Our recent trip to Madagascar was like going back in time. From the fisherman who used homemade sails to the manual clearing of the land, Madagascar is a place where life goes on in a way we haven’t seen in 200 years.
Sadly much of Madagascar has been destroyed due to gradual efforts of small farmers and herdsman. The loss of habitat from deforestation is the greatest threat to Madagascar’s unbelievably unique and diverse plants and animals. Today only 10% of Madagascar’s forests remain, and it’s estimated that 1-2% of their current forests are destroyed each year by the “slash and burn” technique witnessed in this photograph. Astonishingly, 80-90% of Madagascar’s land area burns annually.
You can support conservation in two ways. The most fun is to join Tanya and myself on one of our Invitational Photography Tours which encourages the Malagasy people to protect the lands and animals people are coming to see. The other is to support Madagascar through the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust that has a number of great ongoing projects in Madagascar.