ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — On May 4, angry residents allegedly set fire to Wildlife Conservation Society’s office overseeing Makira Natural Park in northeast Madagascar. WCS, a New York-based NGO present in Madagascar since 1993, manages the reserve. Photos shared by Malagasy activist Clovis Razafimalala on Facebook show that the fire destroyed the office located in the rural municipality of Ambinanitelo. The WCS staff present at the site are believed to be safe. Local authorities are investigating the alleged attack, and initial interviews suggest a run-in between illegal loggers and forest guards might be at the heart of the incident. According to Jean Roger, a representative of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development in Maroantsetra district, forest guards alerted him and the local police about the existence of illegal logging activity in the core area of Makira Park, which is spread across 372,470 hectares (920,000 acres, roughly three times the size of Los Angeles). A team consisting of environment ministry representatives, WCS-backed eco-guards and gendarmes were deployed in response to the alert, Roger told Mongabay via a phone call. In the field, they faced four men who appeared ready to transport cut logs and two other men carrying chainsaws. One of the chainsaw-wielding men escaped while the rest of them were captured, according to Roger. The gendarme is a kind of militarized police force that sometimes gets involved in tackling illicit activities at protected sites. The five men were taken to the WCS office in Ambinanitelo. “The mayor [of Mariarano, a…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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