in this bleak landscape, one man's work offers hope .olivier behra, Who first came to madagascar from france in 1987, believes that the only solution is to give local people economic alternatives. almost single-handedly, he has stopped deforestation in the vohimana forest by encouraging the local instead to collect medicinal plants,which they never imagined had any monetary value, and sell them overseas. the village lemur hunter has been retrained as a guide for tourists obsessed with lemur. The same tourists also pay to visit the wild orchid conservatory that behra has set up. can small-scale and sensitive initiatives like this compete with the rosewood mafia of madagascar? Only time will tell