Vol. 15 - Deutsches Primatenzentrum

Lemur News Vol. 15, 2010 Page 7
Global Witness – Environmental Investigation Agency - Illegal
logging in Madagascar – Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1hPviSbRcU
Global Witness – Environmental Investigation Agency - Illegal
logging in Madagascar – Part 2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBtsNBpWW0E
Global Witness – Environmental Investigation Agency - Illegal
logging in Madagascar – Part 3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=payUUJed0dc
Global Witness – Environmental Investigation Agency - Illegal
logging in Madagascar – Part 4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm6a6Hrat3o
Rosewood logging radio programs
BBC World Service – Africa. September 17, 2009.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/2009/09/090917_
madge_rosewood2.shtml
Ongoing threats to lemurs and their habitat
inside the Sahamalaza - Iles Radama
National Park
Melanie Seiler 1,2, Guy H. Randriatahina 3, Christoph
Schwitzer 1*
1Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, Bristol Zoo
Gardens, Clifton, Bristol BS8 3HA, UK
2University of Bristol, School of Biological Sciences, Woodland
Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK
3Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation
des Lémuriens (AEECL), Lot: IVH 169 N Ambohimanandray,
Ambohimanarina, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
*Corresponding author: cschwitzer@bcsf.org.uk
The Sahamalaza - Iles Radama National Park,officially inaugurated
in July 2007 and managed by Madagascar National
Parks (MNP), includes both marine and terrestrial ecosystems
and is the first park that was created under the
"Programme Environnemental III" of the Malagasy government
and the World Bank. In addition to the few remaining
forest fragments of the Southern Sambirano ecoregion, the
park is home to extensive mangrove forests, which harbour
their own highly endangered fauna, and also includes offshore
coral reefs. In 2003, researchers from the Cologne
Zoo, funded by AEECL, undertook an expedition to Sahamalaza
to explore the opportunities for the establishment of
a permanent field station in order to study and protect the
Critically Endangered blue-eyed black lemur (Eulemur flavifrons)
and its habitat.In 2004 and 2005,the field station in the
Ankarafa Forest became reality (Schwitzer et al.,2006),and it
has since been used by both European and Malagasy scientists
as a basis for research on E. flavifrons and other lemur
species, especially the Sahamalaza sportive lemur (Lepilemur
sahamalazensis) and the northern giant mouse lemur (Mirza
zaza),occurring on the Sahamalaza Peninsula (Schwitzer and
Randriatahina, 2009).
Sahamalaza - Iles Radama National Park lies within a transition
zone between the Sambirano region in the north and
the western dry deciduous forest region in the south, harbouring
semi-humid forests with tree heights of up to 30m
(Schwitzer et al.,2006).The forests include a mixture of plant
species typical of both domains (Birkinshaw, 2004), and the
remaining primary and secondary forest fragments vary in
their degree of degradation. There are no larger connected
areas of intact primary forest left on the Sahamalaza Penin-
sula, and the remaining fragments all show some degree of
anthropogenic disturbance and/or edge effects (Schwitzer et
al., 2007). The forests and forest fragments are separated by
grass savannah and shrubs. Sahamalaza is the only protected
area that harbours the blue-eyed black lemur,the Sahamalaza
sportive lemur and the northern giant mouse lemur. Other
lemur species in the park include the aye-aye (Daubentonia
madagascariensis), the western bamboo lemur (Hapalemur
occidentalis),and an as yet unidentified species of dwarf lemur
(Cheirogaleus spec.).
The remaining forest of the Sahamalaza Peninsula and its
unique fauna are in grave danger of disappearing.The habitat
is already extremely degraded, nonetheless bush fires and
tree-felling are activities that are routinely pursued and accepted
within the local society (Ruperti et al., 2008). During
the first field season of a study on the impact of habitat degradation
and fragmentation on the ecology and behaviour of
the Sahamalaza Peninsula sportive lemur (Lepilemur sahamalazensis),
conducted by MS in 2009, local people from the
villages surrounding the protected area were found logging
trees in the already small forest fragments almost on a daily
basis. Logging activities mainly occurred in forest fragments
where no researchers had been present in previous years.
During walks through different forest fragments, in addition
to large numbers of logged trees, two places where trees
were processed for further use were found. Trees were
felled mainly in the early morning hours,on the one hand because
of the high temperatures later in the day, on the other
hand probably because of the assumption that the researchers
started observing animals later in the day and therefore
would not realise the illegal logging activities. Nonetheless,
trees were sometimes also felled in the afternoons. Because
locals immediately fled when becoming aware of researchers’
presence, we believe that the presence of researchers
and/or field guides, park authorities or park rangers is a crucial
factor in stopping illegal logging in the remaining fragments.For
the next field season (2010) we therefore plan to
expand the observations of Lepilemur to other, not yet used
forest fragments to help prevent their destruction. Of
course this cannot be a long-term solution to this problem.
The presence of park rangers and further environmental education
of the local people will thus be extremely important
to save the Sahamalaza forests from further degradation.
About five times between August and October 2009, fires
occurred near the Ankarafa field station, three times in the
savannah and twice in the forest itself. After having extin-
Fig. 1: Lepilemur sahamalazensis
poached
and roasted by locals in
Sahamalaza - Iles Radama
National Park“.