Wednesday 4 September 2013

Madagascar




Lemurs are among the most loved animals in the world, naturally we see keeping them and their habitat as extremely important.  But we go to bed at night with full bellies and if we dream of Madagascar the chances are our minds don't wander far beyond lemurs with their delightful behavior and cute looks.

But what about the people who live there? They are an amazing mix of settlers from the Malay Archipelago, Africa and India, who began arriving in Madagascar around 200 ce.
Madagascar is home to 20,713,819.0 people, with 69% living in rural Areas (World Bank). 
     4 years ago the current regime came to power and political turmoil ensued. In this period the country has lost much of it's foreign AID as well as commercial investment. Food shortages were already on their way when a new problem arose. Locusts. With up to 1/2 of the island affected by locusts food resources are decreasing and many Madagascans are surviving by exploiting the islands natural resources. 


 This means Lemur Habitat is being lost to illegal logging, both for export and local use. It also means that Lemur is now on the menu.


In these circumstances it will take a great deal of work to safe guard both the people and wildlife of Madagascar.What is needed to create this is political stability and  the reinstatement of government authority throughout the country. The recently announced Presidential Election on the 25th of October gives me hope that we may not be to late to save an amazing island and it's inhabitants.
 

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