Madagascar is often considered to be the world’s highest conservation priority.
Madagascar is often considered to be the world's highest conservation priority. Many species of wildlife, including the island's lemurs, are found nowhere else on Earth.
However, the country has also suffered steady economic decline for more than a decade, as well as population growth of around 2.5% per year. As a result, many natural ecosystems and resources are critically threatened. As much as 75% of the island's original forest cover has been removed. Rainforests are now restricted to a narrow ‘corridor' running north-south along the eastern part of the country. Almost all surviving areas of forest are under pressure, including from rice production, cattle grazing, wood-fuel collection, timber harvesting and mining.
Traditional approaches to conservation, such as the establishment of National Parks, have proven difficult to sustain and have sometimes lacked sensitivity to the needs of poverty-stricken local communities. Since the late 1990s, new policies allowing greater control of natural resources at the local level have meant that new types of initiatives, such as the establishment of Community Forests, can also be tried.
The population of Madagascar is an integral mix of ethnic groups, the largest of which include the Merina, Sihanaka, Bara, Betsileo and Sakalava. Tanala people occupy many areas of the eastern rainforests.
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