Antongil, Lemur Conservation, Madagascar
For the sustainable conservation of Antongil Bay's Biodiversity

South Lakes Wild Aanimal Park Director & Wildlife Protection Foundation Chairman David Gill (left) & WPF Trustee Pierre Gay on a recent trip Madagascar

  Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world, located in the Indian Ocean 250 miles off the southern east coast of Africa. A biodiversity "hotspot" full of unique animals and plants, Madagascar is the only place where lemurs live naturally in the wild.
South Lakes Wild Animal Park, The Wildlife Protection Foundation & Zoo de Doue (France) fund the NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) Antongil Conservation project. Established in 1999 the projects goal is to conserve the Antainambalana Forest in Antongil Bay North East Madagascar. The forest, the largest lowland tropical forest left on the island, is full of endemic fauna and rich in palms & orchids. Cleaning the forest for rice cultivation, illegal logging and hunting all put the future of the forest, and all that live in it, under threat.

Madagascar is  one of the poorest countries, where its population is confronted to a difficult socio-economic situation. With, among other things, an unstable economy, dedicated to exportation, a very high demographic growth, traditional agricultural techniques, the Malagasy natural abundance is irreparably degraded more and more every day.

Madagascar is an economically poor country where people live off the land, it is no surprise their main focus is to survive rather than to preserve their environment. For centuries the villagers have used the forest's resources in their daily lives. They destroy the forest to grow food for their families and cut down the trees to sell the wood to earn an income. An unsuitable utilisation of the natural resources has resulted in over 90% of Madagascar's forests being destroyed, leaving lemurs literally clinging onto survival.

The Antongil Bay, in the north-east, shelters the last humid tropical forest of Madagascar. Habitat of

an endemic fauna, she's one of the richest in palms and orchids. This forest is also concerned by the

ecological problematic of the country. Her future is seriously threatened by an irrational and

unsustainable using of natural resources.

The burning culture "tavy" consists in clearing by fire the forest lands in order to cultivate rice fields.

This technique is, without a doubt, the most devastated using. The striped soils cultivated lost fastly their fertility, urging cultivators to burn more lands. The illegal cutting of precious and domestic used woods, as well as a hunting and fishing pressure on wild fauna are in addition to this problematic cultivation technique.

The project aims to reduce the use of slash and burn rice cultivation which is one of the main causes of habitat loss. In Madagascar the person who works the land owns it therefore the only way to guarantee ownership is to destroy the forest and work it. 

In 1999, Augustin Sarovy, an ecotouristic guide native of this region and fascinated by the nature, created a NGO dedicated to the Antongil's forest conservation, called "Antongil Conservation".