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    WWF scandal

    Recently the WWF has been confronted with extremely serious accusations concerning its human rights’ record which in many well documented cases is appalling. The cases brought to light by BuzzFeed’s investigative journalists do not directly concern Madagascar. However, they make clear that human rights violations under the cover of nature conservation are widespread. Read all

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    Travelling to Masoala?

    To those of you who plan to visit Masoala, we recommend HARIMALALA Paul Clément as your tourist guide. Paul is an extraordinarily competent and knowledgeable person; he is an official tourist guide and speaks French as well as some English.  If you wish to contact him, please do so via the Contact form on this

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    Update on our Petition

    Our online petition “Respect basic human rights in Masoala, Madagascar” has up to date been signed by 318 people from around the world. After we had received 300 signatures, we informed the Deputy of the district of Maroantsetra, the Director of the Masoala National Park and the head of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Madagascar about the

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    Our Petition

    Our Petition | Background In 1997, most of the Masoala peninsula in Madagascar was declared a strictly protected national park. The Masoala National Park has swallowed up some of the land that local communities are using to grow food or were intending to pass on to their children for them to grow food. This reduction

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    New book on Nature Conservation in Masoala

    Eva Keller, founder of Human Rights in Masoala, has been working for many years on a social anthropological research project concerning perceptions of nature conservation in Masoala. Her book BEYOND THE LENS OF CONSERVATION. MALAGASY AND SWISS IMAGINATIONS OF ONE ANOTHER has now been published. http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=KellerBeyond This is what the book’s about: Nowadays, items of every

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    New Report on Land Grabbing in Madagascar

    LAND GRABBING IN MADAGASCAR. ECHOES AND TESTIMONIES FROM THE FIELD is a new comprehensive report over current land grabbing projects in different regions in Madagascar. These include land grabs to produce food or medicinal plants for export, to produce biofuel, to produce timber through reforestation or to extract minerals from the soil. The report is

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    Refusing farmers’ humanity

    Malagasy farmers are often said to be engaged in agricultural practices that will inevitably lead to the eventual destruction of the exceptional natural environment where they live. In order to prevent such a scenario, it is expected that they should always keep in mind the long-term effects of their subsistence practices. They are expected, for

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    The Washington Post

    Published two years ago in THE WASHINGTON POST on 25 January 2010, Katherine Marshall’s column about the concerns raised by Human Rights in Masoala remains up-to-the-minute. Read here about the parable of the monkey and the fish. 10/02/2012

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    Expulsion of Malagasy families from their land

    The Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches  has launched an online petition against the expulsion of Malagasy families from their land due to a number of causes. These causes include the creation of protected areas for nature conservation. The example of the Masoala National Park is mentioned in the petition. For a brief statement by its

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    DON’T MISS

    On Sunday 24 July (14:30) and Saturday 6 August (01:05), FRANCE 5 will show a documentary called “La lune et le bananier” about the Masoala National Park. Picking up Eva Keller’s work, filmmaker Daniel Serre documents how the Masoala National Park has deprived many local people of important means of livelihood without giving them any

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    “Just Conservation”

    We have uploaded a link to Just Conservation. Just Conservation is a facebook platform (accessible also to those not on facebook) providing information on issues similar to the ones that Human Rights in Masoala is concerned with. Just Conservation raises concerns about social injustices in connection with environmental conservation in countries around the world. The site

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    Cyclone in February 2011

    On 14 February 2011, Ambanizana – one of the villages that the documents you find on this website talk about and where Eva Keller has spent many months – was badly damaged by cyclone Bingiza. This has probably been the worst cyclone in the village since 1950. The water flooded the houses reaching a level

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