How is Madagascar's wildlife being affaected by deforestation?

How is Madagascar's wildlife being affaected by deforestation?

• animals such as the lemurs would get affaected by the decreasing amounts of Madagascar's tropical rainforests. what is being done about the animals and what animals are getting ...show more

• Answer:

  So many rare species...badly affected by habitat loss and degradation form loggging and slash and burn, hunting and exploitation. Can't cover them all in brief so lots of links to info: In Madagascar after generations of forest clearing with fire, some scientist estimate less than 10% of the forest cover is left. That's about 6,000,000 hectares, broken up into little pockets. The trees are vanishing at a rate of 200,000 hectares a year as the Malagasy cut them down for fuel or burn them for land clearance. The impact of deforestation on wildlife extinction is severe. When deforestation occurs many species lose their natural homes and food supplies. It happens so rapidly that they do not have time to adapt and species are lost. Deforestation not only causes many plants and animals to become extinct it also causes soil degradation which causes more habitat loss and extinction. Removal of trees causes huge loss of soil in wet season and flooding, and makes droughts worse in the dry season. As well as soil loss form erosion, the soil's fertility decreases very rapidly when used for agriculture. It is argued that once it is cut down it is almost impossible to restore the forest to the way it was before, even when trees are replanted. Eighty per cent of Madagascar's animal species are are unique to Madagascar and found nowhere else, so are very threatened, and have to exist in a fraction of the space they once occupied. It is difficult for them to find food and mates and suitable places to live and breed because what remains of the forest has been fragmented - broken into little pieces. Many species find it difficult or impossible to travel from one isolated fragment to another. See here for conservation efforts to save the fossa, a rare predator, and like most of the species of lemur, found nowhere else.http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/madagascar-fossa.html#cr Links to info on endangered species in Madagascar, including lemurs, tortoises and turtles, www.tusk.org/alaotran-lemur-of-madagas... http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=684&catID=4 http://www.primates.com/primate/endangered.html www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/madagasc... www.kew.org/science/madagascar/project... WWF is active in madagascar http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/madagascar/index.html Conservation International (CI) is another one of the organisations active in trying to help preserve biodiversity in Madagascar http://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx http://www.conservation.org/learn/forests/Pages/project_makira.aspx http://www.conservation.org/publications/Pages/lemurs_of_madagascar.aspx http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/madagascar_renewal_forests_communities.aspx Video - http://www.conservation.org/fmg/pages/videoplayer.aspx?videoid=23 www.igsscienceonline.co.uk/kfidock/drw... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/24/corporatesocialresponsibility.endangeredhabitats