The population of Greater Bamboo lemurs that we protect lives in a very degraded and highly anthropized environment made up of agricultural land, bamboo forests and small portions of residual forests.

When the VOIs (village associations) were created, ecotourism was identified as a means of promoting biodiversity and developing the local economy.

Thus, since 2018, we have been developing an ecotourism project in one of the forest fragments of Sahofika on the territory of the Group 5 of Greater Bamboo lemurs.

This forest fragment depends on the VOI SAMIVAR and borders the access road to the village of Sahofika. It is located about ten km from the town of Ifanadiana.

The Group 5 is composed of more than sixty Greater Bamboo lemurs and shares its territory with a family of Red-bellied lemurs whose habituation has begun in 2018.

Red-bellied Lemur © S. Meys

A floristic inventory showed that the forest fragment is home to several precious wood species such as Dalbergia baroni (rosewood) as well as endemic species from Madagascar (Ravenala madagascariensis).

Forest of Sahofika © D.Roullet

The fauna inventories that are still in progress have confirmed the presence of many animal species: Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), Dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus spp.), Ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans), forest rats (several species), Blue coua (Coua caerulea), Reynaud’s coua (Coua reynaudii), Madagascar long-eared owl (Asio Madagascariensis) etc.

In October 2019, we hired two women and one man among the members of the VOI SAMIVAR to become tourist guides. Their training, initially designed to last three years, has been extended until 2022 due to the successive lockdowns related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, out of the 3 traineeships initially planned, the tourist guides have only been able to complete one in Ranomafana National Park for the moment.

However, since their recruitment, the tourist guides have been participating in animal monitoring alongside Helpsimus agents which has enabled them to acquire a good knowledge of the flora and fauna present in the Sahofika forest fragment.

Francine, Charles and Lova, the tourist guides © S. Meys

In addition, since 2020 they have overseen the habituation of a female owl spotted in 2017 in Sahofika.

Young owl © S. Meys

Some paths have been set up in the forest to facilitate the visit. We also built a reception office at the forest entrance with a parking lot by the road side, allowing the visitors to park as close as possible to the reception office.

The entrance to the Sahofika forest © S. Meys

Same-day visits can be organized from Ranomafana.

While this ecotourism project aims to create additional income for local communities, its main objective is to bring value to the natural resources in an area where human activities are very intense.

The presence of ecotourists who will make a long journey to reach Sahofika and visit this forest to observe the local wildlife will help raising awareness among communities regarding the richness of their biodiversity.

The ecotourists, whose number will be limited (access to the site remains rather difficult), will live a unique experience by observing one of the world’s most endangered lemurs in exceptional conditions.

With this project, we wish not only to involve local communities in the long term preservation of their biodiversity but also inspire ecotourists among whom we hope to arouse a desire in getting involved.

In parallel to the visit to the Sahofika forest, we are developing 3 completely new craft projects in our partner villages:

– Job’s tears jewels

A French jewellery designer has created a bracelet and earrings with seeds from a plant called « Job’s tears » which grows wild in our area of ​​intervention.

She came to our study area in Madagascar where she trained a dozen women in manufacturing these jewels which will be sold in Europe under the label she has created and help generating sustainable income for women.

Some women also make the small raffia boxes in which the jewels are presented.

– Sculptures in dead wood

This project was born from an encounter in Sahofika with a young man from the village who carved wooden animals. He requested our support to help him acquire suitable tools and improve his sculpting technique.

In the end, 3 persons benefited from the training with a Malagasy professional sculptor whose particularity is to create sculptures only from pieces of dead wood picked up on the ground.

– The embroidery project

This project was initiated in collaboration with an embroiderer from Ranomafana.

wo women from the village of Ambodigoavy who wanted to start a similar activity were invited to participate in this project.

Their training has been suspended by the pandemic but has not, however, been completely interrupted.

The original project which aimed to make embroidered bags has indeed been temporarily reoriented towards the manufacture of cloths masks as part of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.

The women were thus able to familiarize themselves with the use of their sewing machine. In addition, they are currently trained in the manufacture of cloth sanitary napkins. These additional activities should allow them not to be completely dependent on ecotourism eventually.

