Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
itat, demonstrates howconcentrating onasingle species canprovidemultiple benefits
for the conservation of a range of endangered species typical of the highly threatened
western dry forest and coastal habitats. In particular, we have helped to revive a tra-
ditional fire management technique based on burning firebreaks at the start of the dry
season. We also run a captive breeding centre for the ploughshare tortoise, the flat-
tailed tortoise and the side-necked turtle at Ampijoroa forestry station in Ankarafant-
sika National Park. Captive-bred juveniles are being returned to the wild to reinforce
the depleted populations.
We have extended our conservation actions to Manombo Special Reserve in south-
eastern Madagascar, a lowland rainforest patch which is home to the southernmost
population of black-and-white ruffed lemurs and is the only protected site for the crit-
ically endangered grey-headed lemur.
Since independence in 1960, Madagascar's population has quadrupled to 22 million and
the remaining forest has been reduced by half. Only about 10% of the original cover re-
mains and an estimated 2,000km
2
is destroyed annually - not by timber companies (al-
though there have been some culprits) but by impoverished peasants clearing the land by
the traditional method of
tavy
, slash-and-burn (see box on
Click Here
), and cutting trees
for fuel or to make charcoal. However, Madagascar is not overpopulated; the population
density averages only 37 people per square kilometre (compared to 254 in the UK). The
pressure on the forests is because so much of the country is sterile grassland. Unlike in
neighbouring Africa, this savanna is lifeless because Malagasy animals evolved to live in
forests; they are not adapted to this new environment.
ChangeinMadagascar'svegetationisbynomeansrecent.Scientistshaveidentifiedthat
the climate became much drier about 5,000 years ago. Humans have just catalysed the pro-
cess.
THERACEAGAINSTTIME
Madagascarhasmoreendangeredspeciesofmammalthan
any other country in the world. The authorities are well aware of this environmental crisis:
as long ago as 1970 the Director of Scientific Research made this comment in a speech
during an international symposium on conservation: 'The people in this room know that
Malagasy nature is a world heritage. We are not sure that others realise that it is
our
herit-
age.'Resentment athavingoutsidersmakedecisionsonthefutureoftheirheritagewithout
properconsultationwiththeMalagasywasoneofthereasonstherewaslittleeffectivecon-
servation in the 1970s and early 1980s. This was a time when Madagascar was demon-
strating its independence from Western influences. Things changed in 1985, when Mada-
gascar hosted amajor international conference onconservation fordevelopment. TheMin-
istry of Animal Production, Waters and Forests, which administered the protected areas,
went into partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Their plan was to
