The final version of The Global Biodiversity Standard manual for the evaluation and best practice for ecological restoration can be downloaded here biodiversitystandard.org/2024/06/18/jun… - great summary of global thinking concerning best practice for restoration. Thanks Biodiversity Challenge Funds

Defra UK is funding over 30 projects across #Madagascar to protect nature & support development. Delighted to host our wonderful partners & the visiting 🇬🇧 team led by Government Office for Science & andrea ledward to share best practice & enhance collaboration. 🇬🇧🤝🇲🇬

Last week mini cultural/biodiversity festivals were held at 4 villages around Vohidava-Betsimilaho PA #Madagascar. Events included football, relay races, traditional dance, and yes, speeches about biodiversity from local VIPs. MoBot Research Dept.

The best way to find "lost" plants in #Madagascar is to ask the locals. Here looking for Euphorbia ankazobensis (seen just once in the past - in 1989). Thanks Fondation Franklinia

The Ankarabolava-Agnakatrika forest in SE #Madagascar (home of CR lemur Eulemur cinereiceps) is being restored. In June 637 local people helped us plant 8000 young plants of native trees. Thanks World Land Trust.

Great to have @Madagascar represented at the Global Botanic Garden Congress in Singapore: Narindra presenting on The Global Biodiversity Standard. Thanks Botanic Gardens Conservation International and Biodiversity Challenge Funds

Great to be back in Agnalazaha w Chris Birkinshaw Delighted to see that last year's attempt at laying a hedge is still alive & even happier to see the results from the expert hedger I brought with me this time! Lots of enthusiasm from the community for this Biodiversity Challenge Funds supported project

Great to be part of the workshop sharing our hedges project with local VIPs and NGOs incl Centre ValBio SEED Madagascar Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership CRS Madagascar @HIHngo #GERP #MNP #Tsimoka et al. Lots of valuable input so we can build a better and stronger project going forward 💪

Day 2 and we're out meeting some beneficiaries and demonstrating hedge-laying in situ, before discussing plans for the future and optimal planting strategies

Day 1 of our annual meeting hosted by Chester Zoo Science is done and day 2 well underway. We're starting with restoration and will be moving onto agroforesty, education, community engagement and, of course, more lemurs!

Always looking for ways to improve performance of native trees used in forest restoration in #Madagascar. Seedlings planted with biochar and bamboo tree guard grow three times faster than those with neither. Thanks MFG and AZH.

The iconic spiny thicket in southern #Madagascar is being rapidly lost. Some of the best remaining large areas of this vegetation are now found on the Vohidava-Betsimilaho Massif, in the upper Mandare River Valley. Watch these drone flight over this site youtube.com/watch?v=dF6Gn_…

Some of participants of Association MIATRIKA, MoBot Research Dept., and @TeamKMCC project to improve pasture land management in #Masdagascar for people and biodiversity. Thanks Biodiversity Challenge Funds

Unexpectedly the Critically Endangered radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) occurs in the Vohidava-Betsimilaho Protected Area #Madagascar: much further north than suggested in the literature.

Somehow, over next 6 months Fikambanana Bongolava Maintso will produce 200,000 seedlings of native tree and use these to launch restoration on 75 hectares of the damaged Bongolava Forest. But so dry, our water source, once a impressive lake, has shrunk to a hole. Tks Biodiversity Challenge Funds

One of the threats to the Makirovana-Tsihomanaomby Forest #Madagascsar is wild fires. Groups of village fire fighters have been trained and equipped. Here being awarded certificates by the Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development. Tks Biodiversity Challenge Funds

Following a fire in 2023 at Ankafobe Forest #Madagascar, experimental dense direct sowing of Trema orientale seeds in small holes has resulted in a layer of young trees (up to 2 m tall) protecting soil and providing shade for underplanting of a wider array of native tree species

So impressed by camera traps as method to improve faunal inventories. This image is the first evidence of Fossa fossana (VU) living in Agnalazaha Forst #Madagascar. Thanks Claude Ralazampirenena.

Another camera trap image from Agnalazaha #Madagascar

I am joining the exodus from X and new posts can, henceforth, be found on bluesky: @chrisbirkinshaw.bsky.social