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Community
On this Madagascar wildlife holiday, we use local naturalist guides and other local staff which allows them stay in their local villages rather than head to the city for work. Their communities can take pride in how their environment and wildlife brings international attention, and observe the real economic benefit to them of keeping the environment intact, preserving the wildlife which our clients come to see. As well as your Malagasy private guide, at each reserve local park guides are also hired who know where to find the wildlife and keep their fee income within the locality.
At Ankarafantsika, you stay in the national park service’s huts and your fees go towards the park service’s work – thus your visit helps preserve one of the last viable remnants of western dry deciduous tropical forest with its rare and endangered species such as Coquerel’s sifaka and Van Dam’s vanga. This is where the Durrell Trust runs its rare tortoise conservation project, which also depends on visitors to some extent for its income – these visitors go home and spread the word about the trust’s good work.
Environment
Perinet and Mantadia are the last redoubts of the indri indri (the largest lemur), the rare diademed sifaka and the beautiful black and white ruffed lemur. Visitors pay entrance fees which go to the park service, and their fees support the local guides. The local hotels – whose livelihoods depend on the wildlife – also work hard to ensure the parks are well protected so that visitors keep on coming.
The comfortable island resort of Tsarabanjina is nevertheless low impact, uses local building materials and staff, recycles its rubbish and takes great care of the coral reefs in the Mitsio archipelago. Many visitors come to snorkel or dive the reefs, which are some of the best in the world and have suffered far less damage than others in recent years.
For twenty years our philosophy has been to take small numbers of sympathetic, like-minded people to areas of unspoilt natural beauty, thereby demonstrating to the local population the economic advantages of preserving their natural heritage rather than destroying it for short-term gain.
There are many examples to be found within our various destinations where our kind of natural history tourism has led to the formation of protected areas, many on privately-owned properties which might otherwise have been clear-felled and converted to agriculture.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
