Climate change and deforestation threatens Madagascar's biodiversity

this is what monoculture looks like the crop in this case is sizal used for making rope that's far removed from the rich biodiversity Madagascar is famous for as could be but in this sterile sea lies a surviving remnant of a huge Forest the sidel fields replaced the berenti reserve and here you get an idea of what was lost when the trees were cut down ring-tailed lemurs wander the Forest Trails while the rest of the group sit to nibble flowers in the trees but the star of the show is a little more elusive then the safaka appears as only it knows how this though is a dance of survival Peru safaka is critically endangered like many Lemur species its numbers are falling I hook up with guide Olivia Gilbert who's been walking these Trails for 30 years and he tells me intense drought in the South brought on by climate change is making a bad situation much much worse we've seen the number of the baby born it's about only a 30 or 40 percent of which is the usual we have so since five years quite unusual happening in here is the number of the baby born from drought to deforestation the pressures on Madagascar's biodiversity are intense on the west coast lies a spectacular stand of bar above trees seven of the world's eight species of power verbs grow only in Madagascar it is just extraordinary isn't it just kind of sums up Madagascar's incredible biodiversity and some of these trees that more than 500 years old but of course they're under threat once these trees grew amongst the forest but the forest has gone and the endangered Giants are all that remain bark exploitation for a house construction rope construction and the transformation of the habitat into cultivation and also they sell their fruits and their regeneration natural is not enough to replace population of course what's going on here is not unique to Madagascar in any way at all it's happening simply everywhere in fact of the 8 million species on Earth currently one-third are endangered because of human activities driving Extinction levels from between one thousand to ten thousand times natural levels including 25 percent of mammals 14 of birds 33 percent of reef corals and 40 of amphibians a World's Rich biodiversity is a source of constant Wonder but also critical to the health of our planet a mosaic of life that must be preserved Nick Clark Al Jazeera Madagascar

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 6,747

Keywords: Africanews, Environment, Madagascar ecosystem, Madagascar latest news, Madagascar threatened species, al jazeera, al jazeera english, aljazeera, aljazeera english, aljazeera live, aljazeera news, madagascar, madagascar biodiversity, madagascar drought, madagascar water scarcity, madagascar water shortages, madagscar deforestation, southern madagascar

Id: 4yxH6rKArvs

Length: 3min 16sec (196 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2022