David Braun, National Geographic News 24 Mar 09;
With Madagascar's government paralyzed after a recent coup, looters are invading the African island country's protected wildlife sanctuaries, harvesting trees and threatening critically endangered lemurs and other species, conservationists said this week.
Marojejy National Park in northern Madagascar has been closed to tourism. In other parks, rangers are abandoning their posts, according to reports.
The trouble is linked to turmoil that culminated in the coup d'etat that ousted President Marc Ravalomanana last week.
Some protected conservation areas are being invaded by organized criminals intent on cutting down valuable rosewood trees and extracting other resources, according to conservationists in Madagascar.
The closure of Marojejy National Park was "deemed necessary by park management due to the lawlessness that has descended over the ... region during this time of political unrest in Madagascar, and the resultant looting and destruction which is currently occurring within the park," according to the park's Web site.
"In particular, gangs of armed men (led primarily by foreign profiteers in conjunction with the rich local mafia) are plundering the rainforests of Marojejy for the extremely valuable rosewood that grows there," the site continues.
"Most worrisome is the well-being of the highly endangered silky sifaka, a lemur found only in the rainforests of Marojejy and the surrounding area."
The silky sifaka is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, meaning the animal is "considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild."
Logging Devastation
Cornell University Ph.D. candidate Erik Patel has been studying the silky sifaka since 2001.
"Illegal logging of precious wood has emerged as one of the most severe threats to Madagascar's dwindling northeastern rainforests," Patel said in an email.
Over the past few years, thousands of logs, worth millions of U.S. dollars, have been confiscated at the Madagascan ports of Vohémar, Antalaha, and Toamasina, he said.
"Most of this critically endangered rosewood and ebony is known to have come from Marojejy National Park and Masoala National Park," Patel said.
In the face of rich, armed, and politically connected criminals, the parks simply lack the resources to stop this, Patel added.
"The impacts of such selective logging include violating local taboos as well as ecological consequences such as increased likehood of fire, invasive species, impaired habitat, and loss in genetic diversity."
Patel said the January 2009 termination of the law prohibiting the export of rosewood and ebony is a key cause of the increased logging.
"The laws prohibiting such exportation must be reinstated as soon as possible," he said.
"It is unprecedented for a national park in Madagacar to be closed to tourism because of illegal logging."
Primatologist Mireya Mayor, who has done fieldwork in Marojejy, said, "I'm gutted and at a loss to describe how bad this situation is." (See video of Mayor at work, below.)
Loggers who invaded the parks to extract rosewood would destroy habitat, set up camps, and eat the wildlife, including the lemurs, predicted Mayor, a former National Geographic emerging explorer. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
"The lemurs will not be able to withstand this."
Posts Abandoned
Patricia Wright, a conservationist and lemur expert, said she had received reports that rangers were abandoning their posts in other parks because of fears for their safety.
"What's happening in the north is very worrying, because that is the home of two of the most endangered primates in the world, the silky sifaka and the Perrier's sifaka," she said.
The trouble appeared to be confined for the moment to parks in Madagascar's northern areas, said Wright, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at New York State's Stony Brook University and former member of National Geographic's Committee for Research and Exploration.
Both Wright and Mayor were at a loss as to what could be done in the short term.
"One thing we can do is create awareness about this," Mayor said.
Wright said she was trying to contact foundations and agencies that sponsor conservation in Madagascar.
"A big worry is that funding dries up for conservation because of the coup. That will leave the national parks without resources and completely exposed to exploitation," Wright said.
Both Mayor and Wright are also concerned about the long-term future of conservation in Madagascar.
Former President Ravalomanana had committed the Madagascan government to increasing protected areas on the island and had demonstrated a willingness to work with conservationists.
"Now," Mayor said, "we don't know what's going to happen."
