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Exceptional Marojejy Guide Mr. Desiré Rabary has considerably expanded the size of the nature reserve he founded
called Antanetiambo (“on the high hill”), which was described in the reforestation article. Since he won the “Seacology
Prize”
in
2010,
an
i n t e r n a t i o n a l
environmental
prize
which included a cash
award of $10,000 USD, he
has been buying land to
increase the size of his
reserve (see film:
.
In the past two years
he
has
impressively
negotiated several large
land purchases increasing
the size of the main
reserve (now about 25
acres) by about 40% and
obtaining several satellite
parcels of rainforest along
the east side of Marojejy
National Park. The Duke
Lemur
Center
SAVA
Conservation project is
supporting his work in a
variety of ways, such as by
paying the salary of the
reserve guardian, creating
a dozen new boundary
demarcation signs and
financing some of the
reforestation
activities
taking place this year. In
the future, we hope to
assist him in obtaining
formal legal land title for
his reserve. Desiré still
lives in the same small
traditional hut where he
has lived for many years,
preferring to spend his
award money on buying
land to protect it and not
on himself. His passion
for conservation is a
shining example to his
countrymen.
S A V A C O N S E R V A T I O N
P A G E 1 1
V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 1
Antanetiambo Reserve founder Mr. Desir
é
Rabary
Photo by Daniella Herzog
Antanetiambo Nature Reserve Grows in Size!
By Dr. Erik Patel
Antanetiambo Reserve is an island of rainforest in a sea of rice fields
Photo by Rachel Kramer