Dr Manoa Faliarivola
Senior Research Officer, Biodiversity (Madagascar)
About me
I am a passionate ornithologist who was previously working on ecological niche of understorey birds in the moist evergreen and the dry forest of Madagascar. That field allowed me to work on other taxa, mostly arthropods as well as other aspects of research such as plant ecology and soil analysis. Before I joined WWT in 2022, I sought to understand the social aspect of biodiversity conservation. During my free time, I am leading a group of volunteers working on the ecological restoration of the smallest Ramsar site in the world, the Lake of Tsarasaotra. And because I am into sharing knowledge, I am also giving lectures revolving around conservation at the regional University of Itasy.
My role
I lead WWT MDG activities involving all aspects of biodiversity. My work focuses on designing and implementing field research to meet the needs of the ongoing projects I work on, mainly Following the Water and Wetland Knowledge Base. Recently, my work has increasingly focused on soil restoration, mainly converging towards soil protection and the study of erosion within the catchments of our intervention sites' wetland to identify the drivers of change and threats, and to respond to them using local knowledge. I am also providing technical supervision for master students working with WWT MDG's projects, accompanying and guiding them from start to finish, the design of their research proposals, their implementation, the data analysis, to the writing of their dissertation.
Experience and interests
- Biological inventories
- Landscape ecology
- Ornithology
- Ecological restoration
- Environmental education
- Scientific writing
Publications
- Faliarivola, M. L., Raherilalao, M. J., Wilmé, L., Benjara, A., Rene de Roland, L.-A., & Goodman, S. M. 2022. Bird weights. In The new natural history of Madagascar, ed. S. M. Goodman (p. 1608-1732). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Faliarivola, M. L., Raherilalao, M. J., Andrianarimisa, A., & Goodman, S. M. 2022. Diversité des arthropodes de sous-bois des forêts sèches de Madagascar. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France,127(3), 233-250.
- Faliarivola, M. L., Raherilalao, M. J., Andrianarimisa, A., & Goodman, S. M. 2020. The diet of Malagasy understory birds based on fecal samples. Ostrich, 91(1), 35-44.
- Faliarivola M., Lanteigne, M. & Razakamaharavo, V. 2022. The forgotten, cascading crisis in Madagascar. African Arguments.