WCS Continues Commitment to Madagascar’s Forests

The future is looking greener for red-ruffed lemurs, aye-ayes, serpent eagles, and red owls, among other rare and endangered species that inhabit Madagascar’s Masoala National Park. The global hotspot of biodiversity will continue to be protected for another five years under an existing joint management agreement between the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Madagascar’s national park service, the Association National des Aires Protegees (ANGAP).

"Our partnership has become a model for other parks in Madagascar, and the continuation of this partnership is a testament to this," said Dr. Helen Crowley, director of WCS's Madagascar Program.

Created in 1997, Masoala National Park protects the heart of a one-million- hectare land- and seascape home to an assemblage of fascinating species found nowhere else on Earth. As part of the continuing partnership, both WCS and ANGAP will provide technical and financial support to the park. Conservation activities will include management and monitoring of both marine and forest habitats, training of park staff, environmental education, and promotion of ecotourism in and around the park. WCS is also working on a program of integrated coastal zone management along Antongil Bay—a calving ground for humpback whales—and is helping to create a new protected area in the Makira Forest. Both the bay and forest are contiguous to Masoala.

At the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa in 2003, Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana pledged to triple the area of the country’s protected forests, wetlands, and marine environments, from 4.2 million to 15 million acres. The extension of the partnership will help implement this “Durban Vision,” which pledges to carry out its goals in five years.

At the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo headquarters, plans for a new project focusing on Madagascar’s diverse ecology are currently underway. Now under construction within the Bronx Zoo’s historic Lion House, the Madagascar! exhibit will feature red-ruffed lemurs in a re-creation of Masoala’s rain forests as well as habitats and their denizens from other parts of the island. The new exhibit is expected to open in 2007.

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