English
Cymraeg
Français
Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin’ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity.
We at Money for Madagascar wish to pay tribute to the life and work of Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa, an environmentalist whose devoted commitment to his work has almost certainly saved – against the odds – several species of frog unique to Madagascar, and set an example to those who will as a result of his efforts, follow him in the protection and study of Madagascar’s vital wild spaces and species.
The environmentalist Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa died aged 45, on Thursday 26th February 2026.
He leaves a legacy of devotion to Madagascar’s environment and as a result a treasury of information regarding several species of Malagasy frogs, many of which may, which without his tireless work, have disappeared from the planet altogether.
Justin Claude, born in a village close to Andasibe, was at the heart of a movement of Malagasy environmentalists which arose to celebrate and protect their island’s incredible biodiversity.
His professional life began when he trained as a guide for eco-tourism expeditions – a way for young Malagasy people to earn a reasonable income while also protecting and promoting their homeland’s forests and wild spaces.
In the late 1990s, he joined MfM partner organisation Mitsinjo, which at that point managed a forest station and worked to use tourist income to power conservation and development.
He took on an increasingly important role with Mitsinjo, learning and sharing information about reptiles, insects and lemurs in the area, as well as translating a major field guide on Madagascar’s amphibians from English to Malagasy, in the process making more information about Madagascar’s wildlife available to Malagasy people, and opening the door to a new generation of aspiring conservationists and ecologists.
In 2011, Mitsinjo opened the Toby Sahona frog conservation and breeding facility close to Andasibe, in order to protect local amphibian species – many of them endemic to Madagascar – from extinction.
Justin Claude took charge of the centre’s creation and operation, and his work ensuring the centre fed and enabled the breeding of the Golden Mantella Frog, found only in a small area close to Moramanga, almost certainly meant he saved the species from extinction caused by industrialisation.
His work not only ensured 1,500 Golden Mantella Frogs could be reintroduced to the wild in 2017, it also was used as a test case which forced the Ambatovy nickel and cobalt mine to reduce its environmental impact – potentially saving not just the Golden Mantella Frog, but other species as well.
In the course of the Toby Sahona centre’s work, Justin Claude ensured that not only were he and his team saving and building frog populations, but also learning about all the animals with and for which they worked.
He was the lead author of an October 2024 paper, for example, which detailed the breeding patterns and developmental traits of 11 species of frogs at the centre; traits which until then had been suspected but never observed or confirmed.
Justin Claude’s love for his work, and for the knowledge it granted him, made him a superb ambassador for the species in his care, and recruiter of people whose love for the natural world he helped spark and nourish.
People who met him said he was always delighted and enthusiastic to share his knowledge with younger people, while his English language skills ensured foreign observers and enthusiasts could engage with and better understand the species and their environments with which they came into contact.
No one person will ever save every strand of Malagasy wildlife: that task is for us all to carry in the years and decades to come, and we at MfM are one part of that effort.
But Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa’s life and work, his dedication to the wild spaces and species around him, has helped save some of that wildlife, and has recruited many more to the cause, meaning that ‘weight’ will be shouldered more easily, between far more people, than it could ever have been without him.
We will help ensure his work and his life will be remembered, as is fitting for a man who gave so much time and effort to the protection and promotion of the world around him, and upon which we all rely.
For a detailed obituary on Justine Claude, and an explanation of some of the intricacies of his work, please click here.
*(image of Justin Claude taken from his Facebook page)
