Tangorogna 2017: p4ges results shared at Alaotra-Mangoro region’s ‘big meeting’

Josué Rakotoarisoa and Raphali Andriantsimanarilafy report:

Each year, regional authorities from Alaotra-Mangoro organize fair which is dedicated to local people for presenting their product. This year, the name fair was “Tangorogna” which mean big meeting. This region includes Moramanga and Ambatondrazaka district where we conducted most of our research on p4ges project. In objective of sharing our results at different level; Madagasikara Voakajy’s team represented by Josué (WP5), Raphali (WP5&3) and Victor (WP3) were attended this event on 19th to 22nd of July within Ambatondrazaka main town.

During the 4 days of the event, we exhibited posters showing the mains results of the project; gave more explanation on our work to people and distributed Malagasy version of the booklet. Many people were visited our stand attracted by our posters, with colorful and beautiful images and photos of Madagascar’s biodiversity. Most of the people visited the stand were very curious and asked lots of questions. The age and social class of people who visited our stand is very varied. There were children, much attracted by the pictures of animals and photos of landscape and biodiversity on the posters. There were also young people who were very motivated by his passion for environmental protection. And finally, there were adults who asked for advice and informations about the natural conservation and sustainable development. During the last day of the fair event, we gave presentation of our result to youth lemurs’ ambassadors from Mangabe protected area within Moramanga District. They are very curious about carbon storage and the biodiversity of Madagascar. At the end of the presentation; they were really happy and gave more thanks to p4ges team for sharing this important knowledge to them. They promised to give their maximum for protecting environment and incite people in their respective localities on conservation.

Our participation in this fair is a great success due to the number of visitors to our stand which can be estimated about 300 per day and are also convinced of the importance and value of Malagasy biodiversity. It was a great success also, a very interesting experience and a better opportunity for sharing our experience about conservation and research results, not only for the P4ges project, but also a great opportunity for other research projects. Finally, participating to the Alaotra Mangoro fair was an unforgettable event. It allowed us to meet with people who helped and worked with us during field work of the P4ges project and many other people for future project.