On Wednesday, July 27, we were in Tulear and Dr. Richard Lawler gave a lecture on Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve. It’s jointly run by the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar National Park (MNP), and local stakeholders around the reserve. 3 people were vital in the reserve’s establishment: Allison Richard, Bob Sussman, and Guy Ramantsoa. It began in 1975 with early funding from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) to establish the preliminary boundaries. In 1986, the Malagasy government officially designated the area as Beza. 2 parcels of land were set aside. Parcel 1 is the main area and is 80 hectares. Parcel 2 is less explored and is 520 hectares. Both are protected areas, but there is still presence of human disturbance in parcel 2. The local people in Beza are mostly Mahafaly, and the local fady (taboo) helps protect the reserve and lemurs. There are 3 types of forest in the reserve: spiny, low canopy, and high canopy. There are 2 research projects in Beza: ringtail and sifaka, but the former has been put on hold due to lack of funding. There are 4 components to the reserve, each “managed” by a different group. The University of Tana: research. MNP: tourism. COSAP: community based management. Kasti: local conservation. There’s a monitoring team that collects data every month on the sifakas – group composition, transfers between groups, disappearances, births, deaths, ETC. The research team also keeps an eye out for any unmarked yearlings, unmarked immigrant adults, and any related animals based on the team’s research questions. (Also, unmentioned in the lecture, Lemur catta just hang out around the campsite in the early afternoon. Here’s a pic of one!)
