Rosewood Deforestation In Madagascar

Madagascar is a small island located off the East Coast of Mozambique, home to a diverse group of organisms not known anywhere else on Earth. Theories on how they came to be on the island include: travelling across an exposed causeway between mainland Africa and Madagascar (McCall, 1996); being remnants of species found on a supercontinent known as Gondwana (Yoder & Nowak, 2006) and even floating over to the island on pieces of debris (Matthew, 1915).
In whichever way the organisms that reside in Madagascar got there, many now appear to be in serious danger. Some of Madagascar's forests have been deemed to be top priorities for conservation since 1995 (Ganzhorn et al., 1997) due to the rate of deforestation across the island disrupting a
The trees are very slow growing and grow at very low density (BOHANNON, 2010) so have limited availability, contributing to their desirability. Madagascar has in total 43 species of rosewood, of which 42 of these are found nowhere else on Earth (BOHANNON, 2010). Nine of these species are already endangered, however once cut down the endangered become indistinguishable from the non-endangered without a DNA test (BOHANNON, 2010) thus little can be done to punish the people responsible.
Rosewood extraction methods are also incredibly inefficient. Due to the ever growing need to go farther into the forests, loggers are finding themselves further from the coast. Thus, for every rosewood tree obtained, four or five more buoyant trees are harvested to build a raft for the rosewood log (Global Witness & Environmental Investigation Agency, 2010). This furthers aridification of the landscape, reducing local species diversity and produces an increased probability of forest fires.
Not only are the trees in danger due to the loggers. To feed themselves or to sell on to locals, the fellers set up lemur traps. Lemurs are considered to be the most endangered group of animals (Clark et al. 2015), according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 79 of 88 extant lemur species are classed as vulnerable or worse, with 17 being critically
In 1868, laws against the burning of forest and forest settlement were enacted (Raik, 2007), however this made little difference when up against the needs of an ever growing human population. There was little more change made before March 2010 when Rosewood exportation was prohibited, although this was only made due to international pressures that had arisen from the administration legalising export the previous December (Barrett et al., 2010). Even with the restrictions, criminal exportation still occurs. From April 2009 to May 2010, nearly 164,000 rosewood logs have been exported from Madagascar, valued at more than $227.4 million (Barrett et al., 2010). However even with such a lucrative market for the wood, a malagasy labourer may only earn $0.49 for each log reaped (Barrett et al., 2010) thus not only does the logging cause a deficit in the forest conservation, but has also lead to a crumbling economy. If Madagascar were to focus less on exporting goods and more on a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program, the potential revenue would range from $72 to $144 million in one year alone (Barrett et al., 2010). Also, talk of a new Ranomafana National Park (RNP) to join the 12 already established (Ferraro, 2002) has begun. This will be able to positively and negatively affect the locals as although many rely heavily on the collection of forest products for income