Dramatis personae
ROLAND ALBIGNAC, French academic. Director of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Project. Key to achieving national park status for the Mananara Reserve.
JOSEPH ANDRIAMPIANINA, forest specialist. School of Agronomy, University of Antananarivo; head of the National Office of the Environment in the 1980s.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, BBC wildlife presenter, pioneering broadcaster and naturalist.
JOSEF BEDO, naturalist, guide and son of chief forester at Perinet.
DENNIS DEL CASTILLO, Peruvian agronomist and conservationist; head at the Amazon Research Institute.
DE HEAULMES, French–Malagasy owners of Berenty Reserve and sisal plantation. Three generations of the de Heaulme family have preserved the Berenty Reserve since 1936, and welcomed scientists since 1963.
FRANÇOIS FALLOUX, senior environmental advisor, Africa Region at the World Bank, and architect of the National Environmental Action Plan, Madagascar.
JÖRG GANZHORN, German ecologist and conservationist associated with Tsimamampetsotsa Reserve.
LISA GAYLORD, environment and development expert who has worked for USAID, World Conservation Society and Rio Tinto QMM.
JOLLY family: Alison’s husband Richard and children Margaretta, Susan, Arthur (Morris) and Richard (Dickon).
FRANS LANTING, Dutch photographer, best known for his outstanding wildlife photographs in National Geographic.
TOM LOVEJOY, pioneer in the science and conservation of biological diversity; originator of the concept of debt-for-nature swaps. Formerly director of the World Wildlife Fund US program; American University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy.
BERNHARD MEIER, German biologist; co-discoverer of the golden bamboo lemur, Ranamanfana.
RUSSELL MITTERMEIER, American primatologist and herpetologist. President of Conservation International.
EMMA NAPPER, BBC Earth producer for One Planet, including Madagascar (2011).
TOSHISADA NISHIDA, Japanese primatologist. Head of Evolution Studies at Kyoto University in Japan; former president of the International Primatological Society.
JOE AND DAI PETERS, American conservation resource managers and consultants in conservation education and development. Worked at Ranomafana National Park.
JEAN-JACQUES AND ARLETTE PETTER, French primatologists who pioneered the study of lemurs.
LÉON RAJAOBELINA, Malagasy economist and conservationist. Formerly governor of the Central Bank, minister of finance during the elaboration of the NEAP, ambassador to the USA in the 1980s, and vice president of Conservation International.
ÉMILE RAJERIARSON, Malagasy researcher and guide at Ranamafana National Park; co-discoverer of the golden bamboo lemur with Bernhard Meier. An amphibian is named after him.
NY FANJA RAKOTOMALALA, Malagasy engineer. President of Rio Tinto QMM.
BERTHE RAKOTOSAMIMANANA, Malagasy primatologist.
PERMANENT Secretary of Higher Education, Secretary General of the Groupe d’Études et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar (GERP) from its founding until her death in 2005.
JOHNY RABENANTOANDRO, Malagasy botanist. Environment manager of Missouri Botanical Gardens, later Rio Tinto QMM.
JEAN-BAPTISTE RAMANAMANJATO, Malagasy herpetologist; biodiversity and rehabilitation superintendant, Rio Tinto QMM.
GUY RAMANANTSOA, Malagasy zoologist and herpetologist. Chief engineer dealing with water resources and national parks (1970). Chair of the Water and Forestry Department in ESSA, the agronomy school of the University of Antananarivo.
GEORGES RANDRIANASOLO, Malagasy ornithologist. Director of the Parc Tsimbazaza, Antantanarivo national zoo.
JOSEPH RANDRIANASOLO, Malagasy politician. Minister of Eaux et Forêts, 1980s.
LORET RASABO, chief guide at Ranamanfana National Park.
HANTA RASAMIMANANA, Malagasy primatologist; close colleague and friend of Alison. Professor at the École Normale Supérieure, University of Antananarivo. Malagasy author and leader of the education component of the Ako Project with Alison Jolly.
JOELISOA RATSIRARSON, Malagasy ecologist. Professor at the Forestry Department of the School of Agronomy at the University of Antananarivo, and vice president of the University.
GILBERT RAVELOJAONA, associated with Bezà Mahafaly Reserve. President of ESSA, School of Agronomy, University of Antananarivo.
ALISON RICHARD, British primatologist; founder and lead scientist of Bezà Mahafaly Reserve. Vice-Chancellor emerita of Cambridge University; senior research scientist, Yale University.
ELEANOR STERLING, chief conservation scientist, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History.
PHILIBERT TSIMAMANDRO, anthropologist of the Tandroy people in the south of Madagascar.
PATRICIA WRIGHT, American primatologist, anthropologist, and conservationist best known for her study of social and family interactions of wild lemurs in Ranomafana National Park.
BARTHÉLÉMY VAOHITA, representative of the WWF in Madagascar in 1980s–90s; now président de l’Alliance française d’Antsiranana.