Lemurs out on a Limb

Dr Jonah Ratsimbazafy is one of Madagascar's leading primatologists and co-vice chair of the Madagascar section of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. 

He also heads the Madagascar primate study research group GERP and is an Associate Professor at the University of Antananarivo where he supervises student research projects and trains students to tackle current issues in conservation.

Before joining GERP, Jonah worked as Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust’s training and conservation co-ordinator for Madagascar, responsible for building the conservation capacity of the staff and partners at Durrell-Madagascar sites.

Jonah is also a co-author of Conservation International’s Lemurs of Madagascar Field Guides.

Dr Rainer Dolch has a PhD in Ecology from the University of Göttingen and has been working in Madagascar since 1992.

As senior coordinator of the Malagasy conservation organisation Association Mitsinjo, his interest and research has been focusing on Madagascar's threatened and endemic animal and plant species, stretching across a wide variety of taxa including lemurs.

Dr Julia Jones is senior lecturer in conservation at the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography at Bangor University. Her research looks at how people interact with natural resources and how incentives can be best designed to maintain ecosystem services.

She is interested in the growing field of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and how such schemes can effectively deliver global environmental benefits while also having a positive impact on local livelihoods. Much of her research is based in Madagascar where she has worked for nearly 15 years. 

Julia started working in Madagascar in 2001 doing a PhD looking at the sustainability of crayfish harvesting in the eastern rainforests. This PhD started out with a focus on population dynamics and harvesting models but the time she spent working with crayfish harvesters got her interested in the role that traditional institutions such as taboos play in resource management. This started her into interdisciplinary research; integrating social science and ecology.

Twitter: @juliapgjones

Dr Ivan Scales is McGrath Lecturer in Geography at St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. His research emphasises the role of political, cultural and economic factors in shaping the way natural resources are used and contested, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He has carried out fieldwork in Cameroon, French Guiana, The Gambia, Madagascar and Senegal.

He has worked in Madagascar since 2002, where his research has focused on the drivers of deforestation and the politics of forest use and conservation. He recently edited a book on 'Conservation and Environmental Management in Madagascar'. 

Other research projects include work on the emerging political economy of agriculture in Africa (with a focus on biofuels and biotechnology); green capitalism and ethical consumption; and the environmental values held by different individuals and groups (from rural households in Africa to research scientists and conservation organisations). 

Twitter: @ivanscales

Website: http://ivanscales.tumblr.com/