The Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens (AEECL)
The Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens (AEECL) is a consortium of European Zoos and universities that have joined forces to carry out conservation and research projects for Madagascar’s highly endangered lemurs. AEECL are responsible for the creation of a reserve for the critically endangered blue-eyed black lemur, as well as initiating captive propagation programmes for a number of lemur species within Europe, such as the crowned and red-bellied lemurs held here at Twycross Zoo.
Twycross Zoo has been supporting this project since 2006, with our money going towards establishing the Sahamalaza National Park as well as funding education programme and providing support to communities within Sahamalaza. AEECL has recently been helping with a reforestation programme within this area covering an area of 238 hectares. The launch of this reforestation programme took place in January 2017, where approximately 800 participants reforested 2500 plants from 11 species.
