Since its founding in 1978, the goals of the Bezà Mahafaly partnership have been to (1) conserve unique forests and diverse wildlife in Southwest Madagascar, (2) enhance the livelihoods and well-being of people living in and around these forests, and (3) support a training and research center for Malagasy and international students and researchers. The geographical heart of the partnership is the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve (BMSR), established by national decree in 1986, and expanded in 2015 with the support of a dina (a local social contract).
The partnership today is led by the local community together with the School of Agronomy (ESSA, University of Antananarivo), and Madagascar National Parks, which has management responsibility for the Reserve as part of the national Protected Areas Network. In recent years, conservation and development goals have expanded to include 16 communities south of the Onilahy River.
BMSR’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) population has been monitored since 1984. Since 1995, a locally-recruited monitoring team overseen by ESSA has collected systematic data on temperatures and rainfall, flora and fauna, and the socio-economy of the Ankazombalala Commune where BMSR is located. All records are available at https://peabody.yale.edu/explore/collections/mammalogy/madagascar-lemurs-sifaka-database, under a collaborative agreement between the University of Antananarivo and Yale University.
