James Herrera, Ph.D., Program Coordinator for DLC-SAVA Conservation. Published December 28, 2020. Madagascar is a natural and cultural treasure. With over 20,000 known plants and animals found nowhere else on earth, it is one of the biologically richest places on Earth. We continue to discover new species every day (1). Similarly, the diversity of cultures […]
James Herrera, Ph.D., Program Coordinator for DLC-SAVA Conservation. Published December 12, 2020. Lemurs are the famous primates of Madagascar. Unlike monkeys and other primates, lemurs are found in the wild only on the island of Madagascar. They probably arrived on Madagascar from ancient primate ancestors on Africa 60 million years ago, and since that time, over […]
By James Herrera, Ph.D., DLC-SAVA Program Coordinator Reforestation is a mainstay of many conservation programs. The reason is that natural habitats, especially forests, have been degraded and destroyed by human activities. To restore those landscapes, planting trees is one step towards bringing back the diverse life that once existed. Reforestation is not a panacea, however; […]
DLC-SAVA Conservation forging new collaborations with CURSA, the university of SAVA region: Community building at local tree nursery By James Herrera, Ph.D. Published August 6, 2020. The Madagascar government is committed to reforestation. They have an ambitious goal: to plant 60 million trees, in honor of their sixtieth anniversary of independence from France. They want to […]
By James P. Herrera, Ph.D. Program Coordinator, DLC-SAVA Conservation Deforestation, especially clearing forest for agriculture, is one of the biggest causes of biodiversity loss in the world. In Madagascar, as in many tropical low-income countries, subsistence farmers that live on the forest frontier often use a system of shifting agriculture that involves slashing (clear-cutting) vegetation, […]
By Drs. Marina Blanco and Lydia Greene A paper on environmental education in the SAVA (northeastern) region of Madagascar, authored by DLC conservation and research staff, has been published in PLoS ONE! The paper highlights the importance of working with primary school students directly, and of designing ways to track and monitor knowledge/perceptions across students […]
100 days of lemurs We’re thrilled to announce that 4/7/2020 marks the first day of 100 LEMURS, an international collaboration between the Duke Lemur Center, a world leader in the study, care, and conservation of lemurs, and Rachel Hudson, an award-winning wildlife illustrator based in the UK! Rachel will illustrate and post one lemur species […]
DLC-SAVA Conservation forging new collaborations with CURSA, the university of SAVA region: A three-part series By James Herrera, Program Coordinator, DLC-SAVA Conservation During my first few months working with the DLC-SAVA Conservation program, I had the great pleasure of meeting and collaborating with the only university in the region, the Centre Universitaire Régional de la […]
