Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Madagascar faces tremendous environmental challenges, none greater than deforestation.
Just like every other country, Madagascar is also going to have to contend with the effects
of climate change on its unique biodiversity.
Deforestation
Around 95% of Malagasy households rely on firewood and charcoal for their domestic en-
ergy needs. This reliance has put immense pressure on Madagascar's forests, as have the
need for agricultural and grazing land (slash-and-burn, or
tavy
in Malagasy, is widespread):
scientists estimate that 90% of the island's original forest cover is now gone.
The impact of deforestation on such a large scale is multiple, from habitat loss to soil
erosion. The latter is particularly dramatic: during the rainy season, Madagascar's later-
ite soils 'bleed' in the country's streams and rivers. The red earth saturates coastal waters,
threatening fragile marine ecosystems, including precious coral reefs.
ILLEGAL ROSEWOOD LOGGING
In April 2000, Cyclone Hudah tore through the Masoala Peninsula in northeast
Madagascar. The storm left a trail of devastation in its wake: satellite images re-
vealed that some 3% of the forest was severely damaged. Although rosewood ex-
ploitation had been banned, then president Marc Ravalomanana exceptionally al-
lowed fallen trees to be sold as timber. Little did he know that this would open
the floodgates of illegal logging.
The practice has since continued unabated. The traffic in precious wood is
driven by consumer demand for luxury furniture and musical instruments from
China, the US and the EU: a rosewood bed sells for US$1 million in China.
In 2009, an investigation by Madagascar National Parks, the environmental
NGO Global Witness and the US Environmental Investigation Agency uncovered
the scale of the pillaging, which had reached catastrophic proportions following
the presidential coup of February 2009. The report revealed that 100 to 200 trees
were being taken down every day, a bounty worth US$80,000 to US$460,000; it
also found that the police and officials at every level of the forestry sector had
colluded with traffickers.
The Malagasy authorities reacted by forbidding all precious wood exports in
April 2010. Its implementation remains patchy, but the news in September 2011
that rosewood and ebony had been added to the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was another boost for the forests of the
