Following the success of our Pioneer, Lemur Venture and Short-term programmes, Azafady is launching a new scheme, the Azafady Conservation Programme: ‘Primates, Reptiles and Critical Species’. This exciting and innovative programme is an on-going community-based conservation initiative inspired by the Lemur Venture programme and combines elements of all our current schemes and all of Azafady’s conservation oriented projects. The new programme is based in the superbly beautiful and exotic coastal region of Sainte Luce, which is surrounded by extremely rare and threatened fragments of pristine, littoral rainforest. The programme integrates research on endangered flora and fauna with community initiatives such as reforestation and environmental education.
The programme consists of five core modules, each designed to be two weeks in length. Whilst you are welcome to stay for just one module, the program has been planned so that volunteers may combine modules to stay longer and get a real overview of the integrated way that Azafady approaches the conservation of biodiversity.
This programme combines direct conservation, working in and supporting local management of two legally-protected forest fragments (part of the protected areas of Madagascar system or SAPM), with a number of other complementary initiatives, such as tree planting to provide rapid growth of farmed trees for firewood, promotion of economical stoves to reduce the workload of women and the amount of wood that the village consumes, research to provide data on the status of species and local biodiversity, specific work on the critical species, and community environmental education, building the understanding of the community about the complex habitats of which they are the stewards.
For more details, see the Azafady Conservation Programme Volunteering brochure.
