About Madagasikara Voakajy

Madagasikara Voakajy is a Malagasy bio diversity organization that was created in 2005 following a series of projects that trained young scientists about bats and chameleons. The training programs were initially funded by the British government (Darwin Initiative) and were organized by the universities of Kent and Aberdeen in close collaboration with Malagasy institutions. Madagasikara Voakajy currently employs eight full time Malagasy biologists, two of whom specialize in amphibians and reptiles.

Vision

Madagascar is often sold to the outside world as a key location for chameleons but within the country these endemic and threatened animals rarely feature in bio diversity conservation planning. Through supporting national scientists and conducting systematic conservation reviews and field surveys we aim to get chameleons onto the conservation agenda and keep them there.

Furcifer labordi sleeping in Kirindy found in the field site of research

The Chameleon Team

The chameleon team at Madagasikara Voakajy currently consists of Dr. Richard Jenkins, Christian Randrianantoandro, Roma Randrianavelona and two Malagasy masters students (Hanta Lalaina Fidéline and Raphali Andriantsimanarilafy).

Dr. Richard Jenkins

His interest in chameleon conservation started as long ago as 1992 when he made his first visit to the island to study chameleons in Ranomafana National Park. A number of further visits were made between 1993 and 1998 to study Calumma species in the eastern rainforest and to train young Malagasy herpetologists. Having spent time at home in Wales to complete his doctorate and a spell working in Tanzania, he returned to Madagascar to develop student training programs in 2002. Richard has lived in Madagascar for five years and is the Director of Madagasikara Voakajy.

Christian Randrianantoandro

Christian received his first experience of studying chameleons on the Darwin Initiative funded training program that was run by Dr. Lee Brady and Dr. Richard Griffiths (University of Kent, United Kingdom). He conducted his masters research on Calumma and Brookesia chameleons near Parc National de Mantadia and received supervision in the field from Dr. Richard Jenkins. Christian conducted a number of herpetological surveys for various non-government organizations between 1999 and 2003 before he was recruited as the senior herpetologist for Madagasikara Voakajy in 2005. He now runs a number of chameleon projects and leads the student training program for herpetology.

Roma Randrianavelona

Roma joined Madagasikara Voakajy in 2006 as an assistant primarily to work on the chameleon project in Parc National Tsingy de Bemaraha. His previous experience included field work for his masters research on plated lizards Zonosaurus and working for a community development organization. The combination of science and socioeconomic understanding that Roma brings is proving extremely useful in our project to conserve the Golden Mantella Mantella aurantiaca frog.

Expedition vehicle stuck in the marsh of Tsihitaloha                 

The beautiful scenery of Tsingy, Madagascar

Achievements So Far

In the early days, the major achievements were to train a cadre of Malagasy students and increase the profile of chameleon conservation in Madagascar. This was certainly achieved and key scientific publications were also produced.* A hiatus followed which was ended when Madagasikara Voakajy was formed and chameleons once again became the focus of conservation science. There are continuing projects in western Madagascar on Brookesia perarmata and Furcifer labordi and we begin a new study of Furcifer minor and Furcifer campani in 2008. In 2006 we successfully submitted two conservation assessments to the IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List (Phelsuma gecko and Pseudoxyrhopus snake).

*See a list of publications at their website shown below

Next Steps

We have two main priorities in the next two years for which we are now trying to raise funds. The first of these is to continue our field research program to include other chameleon species and for the mean time, we will retain our focus on the Furcifer species. We plan to focus our efforts on three species of Furcifer that are restricted to the south west of Madagascar, two of which may even be extinct (F. belalandaensis and F. tuzetae).

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is an authoritative list of extinction risk for plants and animals. In Madagascar it is the primary source of species information for environmental managers (e.g. mining companies, conservation planners) but is currently only complete for birds, amphibians, and mammals. This means that important decisions are being made without reference to whether there are threatened chameleons occurring at given sites. We plan to rectify this by conducting a conservation assessment of all Malagasy chameleons for the IUCN Red List.

Needs

Madagasikara Voakajy is run on project grants and there is no guaranteed income. This is in inevitable hurdle to maintaining our principle of providing permanent jobs for Malagasy scientists, but we nevertheless believe that some of the recurring problems in conservation on the island are best solved by empowering national scientists.

We welcome all types of support and financial assistance can be directed at particular projects or designed to support core costs. For example, keeping our battered 4x4 vehicles on the road or keeping our wagons strong and rolling...

Our mission is dedicated... our hopes are clear... even if our roads are not.