Except jewellery, handicrafts will be sold in a shop we have built at the entrance to Ranomafana national park.

This local will make it easier for artisans to sell their products by offering them directly to tourists visiting the national park. We also plan to sell other items, in particular raffia objects made by a few women from our partner villages.

Helpsimus shop at Ranomafana© S. Meys

The implementation of these various projects has unfortunately been greatly slowed down by the health crisis. However, this imposed delay has benefited their maturation.

The Sahofika forest fragment should be open to the visitors in 2022, as will the shop located at the entrance of the national park.

This project is co-funded by IUCN Save Our Species. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Helpsimus and do not necessarily reflect the views of IUCN.

In November, we opened 3 new school canteens in Ambohipo, Ambodimanga and Vohitrarivo schools.

Every canteen has an equipped kitchen (with improved furnaces, cooking pots, cooking utensils, plates, cutlery, cups, etc.) and an attic for storing foodstuffs.

The kitchen at the right of the 2 school buildings – Ambohipo school © D. Roullet

The kitchen at Ambohipo © D. Roullet

The storage attic at Ambohipo © D. Roullet

A big thank you to Bel Foundation which funded the creation of these 3 new school canteens.

Every school of the program now has a school canteen. The 5 school canteens directly benefit 662 children and their 22 teachers.

Sahofika school © S.Meys

The canteens are handled by a manager whom we recruited when the 3 new canteens opened. This manager is member of the NGO Impact Madagascar, our local partner on various development aid projects: management of school gardens, stock management, preparation of menus, training of cooks, etc.

Preparation of the meals under Mialy’s control who handdle the school canteens © D. Roullet

Note that the 5 school gardens, which were set up in every school, produced just over 10% of the accompaniments (mainly vegetables) from the opening of the canteens until the Christmas holidays.

The children’s meal is made up of rice supplemented each day with a different food such as green beans, carrots, beans, zucchini, potatoes, Cape peas, pasta, petsai (Chinese cabbage), lentils, fish, yams,bravimboatavo (eatable leaves), etc.

The children have access to a more varied diet in the canteen than at home, where they consume virtually no vegetables. In addition, many of them eat little in the morning for breakfast (mainly cassava), especially during the lean season.

However, we will be working in the coming weeks to improve the canteen menu, which is is not yet sufficiently balanced.

The school canteens will contribute to the long-term protection of the greater bamboo lemurs:

– by keeping children in school: they will acquire a better basic education and once adults, they will be able to better manage their natural resources.

– by generating new sources of income for local populations: job creation (gardeners for school gardens, cooks for preparing meals, etc.) and purchasing foodstuffs from local producers who benefit from our agricultural program (in progress).

The site of the Bamboo Lemur program is divided into 3 sectors now managed by 3 VOI or village associations that we have helped to set up: the VOI Miaradia, Samivar and Manirisoa.

The VOI Miaradia was created in 2018. Its area of ​​intervention covers the territory of several groups of greater bamboo lemurs: Groups I, I ‘, I « , II, II’, III and IV.

Several groups of greater bamboo lemurs have extended their territory both outside the conservation and restoration zones defined by the management plan but also outside the limits of the VOI intervention zone.

After the evaluation of the first 3 years of management of the VOI (Evaluation du VOI Miaradia | Helpsimus), its management plan has been updated.

This involved increasing the area of ​​conservation and restoration areas located within the Miaradia sector in order to secure the new territories now frequented by lemurs.

To do this, new floristic and faunistic inventories have been carried out in order to define the new forest fragments to be included in the conservation and restoration zones of the VOI’s new management plan.

© Impact Madagascar

The new management plan was drawn up during several working meetings with stakeholders (VOI members, representatives of local authorities and of the national park, etc.).

These meetings were organized by our local partner Impact Madagascar, which we commissioned to monitor the VOI.

In the new management plan, the surface area of the VOI Miaradia intervention zone has almost doubled:

VOI Miaradia	Total area	Conservation areas	Restoration areas
1st management plan (2018)	541 ha	env. 25 ha	env. 400 ha
2nd management (2021)	935 ha	env. 29 ha	605 ha

In addition, over 200 additional ha of forest have been integrated into the conservation and restoration areas.

