Masoala National Park

Once a part of the African continent, the island of Madagascar drifted into the Indian ocean between 100 and 200 million years ago, creating a time capsule of life in the process. Now the island provides sanctuary for many types of plants and animals which have long since disappeared from other parts of the world. Four out of five species of plant and animal found on the island are unique to Madagascar.

The most well known of Madagascar's denizens are the lemurs, the most primitive of extant primates and distant relatives of Homo sapiens. Possessing foxlike faces and opposable thumbs, this group of animals evolved some 35 million years ago, and, with the exception of the several varieties that exist on Madagascar and its satellite islands, have disappeared from the rest of the planet. Among the island's rare primates is the redruffed lemur, found only in the newly created Masoala National Park.

Masoala National Park
Encompassing 840 square miles in the northern region of the island, Masoala is Madagascar's largest protected area. It contains significant portions of lowland and coastal rainforest — habitats containing other lemur species such as the hairyeared dwarf lemur. The small island of Nosy Mangabe, a special reserve contained within the park's coastal borders, is home to the ayeaye, an unusual species of lemur with an elongated middle finger, used by the animal to pull grubs and insects from wood. Aside from lemurs, Masoala contains a wealth of biodiversity. Recent wildlife surveys re discovered a species previously thought to be extinct — the Madagascar serpent eagle. The park forests abound with chameleons and geckos, as well as several species of butterflies and fish which are new to science. Masoala also includes three marine reserves, designed to protect the peninsula's coral reef systems. Humpback whales use the nearby Bay of Antongil for calving and can be seen from the park's coastline.

Combining Conservation with Development
The creation of Masoala National Park on Oct. 18, 1997 entailed the efforts of an international consortium to combine both the ecological needs of the area's flora and fauna and the local communities which inhabit the peninsula in the park's design. Dr. Claire Kremen of the Wildlife Conservation Society collaborated with government agencies and researchers from ANGAP (Association National des Aires Protegees), DEF(Direction des Eaux et Forets), Care International, Peregrine Fund, Stanford University, British Natural History Museum and others in designing the park according to criteria for social, economic and ecological sustainability.

First and foremost, park planners sought to protect the many unique species of plant and animal on the peninsula and the myriad habitats containing them. Habitat used by the rarest species, as well as species which are extremely sensitive to disturbance, were given the highest priority. The redruffed lemur was one such species, and a large portion of the park was contoured along the animal's population range — an area containing an estimated 15,000 adult individuals. Another component of the park's design was the preservation of corridors to allow for the migration of animals from one protected area to others, such as the Anjaharibe Reserve to the north of Masoala. A forest corridor between these two parks could help to save the Madagascar serpent eagle, a species that was also rediscovered in Anjaharibe.

Generating Support at the Local Level
Of equal importance to the ecological factors of the park design were local economic concerns, which played a part in every stage of the design process. The guiding principle of sustainable use of natural resources helped promote the project in the eyes of community members as being in their best longterm interests.

The process of integrating local and ecological concerns was aided with one of conservation biology's newest tools — geographic information system (GIS) technology. Conservation agents from communities adjacent to Masoala gathered information on the distribution of forest, villages and farmland and placed it into a GIS database for a comprehensive picture of where interests needed to be balanced. At the same time, conservationists held meetings with local village members to collect feedback needed to gauge local concerns. Suspicions about the motives of Masoala park designers were overcome by the fact that many of the project's ambassadors were local community members themselves.

Local concerns were then combined with GIS maps to outline the park's boundaries — tailored to minimize conflicts between wildlife and the surrounding communities, particularly around the area's major rural centers. Buffer zones — areas designated for subsistence usage — were placed in areas where village territories came close to the park's borders. During the later stages of design, conservationists and government officials finetuned the design by walking the park's borders and talking about specific points with community leaders.

At the same time, community leaders were taken to other areas in Madagascar where unchecked logging has devastated the landscape to show the longterm advantages of sustainable usage. Emphasizing the economic benefits of conservation was one of the main considerations of park designers, who sought to dissuade local people from continuing slashandburn farming practices. Residents from several communities are now being encouraged to sustainably harvest and to grow various rainforest products in  pilot programs which, if successful, can produce funds for both local worker's wages and community projects like school or clinic construction. At the same time, a biological monitoring program will assess the impact of these activities on local wildlife.

The combination of conservation and development will, park designers predict, produce many benefits for local, national and international communities. Revenues derived from rainforest products will help local communities and the Malagasy government by ensuring the future of renewable resources. The conservation of the island's wildlife will serve the global community in a more qualitative sense, protecting a part of the earth's past for future generations.