MADAGASCAR, Sainte Luce - July 2004
Construction of four forest stations in exchange for the protection of 1,730 acres of forest
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The Manafiafy Forest in Southeast Madagascar's Sainte Luce area is one of the last remaining stands of littoral forest in the country and is home to critically endangered palms, birds and the rare brown collared lemur. Azafady, an organization based in the U.K., has been asked by villagers in the Sainte Luce area to facilitate the transfer of control over the 1,730-acre forest, in which the community wishes to ban all commercial exploitation. Members of the community who patrol the area and act as guides are forced to spend up to six hours per day getting to and from the forest, and do not have a base from which to coordinate their activities. Seacology is working with Azafady to construct four forest stations within the protected area.
UPDATE January 2005 - Materials for the stations have been delivered to the four sites. The construction of the first station was scheduled to be completed by mid-December 2004. The remaining three stations are scheduled to be completed by April 2005. Meanwhile, activities related to the native plant nurseries have commenced and many collected seeds have already been planted.
UPDATE July 2005 - Azafady, the local NGO running the program, reports that all four forest stations have been constructed and are being used by volunteers and staff to camp and work to collect native plant seeds, propagate trees and maintain the tree nurseries. This project has resulted in the first legal permits to collect seeds from the critically endangered palm, Dypsis saintelucei, which have only 70 adult individuals remaining in existence. 2,884 seedlings of this species are currently growing in the nurseries and Azafady is carefully monitoring current proposals from a large mining project in the area before determining where to plant the seedlings. Azafady intends to continue the seed propagation portion of the project for several more years and will plant seedlings in the best areas possible for long-term reforestation.
