As part of the cycle of annual conferences initiated by the Tour du Valat to pay tribute to Heinz Hafner’s work for the conservation of waterbirds and wetlands, we are pleased to invite you to the 2024 annual conference to be held on Thursday November 14 at 6.30pm in the Jean-Paul Taris room at the Tour du Valat, accessible by videoconference.
Olivier Langrand, new member of the Tour du Valat Scientific and Conservation Council, will present in English :
Building the capacity of conservation biologists and civil society organizations: the Madagascar example
👉To attend the remote webinar, please register before November 7, 2024 by following this link.
The webinar access link will be sent to you a few days before.
Abstract :
Madagascar makes up part of one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, some of Earth’s most biologically rich yet threatened terrestrial ecosystems. The island nation’s flora and the fauna present great diversity and a high level of endemism. Over 13,700 vascular plant species have been inventoried, representing 3.6% of the world’s flora on only 567,000 km2 — 0.4% of the planet’s emerged land. Madagascar is also considered as one of the highest conservation priorities due to the dramatic reduction of its forest cover over the past century. Historically, the documentation and conservation of Malagasy biota have been done by foreign scientists and conservationists with very limited input from national stakeholders. In the past 20 years significant efforts have been made to train Malagasy biodiversity scientists and conservationists. At the same time, a grant program has been made available to civil society organizations and community groups to implement projects dedicated to conserving biodiversity. The presentation will highlight the capacity-building efforts and the results that they have generated in terms of the knowledge and conservation of the biodiversity of Madagascar.
Speaker’s biography :
For the past ten years, Olivier Langrand has been the executive director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a multi-donor fund dedicated to protecting biodiversity hotspots — the planet’s most biologically diverse yet threatened areas — through the support of civil society organizations. Conservation International is one of CEPF’s global donors and hosts the CEPF Secretariat at its headquarters. Olivier’s wildlife conservation career spans 40 years, half of it spent in the field. He has extensive experience in the design and implementation of field research and tropical forest conservation programs in Madagascar and southern and central Africa. Olivier previously served as the director of global affairs for the non-profit Island Conservation, in several capacities for Conservation International and as technical advisor and regional representative for WWF-International. An avid birder, Olivier is considered an expert on the birds of the southwestern Indian Ocean islands and has authored four field guides on the avifauna of Madagascar, the Comoros, the Mascarenes, and the Seychelles islands. Olivier grew up in France and lived in Madagascar, Gabon, and South Africa. He has a Master of Science in zoology from the University of Natal in South Africa. Olivier currently lives in the United States of America near Washington, D.C.