The Alison Jolly Madagascar Scholarship Fund was established in 2014, in memory of the late Dr Alison Jolly (1937-2014), inspirational primatologist, conservation campaigner and a great friend and supporter of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Alison Jolly was the first person to undertake systematic field studies of lemur behaviour, showing among many other things that female dominance exists in lemurs.
The fund was established with generous support from the Jolly Family and additional private individuals. The original intention was to provide a scholarship for one student per year from Madagascar to undergo fully-funded training in endangered species recovery. Due to the funding raised, we were actually able to offer two scholarships each year, beginning in 2015.Between 2015-2017, these scholarships were awarded for places on the Postgraduate Diploma in Endangered Species Recovery run by Durrell in Mauritius. From 2019, these scholarships were for places on the Graduate Certificate in Endangered Species Management (‘DESMAN’ course) run by Durrell in Jersey.From 2020, scholarship recipients receive a fully funded place on Durrell’s brand new bespoke, 18-month Professional Development Programme. Recipients initially attend the DESMAN course to gain a thorough background in species conservation and then commence a programme of additional online training, skills development, mentoring and career support customised to their individual needs.

If you are from Madagascar and are passionate about contributing to the conservation of Madagascar’s unique and irreplaceable biodiversity, and feel that our training could help you, then please consider applying for a scholarship.

We are extremely grateful to the Jolly Family for their generous ongoing support in funding these scholarships, which are also supported through the royalties from Alison’s inspirational book ‘Thank You, Madagascar‘.