Building trust, capacity, and solutions with local people is the best way to help wildlife. Long-term relationship building is the key to lasting conservation success. In Madagascar, Malagasy people are the key to saving lemurs from extinction. It is important to work with local communities, not against them.
Can lemurs be saved?
We can all help save lemurs from extinction. Conservation isn't easy. People and organizations are working across Madagascar with local communities on reforestation, habitat protection, education, building local capacity, and more.
Why should we protect lemurs?
Why are lemurs so important to Madagascar? Lemurs are the most threatened group of mammals on earth, yet they provide priceless ecosystem services. From an ecological perspective, they help maintain Madagascar's forests and many plant species rely on lemurs for survival.
What can we do to save the Madagascar?
Urgent actions
- Tackle corruption and environmental crime. …
- Invest in protected areas and support local people to do the same. …
- Ensure major infrastructure has limited impact on biodiversity. …
- Strengthen local tenure rights. …
- Address the fuel wood crisis.
May 12, 2019
What are the main threats to lemurs?
The animals face a variety of threats, primarily the destruction of their tropical forest habitat, from so-called slash-and-burn agriculture, illegal logging, charcoal production and mining. The hunting of lemurs for food, and their live capture for the pet trade has also emerged as a serious threat to their survival.
What efforts are being made to protect primates in Madagascar?
Long-term conservation Other activities include working with local schools, where we distribute educational materials to raise awareness and run teaching sessions. We also facilitate reforestation projects, which encourage local people to engage with protecting the precious rainforest the lemurs inhabit.
What do lemurs do for fun?
Due to living an arboreal lifestyle, lemurs can do amazing things such as making a sashay-like movement on their hind legs with their arms stretched above them as they move along the ground. Most species of lemur spend a majority of their lives high in the trees they live in.
How do lemurs contribute to the environment?
Lemurs play a very important role in Madagascar's forests, serving a wide variety of ecological roles from seed dispersal and pollination to maintaining forest structure.
What do ring tailed lemurs do for fun?
Ring tailed lemurs spend more than a third of their time on the ground, more than any other lemur species. They like to sunbathe in the mornings to warm themselves up. You will see them sitting with their arms outstretched, like they are sun-worshipping.
What are 5 reasons species are becoming extinct?
The main modern causes of extinction are the loss and degradation of habitat (mainly deforestation), over exploitation (hunting, overfishing), invasive species, climate change, and nitrogen pollution.