Simpona

Dr. Erik R. Patel is a primatologist who has been working in Madagascar every year since 2000, where he has been studying the behavioral biology and conservation of one of the most critically endangered primates in the world, the silky sifaka lemur (Propithecus candidus). He earned his PhD from Cornell University and his Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Madagascar country field representative for the international environmental organization Seacology, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Lemur Conservation Foundation. Since January 2012, he is the Post Doctoral Project Manager for Duke University Lemur Center's growing conservation programs in the SAVA region.Erik Patel CV

Dr. Benjamin Andriamihaja started as a high school professor of Natural Sciences. He completed his doctorate in Geology and taught at the University of Antananarivo. His position as a Responsible for International Partnership at the Ministry of Higher Education motivated him to be involved with research since 1986. He is among the pioneers for Madagascar’s conservation programme (Environmental Plans I , II and III). He is the National Representative of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE) and Executive Director of the Madagascar Institut pour la Conservation des Ecosystèmes Tropicaux (MICET) which is a Malagasy Association devoted to education, research, health, and development of populations around protected areas since 1997.

Mr. Eric Mathieu is a French conservationist who is the co-founder of the Marojejy National Park website (www.marojejy.com) and has been living in Madagascar since 1993. He has led hundreds of tours in northeastern Madagascar and is fluent in the Tsimihety dialect of Malagasy. He is pictured on the right hand side of this photo with Mr. Mosesy, who is the Chief of the Marojejy National Park Guide Association.

Mr. Rabary Desire has been part of our team since our first day in Marojejy in 2001. He is our most experienced silky sifaka research guide and is particularly knowledgebale about the wide variety of plant foods that silky sifakas consume. He is the founder of Antanetiambo Nature Reserve, one of the only reserves in northern Madagascar created from start to finish by a local resident. In 2010, he was awarded the Seacology Prize, a prestigious international environmental prize which included funding for his reserve as well as a trip to the United States. Due to his achievements, he has been featured in several international films.

Photo: Kris Norvig

Jean Nestor Randrianasy ("Nestor") is the most experienced silky sifaka tracker in the world, and has been working with us every year since 2001. None can match his ability to find the silkies around Camp 2 (which do not have radio collars), which often requires that he leaves camp before dawn to arrive at the sleeping tree where we left them the night before. Out of respect, the other members of our team have given him the nickname "Grand Maitre" or Grand Master, in English.

Photo: Kris Norvig

Lanto Andrianandrasana has been working with our team since 2006. He has considerable managerial and field research experience with silky sifakas in Marojejy and Makira, and has also worked with Milne-Edwards’ sifakas, greater bamboo lemurs, and black-and-white ruffed lemurs in Ranomafana National Park. In 2010, Lanto led a survey team deep into the heart of Marojejy National Park (Andalangy region) for more than 6 weeks. Seven new groups of silky sifakas were discovered on that mission. Since September 2011, Lanto has been working full time for Duke Lemur Center in the Marojejy region; facilitating a variety of new conservation initiatives, such as environmental education teacher trainings and reforestation.

Photo: Kris Norvig

Guy Irenel Raoliniaina (Guy) has been working with our team since 2007. Guy is our leading silky sifaka data collector and has a tremendous amount of experience in collecting silky sifaka behavioral, dietary, and GPS data. He has worked extensively in Marojejy National Park (where he is one of the park's leading ecotourist guides) and in the Makira Natural Park. Guy has completed Lycee and also several years of University in Diego where he studied history.

Photo: Kris Norvig

Jean Chrysostome Bevao (Jean Chrys) is a local botanist who has been working with our team extensively since 2008. Few people in the entire Marojejy region are as knowledgeable about local flora. He has also worked with WWF and Dr. Steve Goodman’s team during their classic Marojejy biodiversity inventory in 1996.

Tonkasina Jacques Harson (“Jackson”), one of the best ecotourist guides for Marojejy National Park, has been working with our team since 2007. Jackson is one of the important leaders of our population survey team. He has led numerous lemur surveys inside and outside of Marojejy. He is also a very good carpenter and built the Marojejy Community Library. He is pictured on the left hand side of the photo with Elise Queslin who completed her Masters Degree at Oxford Brookes University on silky sifaka feeding ecology and diet in Marojejy.

Desiré RAZAFIMAHATRATRA ("Dez Kely"), one of the leading eco-tourist guides for Marojejy National Park, has been working with our team since 2007. He has participated in numerous silky sifaka population surveys as well as collected long-term data on the main study group at Camp 2. He is pictured on the left side of this photo assisting an American Masters student (Rachel Kramer, see below) with a socio-economic research project in the very remote village of Antsahaberaoka on the west side of Marojejy. Dez is currently finishing a large new house which he calls "Villa SIMPONA" because he earned the money for his new house by working with our team.

A group photo of some of our key SIMPONA team members and supporters.

Rachel Kramer is a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow pursuing a Masters in environmental science at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and Conservation Ecology from Brandeis University. Rachel was awarded a Tropical Resources Institute Fellowship in 2011 to research social equity and impacts of integrated conservation and development investments on silky sifaka lemur habitat, for which she surveyed 500 farming households in the Marojejy National Park region. Rachel has worked with the Climate Change, Deforestation and Agriculture Project at National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. to engage key industry actors and the public in working towards supply chain sustainability for global commodities, including cattle products sourced from the Brazilian Amazon. She served three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Environmental Protection sector in the Maroantsetra and Andapa regions of Madagascar, partnered with Wildlife Conservation Society and Antanetiambo Nature Reserve. Rachel is currently co-chair of the Yale Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters, and research assistant to Sir Peter Crane, Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Paul Atkinson (pictured on the far left) has a Masters Degree in Geophysics from the Univeristy of Alaska, and served several years in Madagascar as a Peace Corps volunteer working with the guides of Marojejy National Park. Though he now works for the U.S. National Park Service in the snowy reaches of Alaska, he maintains close ties to Marojejy and its remarkable wildlife and people, and he continues to assist the SIMPONA team with mapping and database projects given his GIS expertise. He is shown in this photo with his good friends and SIMPONA team members Desiré Rabary and Nestor.