AT WORK IN NAMOROKA AND SAVORING ITS BEAUTY
By Dr. Jacques Rakotondranary
In June, we kicked off our conservation activities for Wildlife Madagascar’s third field site, Tsingy de Namoroka National Park. Joining me on this trip were Wildlife Madagascar’s Country Director Tojo Lytah Razafimahefa, our Chief Conservation Officer Dr. Tim Eppley, and two master’s students from the University of Antananarivo, Mandresy Rampanjato and Fetra Randrianarizaka. The adventure began before we even left Antananarivo, as we needed to purchase all the various provisions and supplies to cover our first two months of fieldwork at this incredibly remote site. With several sacks of rice and beans and other supplies, we had to rent a large van that could accommodate the quantities of provisions, our bulky equipment, and our team members.
We departed Antananarivo early in the morning, since the road to the large coastal city of Majunga is in very poor condition. Though the distance is approximately 350 miles, it took us nearly 15 hours before arriving in Majunga late at night. The next morning, we loaded all our supplies into a speedboat to cross the Bombetoka Bay, which took about 20 minutes, and then transferred everything to a large 4×4 truck that took us for the remaining 10 hours to finally reach our destination, Namoroka, arriving after dark.
When morning arrived, I could finally savor the beauty of the Namoroka landscape, and what an incredible place it is. As you may remember from a previous blog, we are working closely with Namoroka Tsingy Camp, a luxury safari-style ecolodge operated by Madagascar Classic Collections. As part of our collaboration, the Namoroka Tsingy Camp is building a field station on the back of their private property, adjacent to the national park, from which Wildlife Madagascar will carry out our various conservation initiatives. They also actively collaborate with us by assisting with some logistics at the campsite and, for the time being, with transportation around the national park.
That morning, they showed us the location they had in mind for the field station. I can already imagine how it would look within this landscape. Like most of the property, it is near a native gallery forest that provides critical habitat to the region’s most charismatic lemur species, the Critically Endangered Decken’s sifaka, as well as two mouse lemur species, a dwarf lemur species, and the very raucous fork-marked lemurs. The national park also hosts red brown lemurs and sportive lemurs, but we haven’t yet recorded these species within the extensive gallery forests adjacent to the protected area.
After identifying our initial objectives, the real work began! We needed to visit potential sites throughout the southern, eastern, and northern portions of Namoroka to evaluate priorities for establishing long-term study locations and high-biodiversity areas in need of more frequent monitoring. The western and central areas of Namoroka are also incredibly important, and we do plan to work there. But since we are just starting and our field station will be located in the southeast corner, we decided to start in these closer areas before expanding.
From the eastern half of Namoroka, we identified five main sites, which included native continuous and gallery dry deciduous forests within and adjacent to the extensive tsingy canyons and caves, as well as near the blue lagoon at the northern limits of the national park. At each site, Dr. Tim and I discussed and created a work plan that would be carried out initially by our excellent Malagasy students, Fetra and Mandresy. While both have prior fieldwork experience, neither had ever been to Namoroka or even knew anything about it, so a lot of time was spent training the students on various data collection methods and protocols. We hired locals to help us establish line transects —trails—from which we could monitor and observe nocturnal and diurnal lemurs, conduct vegetation descriptions, install camera traps, and follow and habituate groups of Decken’s sifaka. Since some of these sites will be used by guests of the Namoroka Tsingy Camp, it is important to have habituated groups of this unusual lemur—seeing them will be a highlight for many visitors.
Whenever beginning a conservation program in a new area, it is critical to get to know the local communities, since we will be working closely with them. As it happened, World Environment Day was being celebrated on June 13 in the nearby village of Vilanandro, which borders Namoroka National Park. The Wildlife Madagascar team participated in the event, and it was an excellent opportunity to meet various local key figures, such as the Director of Namoroka National Park, the Tangalamena (village king), and other important stakeholders involved in the region’s development. During the festivities, I discussed Wildlife Madagascar’s conservation program with the Director of Namoroka and the “Chef cantonnement des Eaux et Forêts” of the region. They were both very pleased with our proposed programs and were excited about our future collaborations with them.
In total, there were around 400 participants at the World Environment Day event, including two Ampanjaka (kings), village presidents, village associations, partners from Namoroka Tsingy Camp, CLP (“Comité Local du Parc”), and residents from the six villages of the Andranomavo commune: Vilanandro, Namoroka, Analatelo, Bebao, Namahota, and Befatika. There was a parade followed by awareness-raising speeches by local leaders about the importance of preserving the native forest, as well as discussions concerning fire management, which can be devastating in this incredibly arid environment.
I have traveled and worked throughout Madagascar, but I had never been to this remote northwest corner of Madagascar before and knew very little about Namoroka National Park. While it covers an area greater than 22,200 hectares, Namoroka is truly a hidden gem of Madagascar, with its rich yet largely unexplored biodiversity. This stunning region features dramatic limestone formations, dense dry deciduous forests, and intricate cave systems, which together offer a paradise for nature enthusiasts and adventurers. Unfortunately, despite Namoroka being formally protected, some local people continue to exploit this extraordinary site. While our work in Namoroka is off to a great start, there is still a lot of work to be done. But I am excited for the challenge of working with these communities to protect this unique landscape and its diverse wildlife, and create conservation success stories that will help put Namoroka on the map.