60,000 Trees
/By Keriann McGoogan
Planting season has begun for Planet Madagascar. Our teams are made up of local Malagasy community members from three different communities in Ankarafantsika National Park, Northwest Madagascar. These community members have been tirelessly tending to seedlings in three nurseries for months. Each day, teams check the plants, make sure they have enough water, and measure their progress. The seedlings span roughly 15 different species, indigenous to Madagascar. Beginning in January, these seedlings are ready to plant.
Our forest restoration initiative, funded by IUCN Save Our Species, has been ongoing since 2017, and we are so proud to announce that since that time we have planted more than 60,000 trees in our 75-hectare plantation zone.
Planet Madagascar’s forest restoration project aims to expand lemur habitat by creating and maintaining a 75-hectare forest corridor. This corridor connects two of the largest dry forest fragments in Ankarafantsika, home to eight different species of lemur. Lemurs are the most endangered group of animals in the world. According to the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species, one third of all lemur species are threatened with extinction, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation. In Ankarafantsika, five of the eight different species of lemur are endangered or critically endangered according to the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species.
Our teams on the ground in Madagascar know the importance of the work that they do. By tending to, transporting, and planting the seedlings, they are helping to build forest—lemur habitat—that will contribute to saving lemurs, which are only found in Madagascar and nowhere else in the world. The community members also know that the work that they do helps to improve their own livelihoods. Ongoing employment helps to generate revenue and support their families. It is a win-win situation.
Between January 2021 and March 2021, we jumped into planting season. We hired 86 temporary employees (in addition to our core 15 nursery staff and 18 fire management team members) to support these efforts. These hardworking individuals planted 14,698 seedlings in our plantation zone. They have marked each of the seedlings that they planted with a GPS and put ID tags on them. By identifying each seedling, we can monitor its progress and measure our success.
As we watch the more than 60,000 trees that we have planted grow and the forest gradually take shape, it is easy to imagine lemurs living in this newly created forest. We can see them in our mind’s eye. The tiny golden brown mouse lemur zipping from branch to branch, finding insects to eat. The majestic Coquerel’s sifaka, using their powerful hindlimbs to leap between the trees we have planted in search of fruits. Perhaps even the critically endangered mongoose lemur will emerge in that forest, carrying their infants on their backs as they move within the canopy. It is those lemurs and the people that live within these forests that motivate us to continue our projects and we are thrilled to see our efforts take shape.
This project is funded by IUCN Save Our Species. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Planet Madagascar and do not necessarily reflect the views of IUCN.