Vol. 15 - Deutsches Primatenzentrum

Lemur News Vol. 15, 2010 Page 1
Editorial
I am writing this Editorial only a couple of days after another
attempted (and failed) Coup d’Etat in Madagascar,in which a
faction of the army tried to topple the Transition Government.
For nearly two years now, since the start of the political
crisis in early 2009,the country has not seen a week without
demonstrations, tensions between different political
parties and attempts from international mediators to get
power-sharing agreements signed by all sides. Most donors,
governments and multinational organisations alike, have
frozen all non-humanitarian aid for Madagascar,which has led
to severe funding shortages in the environmental and conservation
sector. The political crisis has thus quickly turned
into a full-blown environmental crisis, with large-scale illegal
logging taking place mainly in eastern Madagascar (Marojejy,
Masoala, Makira), and unseen levels of lemur poaching all
across the island.To keep people aware of the seriousness of
the situation we have decided to run another feature on
Madagascar’s environmental crisis in this issue of Lemur News,
with an excellent update on illegal logging by Erik Patel as
well as a case study of ongoing threats to lemurs and their
habitat in Sahamalaza National Park by Melanie Seiler and
colleagues.
The conservation situation of lemurs has also been a big concern
in several presentations given at the most recent 23rd
Congress of the International Primatological Society in
Kyoto, Japan. The talk that I remember best was by Lemur
News co-editor Jonah Ratsimbazafy, who reminded the audience
in a very emotional way that scientists and conservationists
working in Madagascar had a moral responsibility to
respond to the "cries of the lemurs", as otherwise these
would remain unheard by the Malagasy and international
community.In the biennial discussion session of "Primates in
Peril", the list of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates,
issued jointly by the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist
Group and IPS,lemurs remained a very high priority and will
again make up 20% of the 25 listed species in the next biennium.Sadly,Madagascar
thus retains its first place (along with
Vietnam) as the country harbouring the highest number of
the top 25. It can only be hoped that the political classes of
Madagascar come to agree a way out of the current crisis
sooner rather than later, as otherwise we run the very serious
risk,during the UN Decade of Biodiversity 2011-2020,of
losing a substantial proportion of the endemic biodiversity of
this amazing megadiversity country.
Alison Jolly with Russ Mittermeier at the IPS Lifetime Achievement
Award 2010 ceremony in Kyoto. (Photo: R. Mittermeier)
For a change,on a very positive note,I am thrilled to say that
Alison Jolly was awarded the IPS Lifetime Achievement
Award for her long-term commitment to lemur conservation
and environmental education in Madagascar (see News
and Announcements). My two daughters (now 4 and 2 years
old) and I particularly enjoy reading Alison’s children’s book
on Bitika,the mouse lemur,as,I am sure,do lots of children in
Madagascar and elsewhere in the world.
It is encouraging to see that this volume of Lemur News is
again full of articles and short reports not only on lemur species
red-listed in one of the Threatened categories (VU, EN
or CR),but also on Data Deficient nocturnal species such as
Mirza zaza,Lepilemur leucopus and the recently rediscovered
Cheirogaleus sibreei (see the articles by Rode et al., Fish, and
Blanco, respectively). As Johanna Rode and colleagues point
out in their short report on Mirza zaza,Madagascar is in the
unusual situation that 45 % of its primate species are redlisted
as Data Deficient,which is a far higher percentage than
in any other primate habitat country and mainly derived
from the discovery of dozens of cryptic species in the genera
Lepilemur and Microcebus over the last couple of years. Many
of those species are only known from their type localities
and may in fact be highly endangered. The more research is
conducted and published on them, the easier it will become
to assign them a conservation status and target them with
conservation measures. It will require a concerted effort of
the lemur research and conservation community over the
next decade or so to to reduce the number of Data Deficient
species to a level comparable to other regions (or, ideally, to
zero).
Another encouraging development is the frenzy of research
and conservation activities now under way for Prolemur simus
at various locations both south and north of the Mangoro
River,reported by Dolch et al.as well as Rajaonson et al.in this
volume. The greater bamboo lemur undoubtedly remains
one of the most endangered of Madagascar’s lemurs. However,
with several additional populations having been discovered
over the last two years, workshops having been conducted
that have led to a joint-up approach to this species’
conservation,and the ex situ population having been included
as an integral part of conservation efforts, I now think that
we stand a real chance of saving Prolemur simus from extinction.
As Jörg Ganzhorn announced in his editorial to Lemur News
14, I have taken over the coordination of this newsletter
from him after the 2009 volume, hence this is now the first
volume that I have helped produce (which is my humble excuse
for its slightly late publication). Jörg has been involved
with Lemur News since its inception in 1993,first as a member
of its Editorial Board and from volume 3 (1998) as its Editor.I
am thus pleased to say that we will not lose his experience
and backing,as he has kindly agreed to remain part of the editorial
team. Likewise, Jonah Ratsimbazafy and Rodin Rasoloarison,who
have been the newsletter’s Malagasy coordinators
since 2006, and Anne Yoder, who represents the Duke
Lemur Center, will carry on as editorial team members, for
which I am grateful.I am indebted to Heike Klensang,who has
been doing the layout for Lemur News now for more than a
decade and is still not tired of it,and to Anna Francis,who has
designed the beautiful new logo and front cover. Very many
thanks also to Stephen D. Nash for the wonderful lemur silhouettes
that we printed on the inside back cover.
This volume of Lemur News was kindly supported by the
Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation through Conservation
International’s Primate Action Fund, and by the WWF
Madagascar and West Indian Ocean Programme Office.