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Monday, June 01, 2020 5:52:53 AM
Marijuana cultivation whittling away Madagascar’s largest connected forest
"G7 leaders unite over efforts to extinguish Brazil's burning Amazon, where over 41,000 fires rage"
by Edward Carver on 29 May 2020
Mongabay Series: Forest Trackers
* Northern Madagascar contains the largest block of connected forest left in the country.
* Tsaratanana Reserve is supposed to protect a large portion of this forest. However, satellite data and imagery show Tsaratanana is being cleared at a rapid rate.
* Local officials say slash-and-burn agriculture for marijuana cultivation is to blame. The Madagascar National Parks agency helped organize military deployments to the Tsaratanana area in 2014 and 2017, and is planning another intervention this year.
* Scientists say that if this deforestation continues, it will fragment the reserve’s well-connected forests and threaten the animals that live there — many of which are found nowhere else in the world.
Between the cacao fields of northwest Madagascar and the vanilla of the northeast, a chain of rainforests bob along the highland interior. Tsaratanana Reserve, home to the country’s highest peak, has long been a key link in the chain, with abundant primary forest mostly undisturbed by human activity. Yet the reserve now faces threats on an unprecedented scale.
Primary and secondary forest in Tsaratanana Reserve is being cleared at a rapid rate, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland visualized on Global Forest Watch (GFW). Local officials say slash-and-burn agriculture for marijuana cultivation is to blame. Scientists say that if this deforestation continues, it will fragment the reserve’s well-connected forests and threaten the animals that live there — many of which are endemic, which means they’re found nowhere else in the world.
[...]
A leaf-tailed gecko. Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (SS BY-SA 4.0).
[...]
Tsaratanana is home to endangered aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis), which are the world’s
largest nocturnal primates. While they may look a little nightmarish, aye-ayes are peaceful
creatures that use their long fingers to fish grubs out of holes in trees.
Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Vences said the new satellite data spells bad news for the forest. “Certainly, this extensive deforestation will be a serious threat to many of the endemic species in Tsaratanana and entire northern Madagascar,” he wrote in an email. He said he was not surprised to see that most of the clearing was in the north of park, given its proximity to coastal communities that rely more on shifting cultivation.
Malagasy officials say that people are clearing the reserve’s forest to grow marijuana.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/marijuana-cultivation-whittling-away-madagascars-largest-connected-forest/
"G7 leaders unite over efforts to extinguish Brazil's burning Amazon, where over 41,000 fires rage"
by Edward Carver on 29 May 2020
Mongabay Series: Forest Trackers
* Northern Madagascar contains the largest block of connected forest left in the country.
* Tsaratanana Reserve is supposed to protect a large portion of this forest. However, satellite data and imagery show Tsaratanana is being cleared at a rapid rate.
* Local officials say slash-and-burn agriculture for marijuana cultivation is to blame. The Madagascar National Parks agency helped organize military deployments to the Tsaratanana area in 2014 and 2017, and is planning another intervention this year.
* Scientists say that if this deforestation continues, it will fragment the reserve’s well-connected forests and threaten the animals that live there — many of which are found nowhere else in the world.
Between the cacao fields of northwest Madagascar and the vanilla of the northeast, a chain of rainforests bob along the highland interior. Tsaratanana Reserve, home to the country’s highest peak, has long been a key link in the chain, with abundant primary forest mostly undisturbed by human activity. Yet the reserve now faces threats on an unprecedented scale.
Primary and secondary forest in Tsaratanana Reserve is being cleared at a rapid rate, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland visualized on Global Forest Watch (GFW). Local officials say slash-and-burn agriculture for marijuana cultivation is to blame. Scientists say that if this deforestation continues, it will fragment the reserve’s well-connected forests and threaten the animals that live there — many of which are endemic, which means they’re found nowhere else in the world.
[...]
A leaf-tailed gecko. Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (SS BY-SA 4.0).
[...]
Tsaratanana is home to endangered aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis), which are the world’s
largest nocturnal primates. While they may look a little nightmarish, aye-ayes are peaceful
creatures that use their long fingers to fish grubs out of holes in trees.
Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Vences said the new satellite data spells bad news for the forest. “Certainly, this extensive deforestation will be a serious threat to many of the endemic species in Tsaratanana and entire northern Madagascar,” he wrote in an email. He said he was not surprised to see that most of the clearing was in the north of park, given its proximity to coastal communities that rely more on shifting cultivation.
Malagasy officials say that people are clearing the reserve’s forest to grow marijuana.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/marijuana-cultivation-whittling-away-madagascars-largest-connected-forest/
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