Director's Vision

Outside the 'Circle of Light.'

"In a remote village on the Masoala Peninsula of Madagascar, I sat alone at a campfire, my bags packed in preparation for an early morning departure. After six weeks studying local flora and fauna I had progressed from an object of suspicion and distrust to a welcomed member of their community.

Singing and dancing began in the dark, and one by one the villagers brought me small farewell gifts. People who traded their carefully nurtured vanilla for used clothing, who lived in reed homes, who drank dirty brown water, who had no electricity, and who lost 20% of their children before they were 5 years old — they were bringing me gifts. Rice wrapped in a leaf, a flower, a bottle cap.

It occurred to me most of us in the developed world live inside a circle of light and warmth: our fire fueled with gifts from the darkness. We know little of where these gifts come from, or at what cost to those providing.

Cyclone Eline struck Madagascar not long after, sweeping away the community on Masoala Peninsula and many of its inhabitants. Unusual storm force combined with poor soil management, deforestation and erosion, to produce human tragedy.

It was then I finally understood, it is people who matter most.

True conservation requires more than saving habitats and species — it requires improving human lives. Conservation is a tool. Used not just to protect our remarkable natural world, but every bit as importantly, to protect our human way of life.

Mine, yours, as well as millions of others.

The challenge ahead of us is to save a future for ourselves, and for our children."

Bill Toone
Conservation Biologist

VIDEO: Conservation biologist and ECOLIFE FOUNDATION Executive Director Bill Toone in Madagascar. Includes potentially disturbing images from the aftermath of Cyclone Eline.