Last September I spent 3 weeks in Madagascar, the biggest island of Africa and the fourth in size of the world (being a bit bigger than France).
We visited different natural parks of the center of the island with the goal of enjoying the small pieces of nature that remain untouched, as the country is suffering a huge deforestation.
Madagascar’s deforestation is due to three activities: the slash-and-burn agriculture (to convert the tropical rainforest into rice fields), fires for land-clearing and partureland and wood & carbon production for cooking.
Every year, a third of Madagascar burns. We noticed that as everyday we saw smoke at the horizon or passed by one or more areas recently burned. What it used to be a green isle it is now a red isle (due to the color of its land).
Habitat destruction implies that main of the unique species from Madagascar (+75% are endemic, meaning they cannot be found anywhere else) are in the frontline of extinction. That is the main reason why I feel so lucky of seeing some of them, and in some cases also feing able to take a picture of them.
The Madagascar gallery will show you some of the fauna, flora and landscapes we found along our route… and I hope I am able to show it to you quite soon!!!