Saving The Madagascan Rainforests

  • by: Emma A
  • recipient: Help us save the rainforests by pressing government officials to reform laws for the Madagascan rainforests. Creating more protected areas will help rehabilitate the forests to their original beauty and rich biodiversity

ISSUE: The Madagascan rainforests are being illegally deforested by people often because of the high demand for palm oil as well as other naturally occurring resources. This results in destroying the habitats of many interesting and native creatures to Madagascar. Not only does this endanger spectacular and crucial animals to the world, the deforestation also releases immense amounts of CO2 (a greenhouse gas that is one of the primary reasons for global warming) stored inside the huge trees. This heavy deforestation is highly caused by the unsustainable traditional agricultural practice known as "Slashing and Burning", in which forests are burned in order to create fertile soil for crops and decrease water competition. The soil used after Slashing and Burning will only stay fertile for few years, rendering the land useless after about 5-7 years.  In order to continue their practice, farmers to abandon the land and begin the process somewhere else, continually ruining the forests as more land is needed to source food for the growing population. If other countries were to be less frivolous with the excessive waste of food, it is likely that Madagascar would not need to source as much of its own food, resulting in less slashing and burning, and would help to rehabilitate the decaying forests. As described by Australias, Madagascar is a "Kaleidoscope of wildlife", the rich forests house about 5% of all known species, including  200 mammals, 300 types of birds, 260 species of reptile and over 266 amphibian species (austeralis.com). However, for now, this cheap and initially effective technique of slashing and burning is ruining the forests of Madagascar, highly decreasing the once rich Biodiversity. A decrease in Biodiversity affects the food available, medicines available, wood product availability as well as other normal and finite resources used in daily life (globalissues.org). Considering the future, a decrease in Biodiversity can affect job availability, which would decrease the economy on a global scale.  Sadly, as it stands, Madagascar has lost over 90% of their original forests (LCLUC), and with our current treatment habits of the forest, it is expected that the forest will completely disappear within the next 100 years (The Guardian).

SOLUTION: Help us save the rainforests by pressing government officials to reform laws for the Madagascan rainforests. Creating more protected areas will help rehabilitate the forests to their original beauty and rich biodiversity

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