the area since 2009. In 2022 Madagasikara Voakajy will engage local communities to restore and protect the ruffed lemurs habitats and provide nearby households with agricultural support so that they do not need to
increase their fields into the forest. Forest patrollers will be employed to monitor the lemurs and their habitats on a weekly basis to better understand the species and minimize risks of infractions.

Very little is know about the Pronks day gecko. It is small and difficult to spot in the wild, collection for the pet trade and severe habitat loss and fragmentation mean that this species is also classified as critically endangered. Biologists from Madagasikara Voakajy have conducted fieldwork to find this gecko in Mangabe, not only have they discovered previously unknown populations, but they are also
the first people to have published scientific papers about this species in the wild.

How far your donation can go:

£1 could buy 10 biodegradable pots from local women for tree seedlings in the nursery

£5 could buy 15 packages of vegetable seeds for a womens group

£10 could pay for one day monitoring by three forest patrollers

£50 could employ 25 people for one day to plant 750 trees with the nurseryman,

£100 could pay for one month salary for a nurseryman/woman