Below is the new map of the Bamboo Lemur program intervention area: in green, the conservation areas and in pink, the restoration areas.

Site of the Bamboo Lemur Program – Helpsimus – Limits of the 3 VOI © Helpsimus

The new VOI Miaradia management plan makes it possible to secure the territory of more than 300 greater bamboo lemurs.

A big thank you to all the donors of the crowdfunding campaign « New territories for the greater bamboo lemurs »!

Next step: the evaluation of the first 3 years of management of the VOI Samivar (in progress) and the update of its management plan.

The crop guarding resumed in March 2021 in Vohitrarivo (VOI Miaradia) and extended in May 2021 to Volotara (VOI Manirisoa) and Sahofika (VOI Samivar).

It stopped at the end of June after the end of the « main season campaign » harvest.

From March to June 2021, none of the paddy fields watched by the guards was attacked, confirming the effectiveness of the system put in place.

However, some damage was reported in some paddy fields when the guarding started after the report of an attack.

The guard team was strongly reinforced in May since it is now composed of 40 people (vs. 24 between November 2020 and February 2021).

The guards, who work in team of 4, take turns watching the rice fields from the moment the rice grains are mature until they are harvested.

The increase in the number of guards is explained by:

-the extension of the crop guarding to the 3 sectors of our intervention area (= 3 VOI).

-the period: the « main season campaign » corresponds in fact to the most important rice harvest of the year during which all the rice fields are cultivated;

-the good results of guarding in 2019-2020: 66 farmers (vs. 43 between November 2020 and February 2021) wished to benefit from this service during the « main season campaign ».

A field assistant reinforced the guarding team for 1 month in order to carry out several surveys.

He notably followed the 4 teams of guards in Volotara, recording for 15 days the movement of the groups 8 and 9, the number and location of the attacks as well as the position of the guards:

Survey of the guarding at Volotara : white spots = location of the greater bamboo lemurs, green spots = position of the guards and in red spots = location of the attacks © Helpsimus

Note that in 15 days, the guards repelled 24 attacks in Volotara.

Finally, a fourth footbridge was built on the territory of group I.

The footbridge on the terriroty of the group I © Helpsimus

The map below gives the location of the 4 footbridges on the territories of the groups I and II:

Location of the footbrigdes / red spots = position of the group II in 2020&2021, pink spots = positionof the group I in 2020&2021 © Helpsimus

The floristic inventory started in 2018. It continued this year near the village of Vohitrarivo and it was carried out by a botanist of our local partner IMPACT Madagascar.

Six forest fragments constituting 6 of the 8 conservation areas of the VOI Miaradia were thus visited. Despite their state of degradation (more or less important depending on the fragments) due to very strong human pressure, there is still a significant floristic richness, including 38 species placing in the IUCN Red List (LC and VU).

About forty plant species have been listed in each forest fragment. Many of them are endemic species.

Even though few large trees are present, the potential for forest restoration of these fragments is high. Vegetation has started to regenerate in some of them thanks to the protective measures currently in place.

These forest fragments are also home to a rich and varied fauna that a biologist of IMPACT Madagascar began to inventory.

36 bird species have been identified of which more than 40% are endemic. Logically, we find the greatest number of species in the least degraded forest fragments, in particular in those where the greatest number of large trees (measuring about fifteen meters high) remain.

Thus, a young Madagascan owl (Asio madagascariensis) was observed in one of them confirming a wide distribution of the species on the site of the Bamboo Lemur program.

The 2 most abundant species are the red fody (Foudia madagascariensis) and the Malagasy bulbul (Hypsipetes madagascariensis).

The presence of blue coua (Coua caerulea) has also been confirmed. So far, the species had only been observed in Sahofika and Volotara.

5 of the 6 species of lemurs identified in our conservation area live in these forest fragments. The Red-bellied Lemur has not been found but has never been spotted in the VOI Miaradia.

Several species of mammals have also been recorded, including the ring-tailed mongoose and tenrecs.

