Désiré Rabary used his modest earnings as a nature guide in northern Madagascar to purchase an endangered forest near his home in order to protect it. His inspired action received international attention and this led to additional funds being raised that have enabled his Antanetiambo Nature Reserve to be expanded. Bravo Désiré!

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the biodiversity in the region and can name the scientific, English, French, and Malagasy names of scores of plants and animals. He did not attend university to gain this knowledge but instead has read many books and spent years in the forest working alongside scientists. He also knows plants by taste and has personally tasted the one hundred plants known to be in the diet of the critically-endangered Silky Sifaka lemur, of which he is an authority. Never have I met someone with so much joyful enthusiasm for nature. I have been fortunate to travel with him several times. I took this photo of him near Camp 3 in Marojejy National Park.