Advancing environmental education around namorokA
By Falina Razafimamonjy, Masters Student
It has been a great privilege for me to discover the beauty of Tsingy de Namoroka National Park in northwest Madagascar, and admire this awe-inspiring landscape up close. As a Master’s student specializing in primatology at the University of Antananarivo, I joined Wildlife Madagascar’s Namoroka team in October 2024. My first task was to organize the World Lemur Day (celebrated annually on the last Friday of October) event in Vilanandro, a local village that is relatively close to our base of operations at Madagascar Classic Collection’s Namoroka Tsingy Camp. First, I discussed the event with the village leaders and head of the primary school. They were delighted with the idea, so we were thrilled that the event could take place!
Celebrating World Lemur Day, the children and adults played games and held various contests, and there were even fun quizzes. Everyone was enthusiastic and had a great time participating. At the same time, these games allowed us to assess their knowledge of Namoroka’s local biodiversity and unique environment. Although Vilanandro borders the national park, many local people are unaware of what the park has to offer. Fortunately, the information shared during the World Lemur Day celebration was readily absorbed by the children. To build on this, I decided to talk to the school’s headmistress about collaborating on an environmental education program. She readily agreed, and as a first step, we decided to meet with the eighth-grade class every Wednesday afternoon. Since then, my colleague Masoandro (Wildlife Madagascar’s Namoroka herpetologist) and I have been working together to bring environmental education to the children of Vilanandro.
As the students are used to theoretical studies, we decided to take a different approach to education based on participation and practice, bringing the students into direct contact with nature. Before our first activity, I divided the students into two groups, each with a group leader. The students named these groups the “Gidro” or lemur group, and the “Baobab” group. Each team will work together throughout the year and their performance in each exercise will be assessed. Accompanied by their teacher and Wildlife Madagascar team, we took the students to the nearest forest where we had set up a 200m transect (a trail) for the children the day before. Once there, each team walked the transect, identifying what they found and writing it down in the notebooks we provided. The children were excited to work together and write down the animal and plant species they found.
Once back in the classroom, the group leader compiled each team’s findings and presented them to the entire class. Through these direct experiences, we are able to teach the children about what an ecosystem is, what services it provides, and what biodiversity is. Each Wednesday is different, with the students asking about things they have seen in the forest, learning the various roles of each plant and animal species within the larger ecosystem, and occasionally reinforcing these lessons through creative writing and art.
As a special treat, we ended the 2024 year by letting the children watch the cartoon film “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax”. The village of Vilanandro is rural and far removed from towns with electricity, so the children are not used to watching cartoons or films. The simple idea of even watching a film was a real treat for them. The Lorax is the story of a little boy named Ted who tries to save the truffula trees in an increasingly polluted world. Although the students didn’t understand the English dialogue (unfortunately, most films aren’t yet translated into Malagasy), they easily followed the story simply through the expressive characters and animation. When the film ended, we discussed the story, and nearly all of the children understood there were no trees left because a bad guy had cut them all down for money. I then explained the essence of the story and the lessons we can learn from it. The film presents a good life lesson, showing how greed can lead people to be cruel to nature and blind us to the dangers that threaten Earth; however, it also shows that even a small gesture can change the world. In the future, we hope to translate this cartoon and show other inspiring films in Malagasy to raise awareness among the local people about the importance of protecting Madagascar’s biodiversity. In 2025, we plan to organize a field trip to the national park and introduce the students to the biodiversity of Namoroka and the splendor of its incredible tsingy (limestone karst).
Madagascar’s biodiversity is unique. Unfortunately, education resources are not sufficient to equip young people with all the skills they need to protect the island’s richness, as biodiversity or environmental curricula are not included in school programs. As a result, many Malagasy people grow up unaware of the value of Madagascar’s biodiversity and its uniqueness. We know that local communities near national parks live off of the resources they extract from the forest. Without realizing their collective impact, villagers are often at the root of deforestation, poaching, forest fires, and illegal trade. I’m convinced that environmental education in these areas is a great asset for conservation because it can ultimately minimize the pressure put on these forest habitats. I have chosen to focus my environmental education on school children because children are the citizens of tomorrow and their future actions depend on how we educate them at a young age. This education will change the children’s perception of biodiversity and their future environmentally friendly behavior. By changing the behavior of children, we will raise the awareness of adults.