For the past 10 years Helpsimus has been constantly fighting to protect one of the largest wild populations of Greater Bamboo Lemurs (Prolemur simus) in Madagascar, a species classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and whose numbers are now estimated at around 1,500 specimens.

We work nearby the Ranomafana National Park but in an unprotected and highly disturbed environment since it is located on the agricultural lands of several villages where we are currently monitoring and protecting nearly 500 Greater Bamboo Lemurs (i.e. around 1/3 of the global wild population). Their habitat, made up of bamboo forests they feed on almost exclusively, is extremely fragmented by the slash-and-burn agriculture locally called « tavy ».

Our primary objective is to find a balance between the needs of people and those of lemurs so that both can coexist harmoniously, while ensuring a sustainable management of the natural resources and a sustainable development of human communities. To achieve this goal, we have implemented a two-track strategy: on the one hand, we seek to protect the lemurs’ habitat, and on the other hand, we help local communities to develop alternative sources of income allowing them to reduce clearings and the pressure they exert on their environment.

In the area where we operate, habitat protection involves the creation of village associations called VOI. Their goal? Identify priority sites for conservation and those where human activities can be developed in order to define an overall management plan for the area. We have already set up 3 VOIs: Miaradia, Samivar and Manirisoa, the latter in the process of being officially formalized. Their management plans have allowed us to raise more than 700 hectares of forest into conservation and restoration zones. These areas are made up of more or less degraded forest fragments but also contain patches of primary forest where can be found an exceptional biological diversity!

Our reforestation program launched in 2018 aims to restore the most degraded parts of the forest fragments and to create corridors between them in order to ensure the continuity of the lemurs’ habitat. We have already created 2 tree nurseries and a third will be established very soon. In 2019, more than 6,000 seedlings of twenty different species were planted!

Simultaneously, we seek to increase the living standards of the villagers so that they can stop clearing the land located on the territory of the lemur groups. Thus, we provided training to over 100 families in Improved Rice-growing System (SRA) that can double paddy fields’ yield. We also seek to improve the irrigation system upon which the results of the SRA depend directly. In 2019, several irrigation canals were built or renovated, which enabled the SRA beneficiaries from the VOI Miaradia to practice this technique in 2020 despite the severe flooding that hit the region.

We’ve been focusing on the development of vegetable crops with more than fifteen varieties cultivated by 250 families who are participating in that program and we have started a fish farming program which currently benefits to around fifteen participating families.

We are creating new Income Generating Activities as well: training on crafts production primarily intended for women (jewellery, sculptures, embroidery, etc.) and development of an ecotourism project. The latter will allow visitors to meet Greater Bamboo Lemurs in two forest fragments of the VOI Samivar and Manirisoa. Our fauna and flora inventory (still in progress) has already revealed the presence of various species of plants and animals, including 5 other species of lemurs, birds, small mammals, reptiles…

Our results so far are more than encouraging: we have noted an increased involvement of local communities in the activities that we are implementing, a sign of a growing confidence, and the support we provide seems to meet their expectations. A beacon of hope for the future of this unique population of Greater Bamboo Lemurs in which we recorded 80 births in 2019!

This project is co-funded by IUCN Save Our Species. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Helpsimus and do not necessarily reflect the views of IUCN.

As a reminder, the floristic inventory started in 2018. It continued last year in Volotara on the territory of the group VIII and was carried out by the botanist of our local Partner, the NGO IMPACT.

And the results are very interesting!

The vegetation on the territory of the group VIII presents a varied physiognomy. There are indeed bamboo forests, secondary forests but also primary forests (not intact) which are home to many endemic plant species: Ravenala madagascariensis, Dalbergia spp, Dyospiros spp (Madagascan precious wood) and various woody species.

Many animal species live in these forests where we can especially observe the 6 lemur species identified on the site of the Bamboo Lemur program.

In addition to this diversity there are many points of view of great interest (on the national park, on the villages etc.).

Thus a second tourist circuit (a more « adventurerous » one than in Sahaofika) could be created in the future on the territory of the group VIII.

The botanist also noted numerous degradations which should decrease with the creation of the third VOI and the development of a tourist circuit.

In 2020, we will continue to carry out plant inventories in other areas of the Bamboo Lemur program.