Scientists from around the world have joined together to identify the most important actions needed by Madagascar’s new government to prevent species and habitats being lost for ever.
Scientists from around the world have joined together to identify the most important actions needed by Madagascar’s new government to prevent species and habitats being lost for ever.
In January, Madagascar’s recently-elected president, Andry Rajoelina, began his five-year term of office. A group of scientists from Madagascar, the UK, Australia, the USA and Finland have published a paper recommending actions needed by the new government to turn around the precipitous decline of biodiversity and help put Madagascar on a trajectory towards sustainable growth.
Professor Jonah Ratsimbazafy, from the University of Antananarivo and one of the paper’s co-authors said: “The United States have the Statue of Liberty, France has the Eifel tower…. For us in Madagascar it is our biodiversity (the product of millions of years of evolution), which is the unique heritage we are known for around the world. We cannot let these natural wonders, including 100 different types of lemur found nowhere else, disappear”.
The group say that Madagascar’s protected areas, some of the most important for biodiversity in the world, have suffered terribly in recent years from illegal mining, logging, and collection of threatened species for the pet trade. They suggest that much of this illegal activity is linked to corruption. They emphasise that the insecurity which goes alongside this illegal exploitation is bad for people as well as nature.
Read more at Bangor University
Image: Many of Madagascar's iconic lemur species such as this black and white ruffed lemur are critically endangered. (Credit: Copyright Daniel Burgas)
