Endangered Animals

Madagascar’s lowland forest is one of the most diverse forests with high levels of endemism. There are all five families of Malagasy primates, all five families of lemurs, 165 bird species, 50 species of reptiles, and 29 species of amphibians. A big portion of these species are endemic and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. One endangered animal is one of the largest living lemurs, the Indri lemur. It weighs between 13 to 21 pounds and has greenish eyes with a black face framed with fuzzy ears.  The lemurs live in large groups with several generations but due to habitat fragmentation which limits the mobility and capacity of such large groups, they are broken into smaller units.  Because of slash and burn agriculture, fuelwood gathering, and logging lemurs are threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation. Not only this, but they are widely hunted for food and their flesh which could be sold.

Indri lemur in Madagascar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indri_indri_001.jpg

1. "Eastern Madagascar." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0117>.
2. Harper, Francis. Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. New York: American Committee for International Wild Life Protection, 1945. Print.

Benefits we get

Tropical rainforests serve humans in many useful factors. They are earth’s lungs and produce oxygen we breathe, removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Many medicines can be derived from tropical rainforest plants such as:

• Curare (used as a muscle relaxant during surgery)
• Diosgenin (used for arthritis, asthma, and birth control pills)
• Quinine (used for malaria and pneumonia)
• Vincristine/vinblastine (used for Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia, and other cancers)

We can get a lot of crops through agriculture such as tea, coffee, bananas, oranges, lemons, peanuts, and pineapples as well. Not only crops, but valuable wood can be used to make furniture while lower quality wood can be used to make plywood and fiberboard.

Diosgenin plant

Plywood

http://jiaherb.en.busytrade.com/products/info/1106929/Diosgenin.html

http://home.howstuffworks.com/plywood.htm

"Deforestation of Tropical Rainforests - A Case Study of Madagascar." Geocases1.co.uk. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.geocases1.co.uk/printable/Deforestation%20of%20TRF%20a%20case%20study%20of%20Madagascar.htm>

Human Impact

Since 1950 deforestation has increased significantly, damaging a great amount of Madagascar's tropical rainforest. With the increase in inhabitants, pressure placed on the land to provide for this rapid growing population. At a rate of 11 million hectares a year, tropical rainforests are being destroyed.Thus, making this ecosystem ugly.

The shifting cultivation practice of "tavy" or slash and burn agriculture is one of the major threats to these forests. Forests are cut and burned to grow crops such as manioc and hill rice. An acre or two of forest would be planted with rice for two to three years of production and then left alone. The land would then be abandoned to allow for it to regenerate into bush land and thicket. Typically, after 10 years, the land could be used for agricultural crops once again. However, due to the pressure from the increasing population, this uncultivated period shortens and the land would become degraded to the point where crops cannot be planted anymore. Secondary grasslands are thus created.

http://travel.mongabay.com/madagascar/images/madagascar_0979.html

Logging for timber is another threat to Madagascar's tropical rainforest.  It introduces invasive species, reduces biodiversity, and causes damage from dragging the trees out of the forest. Illegal logging is occurring in many national parks in which people export hardwood, making this a business. The high value of hardwood such as ebony and rosewood cause people to cut down these forests. These hardwood can be sold at $2,000 a ton. In Masoala National Park, about 17,194 tons of wood has been exported during 2000-2001.

Illegal logging of Rosewood in Masoala

 http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/43142

 Madagascar's deforestation rate has increased by 36% since 2000-2010

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0202-international_year_of_forests.html

1. Schuurman, Derek, and Porter P. Lowry III. The Madagascar Rosewood Massacre. Mwc-info. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.mwc-info.net/en/services/Journal_PDF%27s/Issue4-2/MCD_2009_vol4_iss2_rosewood_massacre.pdf>.
2. "Threats to Madagascar's Biodiversity and Ecosystems." Madagascar: Environmental Profile. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20madagascar.htm>.
3. "Madagascar Lowland Forests." Madagascar Lowland Forests. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Madagascar_lowland_forests>. 

Historical State

What rainforests looked like in the past

What rainforests looks like today

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527141957.htm
http://www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Rain-Forest-Destruction.html

Madagascar had originally been a part of Africa, but due to the continental drift, it had separated and become its own island 165 million years ago. Most of the ancestors of animals found on this island had not evolved when Madagascar had split from Africa. They had instead drifted on floating logs or matted vegetation to get there.
http://www.geocases1.co.uk/printable/Deforestation%20of%20TRF%20a%20case%20study%20of%20Madagascar.htm

Initially, rainforests in Madagascar were much larger. It had even covered three times or more of the land. The extent of rainforests was 11.2 million hectares, but now only 2.5 to 6.9 million hectares remain. The trees and vegetation in these forests were more densely packed, green, and had more species. Today, strands of forests remain and are isolated from one another, hardly connecting in one mass. As seen in the figure on the left, a great amount of forest cover has been lost.

"Deforestation of Tropical Rainforests - A Case Study of Madagascar." Geocases1.co.uk. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.geocases1.co.uk/printable/Deforestation%20of%20TRF%20a%20case%20study%20of%20Madagascar.htm>