Protecting Threatened Lemur Habitat in Madagascar

Today across Madagascar, 103 of the 107 surviving species of lemurs are threatened with extinction, with four of these species found in the Sainte Luce Littoral Forest. World Lemur Day is a global effort to raise awareness of this charismatic and incredibly diverse species and on 29th September, SEED Madagascar joined the rest of the world in celebration!

After a speech on the importance of protecting lemurs given by the Sainte Luce Chief of Community, the day kicked off with a lemur themed football tournament. All six teams were named after either four local lemur species or two of the trees ecologically crucial to them. There was a great turn out and it seemed that nearly the whole community of Sainte Luce was at the pitch to see the female, male, and veteran teams compete for their species to win. In the end, Team Red-collared brown lemur and Team Thomas dwarf lemur took the top prize money, in which they and the community decided to reinvest back into the football club. Football is a much-loved community activity in Sainte Luce, and by having a lemur-themed game, we hope to see more positive local associations with these species. The tournament was followed by a community screening of a Malagasy environmental animation about agroecology.

 We also caught up with Hoby, SEEDs Conservation Programme Team Leader, to ask him his thoughts on World Lemur Day:

“(World Lemur Day) is an important opportunity to teach the local community about the different species we can find in this area and raise awareness of their ecological importance and conservation. It is important to protect lemurs because they help the local community through seed dispersal and they are pollinators, just like bees and butterflies.”