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In February 2016, Madagasikara Voakajy officially joined IUCN as a member. For the past ten years, members of our team have been part of the IUCN/SSC. This opportunity will allow us to engage more in IUCN’s vision and mission, and network with other IUCN members. We are grateful to Rainforest Trust and Fauna and Flora International for supporting our membership application.

From 11^th to 14^th of August, Raphali Andriantsimanarilafy, reptiles lead researcher at Madagasikara Voakajy, followed a training Distance Sampling at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Mantella cowanii is classified as Endangered by the IUCN red list of threatened species due to its very restricted area of occupancy to a few sites. In addition to that, the species is mainly threatened by the habitat loss. The conservation efforts through the Action Plan Mantella cowanii (APMC) seem to be positive for the species has been down listed from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2014.

Calumma tarzan, or Tarzan’s chameleon, was discovered in 2009 in the Anosibe An’Ala district.Subsequent research shows that this species is endemic to the district, where it is only know from three small forest fragments: near the village Tarzanville, Ambatofotsy forest and Ampotaka forest.

At the very start, Madagasikara Voakajy (MV) used to run researches on species conservation. Madagasikara Voakajy was created in 2005 following two projects on Malagasy species conservation called The Chameleons project in 1998 and the Lamin’Asa Fiarovana Ramanavy sy Fanihy in 2000. Through these works of research, the team had already recommended conservation measures adapted to threatened species. And the Government’s vision to increase the surface of the protected areas to 6 million hectares was the natural issue of these recommendations.