Madagascar Environment Threatened By Potential Civil War
On April 2nd the Washington Times reported that political turmoil and weeks of protest which have killed nearly 100 people have pushed the country almost to the verge of civil war.
The upheaval stems from the removal of President Ravalomanana who says he was kicked out: “I never resigned. I was forced to hand power over, at gunpoint”.
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During this period of social chaos, some people have taken advantage of the situation by increasing illegal logging in protected forests, and armed thugs have threatened park rangers. Tourism has plunged since the coup, and its revenues provide money for park ranger salaries and for a local human community which is already poor. Last year approximately 400 million dollars of revenue was generated by tourism, including eco tours. The political tumult has also caused a grant of 110 million for poverty reduction to be withheld.
Marojejy National Park was closed in about the third week of March due to the illegal
actions of exploiters. The news section of the park’s website states,” In particular, gangs of armed men (led primarily by foreign profiteers in conjunction with the rich local mafia) are plundering the rainforests of Marojejy for the extremely valuable rosewood that grows there.” The park is in the northeastern part of the island and is home to one of the most endangered mammals in the world, the Silky Sifafka. Numbers of the lemur are estimated at 100-1000, and they have never survived in captivity.
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[...] the species has a low birth rate. Compounding matters, political turmoil has disrupted normal operations at one of the sites where they live. The Marojejy park has closed [...]