Deforestation in Madagascar

Illegal slash-and-burn practice in the region west of Manantenina.

Deforestation in Madagascar is an ongoing environmental issue. Deforestation[1] creates agricultural or pastoral land but can also result in desertification, water resource degradation, biodiversity erosion and habitat loss, and soil loss.

It has been noticed that Madagascar has lost 80 or 90% of its "original" or "pre-human" forest cover, but this claim is difficult to prove and is not supported by evidence.[2][3] What is certain is that the arrival of humans on Madagascar some 2000+ years ago began a process of fire, cultivation, logging and grazing that has reduced forest cover. Industrial forest exploitation during the Merina monarchy[4] and French colonialism[5] contributed to forest loss. Evidence from air photography and remote sensing suggest that by c. 2000, around 40% to 50% of the forest cover present in 1950 was lost.[3][6][7] Current hotspots for deforestation include dry forests in the southwest being converted for maize cultivation and rain forests in the northeast exploited for tropical hardwoods.[8]

Primary causes of forest loss include slash-and-burn for agricultural land (a practice known locally as tavy) and for pasture, selective logging for precious woods or construction material, the collection of fuel wood (including charcoal production) and, in certain sites, forest clearing for mining.[9][10]

  1. ^ "Saving the Wildlife of Madagascar", Time, September 25, 2008.
  2. ^ McConnell, William; Kull, Christian (2014). "Protecting lemurs: Madagascar's forests". Science. 344 (6182): 358. Bibcode:2014Sci...344..358M. doi:10.1126/science.344.6182.358-a. PMID 24763569.
  3. ^ a b McConnell, William; Kull, Christian (2014). Ivan R. Scales (ed.). "Deforestation in Madagascar: debates over the island's forest cover and challenges of measuring forest change" (PDF). Conservation and Environmental Management in Madagascar. London: Routledge-Earthscan: 67–104.
  4. ^ Campbell, Gwyn (2013). "Forest Depletion in Imperial Madagascar, c.1790–1861". Contest for Land in Madagascar: Environment, Ancestors and Development, Edited by S. Evers, G. Campbell & M. Lambek (Leiden: Brill).: 63–96. doi:10.1163/9789004256231_005. ISBN 978-90-04-25622-4.
  5. ^ Jarosz, Lucy (1993). "Defining and explaining tropical deforestation: shifting cultivation and population growth in colonial Madagascar (1896-1940)". Economic Geography. 69 (4): 366–379. doi:10.2307/143595. JSTOR 143595. PMID 12318844.
  6. ^ Allnutt, Thomas; et al. (2008). "A method for quantifying biodiversity loss and its application to a 50-year record of deforestation across Madagascar". Conservation Letters. 1 (4): 173–181. Bibcode:2008ConL....1..173A. doi:10.1111/j.1755-263X.2008.00027.x.
  7. ^ Deforestation causes species extinction in Madagascar
  8. ^ Harper, Grady; Steininger, Marc; Tucker, Compton; Juhn, Daniel; Hawkins, Frank (2007). "Fifty years of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Madagascar". Environmental Conservation. 34 (4): 325–333. doi:10.1017/s0376892907004262. S2CID 86120326.
  9. ^ Mittermeier, R.A.; Konstant, W.R.; Hawkins, F.; Louis, E.E.; Langrand, O.; Ratsimbazafy, J.; Rasoloarison, R.; Ganzhorn, J.U.; Rajaobelina, S.; Tattersall, I.; Meyers, D.M. (2006). "Chapter 4: Conservation of Lemurs". Lemurs of Madagascar. Illustrated by S.D. Nash (2nd ed.). Conservation International. pp. 52–84. ISBN 1-881173-88-7.
  10. ^ Zhu, Annah (2017). "Rosewood Occidentalism and Orientalism in Madagascar". Geoforum.