English
Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.
A report by experts on the Malagasy rainforest warns that the entire ecosystem and everything within it is at serious risk because of ‘alarming’ deforestation.
The Madagascar Protected Area Consortium’s Madagascar Protected Area Outlook 2024, the first of its kind, reports that just 10 per cent of Madagascar’s original primary forest cover remains, that more than one football pitch of Malagasy rainforest was hacked down every minute in the ten years 2014-23, and that more than half of all remaining forest cover in Madagascar’s 109 Protected Areas will be destroyed by 2026.
More than 90 per cent of Madagascar’s wildlife is unique to the island, and cannot survive without its rainforest habitats. Endangered species including the Aye-aye, Silky sifaka and Radiated tortoise are among those which will be lost forever should the Malagasy rainforest continue to be destroyed.
Not only that, the Malagasy rainforest is one of the few areas in the world which is a ‘carbon sink’: the island nation is one of a tiny group whose carbon intake is actually greater than its emissions.
Alain Liva Raharijaona, Executive Director of FAPBM (Madagascar Protected Areas and Biodiversity Fund), a member of the Consortium, said:
‘The window for action is closing fast, but with the right support, we can still preserve these irreplaceable ecosystems. This is a critical moment for the global conservation community to demonstrate its commitment to protecting biodiversity.’
At Money for Madagascar we know that Malagasy people as well as Malagasy wildlife and plants rely on their immediate environment. By extension, we know that we all rely upon the world around us for everything: air, water, fertile land, a liveable climate, for survival.
The devastation of the Malagasy rainforest will destroy Malagasy animal and plant species, Malagasy people, and, repeated across the world, risks destroying all animal and plant species, and all people.
We must also recognise, however, that Malagasy people have the right, and indeed the necessity, to make a decent living, to rise above the poverty in which 83 per cent of them now exist, surviving on less than £1.50 per day.
It is unacceptable that the worst impacts of climate change are felt by Malagasy and other people who are least to blame for causing the climate crisis, and it is unacceptable to demand that the world’s poorest people must pay with their money or livelihoods for a problem they did not create.
That’s why we work with Malagasy adults and children to help them learn about and generate income by protecting, rather than exploiting, their environment. By planting trees, caring for plants and wildlife, and preserving Madagascar’s immense and unique bio-diversity while enhancing their livelihoods.
Our work helps conserve the Malagasy environment while enabling Madagascar to develop sustainably.
You can learn more here, and in the meantime please join us in our call to the world’s wealthiest, most powerful states to not forget either the Malagasy rainforests, or Malagasy people, and to join us in helping both for the benefit of us all.
