Celebrating World Environment Day here, where we work for the conservation of the forest and lemurs, is very important. Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership together with Conservation Fusion organised two days of events and meetings to promote conservation of the environment.
Friday morning, under the pouring rain, local community and members of many associations that came over for the celebrations joined us in five different sites to plant 12,500 trees, the first step in the transforming the disturbed land in a place where wildlife can thrive again.
After a crowded lunch, with more than 150 people where we are usually just 15, there was a conference at FOFIFA station in Kianjavato. It looked interesting, but I can’t really tell you what’s was said though because they were speaking Malagasy and at the moment all I can understand is “hello” and “thank you”.
We all had dinner back at our camp, and that gave us the opportunity to chat with people from the various groups (at least those that spoke English). We learned about Help Simus, an organisation created in 2009 to protect Greater Bamboo Lemur populations across Madagascar and has been fitness and helper in a great increase of their numbers since then. We met people from Ranomafana National Park, just two hours from here, where they have 13 species of lemurs and Centre ValBio that carries out research there. An interesting experience.
Saturday it was still raining, but this didn’t stop the community and guests from enjoying the parade across Kianjavato, which saw the banners of Parc National Ranomafana, Help Simus, Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, the American Peace Corps, Kianjavato schools and scout groups and women handcraft groups in beautiful coloured lambas.
We all gathered again at the school, where stands and posters from all the associations had been set up. We all stood to attention for raising of the national flag and the national anthem, with the voices of kids and adults mixing together in a beautiful chorus.
In the afternoon guests started to leave, dismounting the many colorful tents that had popped up all over our field station. Unfortunately it rained all weekend, but it was nonetheless a beautiful experience to participate to this community wide celebration.
It’s good to see all these people and especially children involved in the preservation of their beautiful country! Let’s make our planet great again! 😀
Involving local communities is one of the most important aspects of conservation. Without them you will never achieve a successful conservation project. Here the community is highly involved and you can see it from their enthusiasm during these events.