Two days in Philibhit
WWF-India set up the Tiger Conservation Project in January 1997 with a grant of 1.8 million Swiss Francs. This project was designed to run alongside the government’s Project Tiger which was set up in 1973 to assist the plight of the tiger.
At the Lemurs’ Festival
After having spent one week with our host family, we five volunteers from Europe together with the WWF Andapa spent another full week close to the rainforest, from where we could observe lemurs. Spending some time waiting paid off: We finally managed to spot a Simpona mother together with her baby! Afterwards, with the WWF Andapa’s assistance, we made arrangements for the «Festival of the Lemurs», a festivity for the people of Anjialavabe.
First Steps in the Jungle
After one introductory week, in which we volunteers were informed about the WWF projects in Madagascar, we finally get to enter the wilderness for the first time. In the early morning hours I am saying goodbye to my host family. In the glow of my flashlight, I am walking over to the meeting point of the «Amis des Lémuriens» (French: Friends of the Lemurs). Everything is still quiet in the hamlet Ambodiasina. Its 2600 inhabitants are fast asleep in their wooden shacks and cabins that are built on wooden posts as a protection in the rainy season. The trails, which are usually filled with playing children, are still deserted.
Love At First Sight
Only 2 meters away from me, he is coolly leaning against a tree trunk and looks straight into my eyes. Until this day, I haven’t believed in anything like ‘love at first sight’. Now I know that I it does exist. I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Visiting the GTZ Project, Vanua Levu
In the second month of my internship I was able to visit the project of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Drawa, Vanua Levu (second largest Island in Fiji). The GTZ project is about a community managed forest area, which includes awareness rising and training concerning sustainable forest management.
Most of the Inhabitants have understood that they should conserve the forest for the next generation...
Rhadi
Rhadi is really a very pleasant place to be. Situated on one side of the valley, it offers wonderful views on the villages and paddy fields on the other side. The Rhadi people are mostly farmers, growing rice and maize, and their houses are scattered widely, surrounded by fields, orange trees and kitchen gardens, in which cows and ponies roam around lazily, trying to eat the vegetables until – ssshhhttt – they are being chased away.
Facing Reality
Any biologist would love to visit Madagascar. After all, it is renowned for its richness in biodiversity and endemism.
I thought of all those images I had seen from the country—the lemurs, the chameleons, the baobabs… I became fascinated with the idea of finally being able to see unique species. My expectation was to be immersed in wild nature during most part of the internship.
But I was mistaken.
What's In A Name?
Did you know that people in Madagascar do not have last names? This type of anonymity is hard to imagine in today’s world, where tools for identification seem to be basic. People in the African Island do not have a standardized family name—a father does not share his last name with either his children or his siblings.