We work with endangered and neglected people, wildlife and habitats, finding practical solutions to serious problems. Our projects are selected according to their conservation priority, potential for community-based action and lack of charisma. There are no pandas or elephants here! We concentrate on unpopular creatures living in places where life is difficult for everyone and conservation can never become an issue until peoples' basic rights and requirements are fulfilled. Winning many prestigious conservation awards and gaining a reputation for dedication, perseverance and a dogged determination to speak the truth, Mampam Conservation philosophy can be summarized simply: "If we don't do it, nobody else will!"
The Bui Lake is now about 25% full and the hippo population has not moved from the park; hippos in the lake area are occupying the shallow tributaries which are not yet inundated. The new lake has been providing extremely good fishing, but the old
policy of letting fisherman catch and smoke fish in the southern part of
the park has been discontinued. The fishing community of Akanyakrom who previously lived on the banks
of the river, have been relocated to a site almost 4km from the river. Consequently fishermen must paddle to
the Bole area to fish – fishermen claim this takes two hours. The new lake is very dangerous to navigate and four fishermen have drowned in recent months.
Conducting bat surveys isn't easy and the bats of Madagascar are the least known mammals in Madagascar. Bats hate scientists and are very
good at avoiding them. Identifying the bats has often required
microscopic examinations of skull morphology and other characteristics.
So first you had to catch the bat, and then you had to kill it. No
wonder nobody wanted to study them!
We've tried to change this
by producing a fieldguide that will allow identification of free flying
Malagasy bats with an ultrasound detector.
To mark the export of half a million savannah monitors from Africa for
the pet trade in the 21st century “The Truth about Varanus
exanthematicus has been released as an ebook.
Our pet-owners' guide to savannah monitor lizard is the first ever
written by people who have studied the animals in the wild and bred them
in captivity. There are seven books in print about the savannah
monitor, but we think this is the only one worth reading! Last few
availableBUY IT HERE
Since 1999 the Butaan Project has been studying the rare, endangered, and unique fruit-eating monitor lizards of the Philippines. Butaan is just one of several races of frugivorous monitor lizards in the Philippines ("Pandan Biawak"), all of which are of at least as great a conservation concern as the Komodo dragon, but receive virtually none of the attention. Pandan Biawak occur only in lowland dipterocarp forest. The first species (Butaan) was discovered in 1845 and not seen alive by a scientist until the late 1970s. The next species (Mabitang) was discovered in 2001. Other species remain undescribed, and some may have gone extinct without ever having been recognised.
Varanus bitatawa is the third species of monitor lizard to be
recognised by science that belongs to the "Pandan Biawak" group, all of
which are of at least as great a conservation concern as the Komodo
dragon, but receive virtually none of the attention. Pandan Biawak occur
only in lowland dipterocarp forest. The first species (Varanus
olivaceus or Butaan) was discovered in 1845 and not seen alive by a
scientist until the late 1970s. The next species (Varanus mabitang or
Mabitang) was discovered in 2001 and in 2010 Varanus bitatawa (Butikaw
or Bitatawa) was described. Other species of frugivorous monitor lizards
may remain undescribed, but many may have gone extinct without ever
having been recognised.
According to many authoritative atlases and maps, Bui National Park
is already underwater! But the dam first planned in the 1920s was not started until August 24th 2007.
When Mampam Conservation were banned from working in Bui National Park, Ghana, in 2001, it marked the end of independent biological reseach in the area. Now work has begun on a controversial hydroelectric dam that will destroy the riverine habitat of the park and, we believe, lead to the local extinction of many animal species including the hippopotamus.The destruction of Bui National Park has gone almost unremarked. This site aims to provide a record of Bui National Park prior to its innundation
First published in 1995 by Viper Press
(the publishing arm of Mampam Conservation), Daniel Bennett's "Little
Book of Monitor Lizards" survived subsequent editions in German and an
edited English edition, all now out of print. A pdf version of the first edition is now available for only $5, the funds will be used directly for monitor lizard research. 220 pages, first published in November 1995, ISBN-10: 095266321X, ISBN-13: 978-0952663218
The mampam website has been running for 16 years and aims to provide full details of projects at no charge. All out of print books and multimedia guides are provided here and full image archives are being developed for each project. This will complete the website's mission.
The Western Ghats are a chain of mountains running from
Bombay to the southern tip of India. They are home to some of the most
diverse frog communities on Earth. Over 90% of the species there are
found nowhere else, and there is evidence that individual hilltops
harbour unique species. We produced a multimedia guide to the amphibians of Coorg that includes advertisment calls and details of larval stages.
Visit the Frogs of Coorg Website!>
The Mampam/Viper Press library is a collection of documents, reports, books, multimedia guides and other publications relevant to these projects.The library is entirely free for use by bona fide researchers and students in Africa and Asia. Other users are asked to make a contribution for some documents. Passwords are available on application.
Bennett, D. 1995. A Little Book of Monitor Lizards. Viper Press, Aberdeen. PDF version of the limited colour edition. (this file is password protected, please contribute at least $5 for the password).
Bennett, D. 1999. Field Techniques Manual: Reptiles and Amphibians. EAC, Royal Geographical Society, London. (this file is password protected, please contribute at least $3 for the password).
Monitor lizards (Varanus species) include the largest lizards in the world and are of considerable ecomonic value in some of the poorest countries in the world. There are many unresolved and serious conservation and welfare issues connected with the trade in monitor lizards.
Butaan start to visit fruiting trees before they are large enough to
swallow the fruits. They make repeat journeys to trees, perhaps to
reinforce memory of the position of the tree. If the youngster survives
it may continue to use this tree for many decades. Fruiting trees like
this are a vital resource for entire populations of butaan. Learn more >
We work with endangered and neglected people, wildlife and habitats, finding practical solutions to serious problems. Our projects are selected according to their conservation priority, potential for community-based action and lack of charisma. There are no pandas or elephants here! We concentrate on unpopular creatures living in places where life is difficult for everyone and conservation can never become an issue until peoples' basic rights and requirements are fulfilled. Winning many prestigious conservation awards and gaining a reputation for dedication, perseverance and a dogged determination to speak the truth, Mampam Conservation philosophy can be summarized simply: "If we don't do it, nobody else will!"
According to many authoritative atlases and maps, Bui National Park
is already underwater! But the dam first planned in the 1920s was not started until August 24th 2007.
First published in 1995 by 
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