Nationality: Malagasy

Institution: University of Cape Town

Department: Biological Sciences

PAST programme support: Degree support

Research title: Reconstruction of the dry forest in northwestern Madagascar during the late Holocene and its relevance to biodiversity conservation.

Randriatsara is originally from Madagascar where he completed an MSc degree in forestry at the University of Antananarivo in 2014. Passionate about the fauna and flora richness of Madagascar, he has spent many years studying biological sciences for many years in two different institutes at the University of Antananarivo. At the meantime, he has participated in several courses such as Tropical Biology Association and many other assistance field work with different researchers.

Randriatsara has also worked for Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew for five years in the western parts of Madagascar with local communities to improve their livelihood and restore the degraded landscape. He registered for a MSc which began in 2021 and upgraded to a PhD in 2022 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. During his PhD journey, Randriatsara attended a summer school course at Kwazulu-Natal/South Africa where he learnt about different fields and lab-based techniques related to the past study. Randriatsara has also attended the SPACES conference in Pretoria where he was exposed to a synthesis of southern African climate studies. Thereafter, he attended the SASQUA in Durban, further enhancing his knowledge on African palaeoecology. Randriatsara was awarded travel funding to attend the INQUA Congress in Roma/Italy in July 2023. He believes that his previous work in conservation and interest in applying the findings in restoration and ecosystem management will further his goal of meaningfully contributing toward conservation. Randriatsara’s PhD project will contribute to the development of palaeoecology and vegetation conservation and management not only in Madagascar but will be relevant throughout the Africa continent.