David Rabehevitra

I am a plant researcher and conservationist, trained and based in Madagascar.

I'm also a member of the Groupe des Spécialistes des Plantes de Madagascar, which represents the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the country.

I have nineteen years of experience in botanical surveys in a wide range of biomes over the Island.

I have built my background Sarcolaenaceae, an endemic plant family, made over 2,000 plant collections in the eastern littoral forest, gained experience in forest restoration and expanded my knowledge on the western dry forest species.

I have special interests in Orchidaceae and Palms and am currently working around the conservation of Tahina spectabilis, a monospecific palm, endemic to the northwest of Madagascar.

I have basic GIS skills that I use on species mapping, predicted distribution and IUCN conservation status assessment.

I am currently managing the Zavamaniry Gasy, the iNaturalist project dedicated to all plant observation made within the Madagascar geographical perimeter.

I have made over 18k identifications since 2016 and contribute a lot in the conversion of the project’s plant data into scientifically valid information, to be used in species conservation status assessment (IUCN Categories).

I am also a professional photographer with twenty years of experience in people, plant, and landscape photography, and some of my works are found in scientific publications and other photography magazines.

I have basic drone piloting and drone image recording with over 240k points.

Besides, I have basic Green Belt training and am member of the African Leadership Institute Alumni.

• D.E.A (MS – Degree) University of Antananarivo, 2003
• Species Conservation Team Leader, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre, 2016-present