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Tampolo Forest Reserve

We at the Lemur Conservation Foundation are pleased to announce our official alliance with Tampolo Forest Station, a small reserve in Madagascar operated by ESSA-Forêts, University of Antananarivo. As you are well aware, Madagascar is considered one of the highest priorities for biological conservation in the world because the widespread and escalating destruction of its ecosystems endangers its remarkable species diversity. Tampolo Forest Station is one of the last fragments of littoral (coastal) forest dotting the eastern shore of Madagascar. The unique tropical lowland rainforests found here are important not only for their endangered flora and fauna but because they provide critical habitat for migrating birds.

The 1700-acre forest of Tampolo, situated directly on the coast north of the city of Fenerive, is home to seven species of lemurs. Five are nocturnal species - the Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), Mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus), Dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus major), Sportive lemurs (Lepilemur mustelinus) and Wooly lemurs (Avahi laniger). The two diurnal species found at Tampolo - Brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus fulvus) and Bamboo lemurs (Hapalem aur griseus griseus) - are both represented at the Myakka City Lemur Reserve as well.

The land surrounding this small reserve is severely degraded and deforested due primarily to over-harvesting of trees and the practice of slash and burn agriculture. These encroaching human activities, exacerbated by the economic downturn, local poverty, demographic pressures and a lack of education, seriously threaten the biodiversity of Tampolo. In order to deal with these threats, ESSA-Forêts has established a reforestation program and a field course in lemur ecology at the station. Similar to the LCF’s Field Training Program, ESSA-Forêts’s field course uses the forest and surrounding habitats as a biological station for research and training purposes. Because of the similarities with the LCF, ESSA Forêts (through our colleague Dr. Joelisoa Ratsirarson) suggested that we create a mutually beneficial partnership between our reserves to strengthen our conservation and education missions. This alliance enables LCF to fit into an overall international conservation effort to insure the long-term existence of lemur species.

ESSA Forêts requested financial help in their construction of an environmental center at Tampolo that will serve as a small "museum", interpretative center and meeting room. The hope is that an aggressive education outreach program that allows local residents and visitors to learn about the endangered forest and its inhabitants will help forestall further degradation. LCF was able to participate in this building project chiefly through the generosity of Malcolm & Priscilla McKenna and Judy Rasmuson & Ron Wallace. Our Malagasy colleagues have also proposed that LCF accept students from Madagascar at Myakka City Lemur Reserve to learn field techniques that follow strict scientific protocols. Eventually we hope to create an exchange that will also allow gifted young American LCF students to further hone their field skills under in-situ conditions at Tampolo Forest Station.

In addition to these educational initiatives, LCF has long-range plans including the establishment of the Institute of Malagasy Primate Studies (the library that will also serve as a base for an international scientific-conservation consortium) and the reintroduction of lemurs to Madagascar. With our Tampolo alliance we at LCF hope to accomplish all  these goals as we seek to increase our efficacy in the arena of conservation.

2003 Inauguration of the Interpretative Center & Museum at               Tampolo Forest Station, LCF’s Sister Reserve in Madagascar

On September 9, 2003, a small band of LCF trustees and donors of the Lemur Conservation Foundation celebrated the opening of the Interpretative Center & Museum in Tampolo Forest Station, our sister reserve in Madagascar. We had been on a joint American Museum of Natural History & LCF educational tour of Madagascar after which, some of our LCF group continued north to Tampolo.

What we anticipated to be an important day in the history of LCF became a truly thrilling lifetime event when we arrived to find about 200 enthusiastic attendees at Tampolo for the opening of the Center. There were assistant ministers, mayors, university directors, ex-pat conservationists and other luminaries in attendance and a great deal of speechifying. Young bi-lingual students from the Department of Forestry (ESSA-Forêts) at the University of Antananarivo served as hosts and translators. Joelisoa Ratsirarson, ESSA-Forêts/LCF Coordinator, served as Master of Ceremonies. The event was featured on national television news programs throughout Madagascar. As tradition dictates, a zebu cow was slaughtered for this propitious occasion and its meat served to everyone present (along with libations) as part of the festivities. Traditional dancers performed, flags were raised, ribbons were cut and a beautiful, engraved marble plaque was unveiled. It was an amazing and wonderful day.

The LCF underwrote most of the building costs for the Center itself and the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation supported the lovely and informative exhibits it houses. The educational exhibits feature the flora, fauna, and conservation concerns of Madagascar in general and of Tampolo in particular, as well as ethnographic displays about the local Betsimisaraka people. We hope that the Center and an aggressive education outreach program for local residents and visitors will help forestall further degradation as they learn about the endangered forest and its inhabitants. LCF donors Malcolm & Priscilla McKenna, Judy Rasmuson & Ron Wallace, and Brenda Wood contributed $13,000 of the overall $15,000 cost for building construction, but we were all impressed at how much “sweat equity” the Malagasy invested in the Center parlaying a modest investment into an extraordinary facility.

The opening of the Center was a tangible manifestation of the deeper implications of our collaboration with ESSA-Forêts, the agency managing Tampolo. It enables LCF to fit into an overall international conservation effort that increases our efficacy in the arena of conservation. 

Before the festivities, our LCF group (John and Emily Fisher Alexander, Malcolm and Priscilla McKenna, Ian Tattersall, Stuart Smith and Penelope Bodry-Sanders) spent time in this exquisite forest that is home to seven species of lemurs and phenomenal flora (some orchids are six-feet tall!). The Betsimisaraka, have protected this forest mainly because of its sacred status as a home of the ancestors (evident by the multiple tombs present), but it also enjoys government protection because it is one of the last vestiges of Madagascar’s lowland tropical forests.

After the Tampolo event we proceeded north to Daraina, Madagascar, where we went in search of the Golden-crowned Sifaka (Propithicus tattersalli) named after LCF scientist Dr. Ian Tattersall. It was both touching and exciting being with Ian as he encountered the lemur for the first time since he had discovered it in 1974.

The Center is only the first step in a relationship that we hope will grow and flourish over these next few years so that we can positively affect the world our children will inherit from us.

Tampolo Museum and Interpretive Center, funded by LCF

The Lemur Conservation Foundation is now in the process of building
the Reed and Barbara Toomey Tranosoa Tampolo (Tampolo Welcome House.)  The guest house was designed by the same Malagasy company, Manitra, that built the Tampolo Interpretive Center and Museum underwritten by the LCF. Manitra’s architect designed it according to our specifications, which include two bedrooms, two dormitory rooms (accommodating six cots or sleeping bags), two bathrooms (male and female), a living room, storage room and kitchen. The building is small – 120 square meters (about 1150 square ft), but adequate. To better understand its size we offer for comparison the square footage of LCF’s Office and Research Center, 1378 square ft. “Manitra” did an excellent and timely job on the museum and the guesthouse.

Art workshop at Tampolo  in 2005

In the summer of 2005, LCF sponsored  a watercolor workshop at Tampolo. Conducted by Deborah Ross, artist and teacher, the workshop aimed to inspire local villagers to explore the spectacular natural history that surrounds them, to render its beauty and to embrace its protection. The workshop was such a great success that  we  hope to organize yet another in the near future.

Paintings produced at Tampolo by both adults and children were the subject of an art exhibit at the Mary Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, in  the spring of 2006.

Updated 2007-10-18