Madagascar: Climate Change in a Hypervariable Environment

Alison Richard is a Senior Research Scientist in the Yale Anthropology Department and Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor Emerita of the Human Environment, and was Provost of Yale University from 1994-2002. She has studied the ecology and social behavior of wild primates in Africa, Central America, and the Himalayan foothills, but she is most widely known for her research on lemurs in Madagascar. Her most recent book, The Sloth Lemur's Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present, is a far-reaching account of Madagascar past and present. For over forty years, she has worked to help conserve the island’s unique natural heritage and enhance socio-economic opportunities for people living in and around forests in the southwest.