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P A G E 6
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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
School and Bridge at Antsahaberaoka Finished!
If you have been following our SAVA
Conservation newsletters since the first issue
in April 2012 you will remember articles
about the progress of construction of the
Seacology funded school and bridge, at the
village of Antsahaberaoka. Seacology is a
California based environmental organization
which has supported small development
projects on islands in 51 countries, and Dr.
Erik Patel has been their Madagascar
Country Field Representative since 2009.
We are very pleased to announce that
both the school and bridge are now
completed, and were inaugurated in
November of last year, with Lanto assisting
at the inauguration. The school district has
also lived up to their commitment of sending
an experienced state paid teacher so that
parents do not have to have pay some local
resident to teach. As a reminder, these
education and development projects are
explicitly in exchange for renewed protection
of that remote region of Marojejy National
Park, where Erik’s team had found an
unusually high number of silky sifakas,
several years ago. Oversight of the
construction was a collaborative effort of the
local CISCO (school district),
and DLC-
SC, which strengthens our relationships with
these key organizations.
We would like to thank Seacology for
their generous investment which will help to
protect a critical and remote region of
Marojejy, but will also contribute to local
education. Such dual objective activities are
critical to achieving sustainable conservation
and building relationships with local
communities.