New Season of Conservation Podcast to Focus on Lemurs and Madagascar

This Fall, the Lemur Conservation Network (LCN) is thrilled to collaborate with Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast on a series of episodes about conservation in Madagascar.

The first episode will launch on September 20 with an introduction to lemurs and their conservation by LCN’s Director, Lucia Rodriguez. Throughout September and October, podcast host Jack Baker will chat with 8 Malagasy and international experts about pivotal topics for lemur conservation, including responsible tourism, wildlife hunting, community conservation, government collaboration, education, and more.

You will learn about lemurs, baobabs, and other wildlife on this unique island from the people working to ensure that both Malagasy people and Madagascar’s wildlife can thrive. The final episode in this 12-part series will launch on October 29 for World Lemur Day, where we’ll discuss how you can celebrate the World Lemur Festival, and what you can to do help save lemurs from extinction.

Listen to the Trailer for this Season on Madagascar

Find this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Anchor.fm.

Listen to the August Episode with SEED Madagascar

In the last season of the podcast, Jack interviewed Lisa Bass of SEED Madagascar to discuss their work and how they are addressing the famine in southern Madagascar through food relief and health programs.

What is Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast?

We chatted with podcast host Jack Baker about his goals for the podcast, and why he is working with the Lemur Conservation Network on this new season.

Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast is a show dedicated to amplifying the under-appreciated, under-examined, and important conservation stories which inspire me, with the hope that they will also inspire you. In the past we have covered topics such as the conservation of the Giant Armadillo, the impact of pollutants on cetaceans, and the plight of the Pangolin.

Collaboration and education are two values which are extremely important to me, and so when I was thinking about what I wanted to cover in my 3rd Season, the Lemur Conservation Network jumped out as an obvious choice for a participant.

Can you share memorable moments from your discussions about conservation in Madagascar?

It has been an absolute joy to record these episodes. The passion and excitement from each of my guests is incredible. Not only are they passionate about the protection of Lemurs, but their interests in other areas such as tourism, education, botany and climate change make the series truly special. They are all fantastic! Here are some highlights:

From Dr. Marni LaFleur of Lemur Love on finding hope:

Conservation can be very difficult because you can feel very overwhelmed, like everything is hopeless, and the problem is just so big that how can you ever have some kind of an impact. But for me, one of the things that is really important is to think about individuals. So that counts for lemurs and that counts for people too … knowing that you make a difference to individuals.

From Hervet Randriamady of MAHERY on mental health issues in Madagascar:

We need to deal with malaria, diarrhea, and other diseases but mental health issues are another problem now in Madagascar. I’m really interested in this because it is very under-researched in my country. I try to see how food and environmental change, and how seasonality interlinks to mental health.

From Thierra Augustin Heriniaina of Ranomafana Tours on the impact of Covid and adapting tourism to an online audience: 

When the pandemic came, it’s like time stopped. There was nobody, the border is closed, the road is closed, and even internal borders were closed. Especially during the previous year, we could not communicate with each other from region to region, and even the way to get food from one area to another area is very hard. So this is the reason why we had lots of ideas on what exact project we could set up to make income.