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Irene Duong
February 5, 2014
Dr. Ben Perkins
Sustainability

Deforestation of Madagascar


Madagascar, one of the worlds poorest countries but richest in agriculture, suffers from
the pressures of losing its biodiversity in its tropical rainforest from one common destruction;
Deforestation. Analysis of aerial photographs and Landsat images indicates that forest cover
decreased by almost 40% from the 1950s to c. 2000 (Grady, Steininger, Tucker, Juhn, &
Hawkins, 2007). The Earths surface, through satellite pictures, shows the percentage of forests
slowly diminishing through deforestation, concernedly in Madagascar. Clearing a forest changes
its ecosystem drastically especially with Madagascars plants and animals being the most
endangered due to the effects of deforestation. However, more importantly, the aftermath of
deforestation contributes to climate change through the stored carbon and nitrogen being released
into the atmosphere from cutting or burning of the trees, and with the aid of the greenhouse
effect, trapping the heat in. Climate change plays a major role in Madagascar because of their
rich agriculture and their dependency on their cash crops; coffee, rice and beef. Madagascar is
susceptible to droughts due to the climate change that widely affects the area, especially in
Southern Madagascar where they had suffered three years of crop failure within five years,
resulting in chronic hunger for tens of thousands of families and soaring rates of malnutrition,
stunted growth and death among children (Smith, 2009), as reported by David Smith.



* A satellite image of
Madagascar taken from
ScienceDirect.

Madagascar is located to the
right of Africa

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Through monitoring of satellite imaging of the rate of deforestation over a 35-year
period, Glen Green and Robert Sussman concluded that if the rate of deforestation continues,
only forest with the steepest slopes would survive the next 35 years, which importantly, are
susceptible to landslides and erosions, making agriculture difficult especially in the regrowth of
trees. In 1985, 3.8 million hectares of rain forest remained, representing only 50 percent of the
7.6 million hectares existing in 1950 and 34 percent of the estimated original extent (11.2 million
hectares) (Jorgen, 2002). Study showed that between 1950 and 1985, the rate of deforestation
averaged 111,000 hectares per year, according to Green and Sussman. Carbon dioxide, one of the
greenhouse gases, is released through cutting down trees or land burning (deforestation), which
is a major contributor to climate change because of the greenhouse effect that traps the heat
within the atmosphere.
Deforestation indirectly contributes to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere, but how does the climate affect Madagascars resources and biodiversity?
Climate change can fluctuates almost rapidly (within decades), which can make agriculture
difficult especially in periods of droughts where cash crops, Madagascars dependency for trade
and survival, can fail. Biodiversity is heavily influence by agriculture, depending on the regrowth
of resources to survive and without it, many of the plants and animals will slowly become
extinct. Deforestation threatens both the economy and the ecosystem in Madagascar by
interrupting the cycle of life through unnatural burning and cutting. This method destroys
resources and habitats such as trees, in which they emit carbon dioxide and nitrogen into the
atmosphere causing the climate to become increasingly warmer and affecting the
growth/regrowth process of agriculture.
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In 2009 in the village of Anjamahavelo, Madagascar, people have suffered from a
drought that once happened every decade, now happens every three to five years. People
continued to cut down trees for firewood or to make space for rice fields in order to survive
while attempting to grow crops. However, little did they know that they are inadvertently
adding to the drought problem by reducing the capacity of forests to capture water that will
evaporate into clouds and become rain (Smith, 2009). The World Bank claims that Madagascar
had experienced a ten percent increase in temperature (warming) and ten percent decrease in
rainfall within half a century. Deforestation, undoubtedly, had become a survival need for people
of Madagascar due to the recent climate change. However instead, they are ignorantly causing
more of these changes by resuming to clear forests, especially during droughts where its
difficult to regrow crops and trees. Not only that, deforestation is a contributor to the extinction
of the biodiversity in the forest because it destroys the ecosystem that plants and animals
inhabits. The temperature will only continue to get warmer and survival will become more
difficult if people continue to rely on deforestation for survive due to the emission of carbon
dioxide that the trees releases when cut down and the destruction of ecosystems. Climate
change causes this chain reaction to not only affect the people of Anjamahavelo but the
biodiversity as well. This brings in a Domino theory where the agriculture fails and people
resorting to eat animals in the forests for survival. At this rate, there will be nothing left to
survive on with resources being limited and exhaustible.

* Image of women
carrying wood in
Madagascar.
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Deforestation has become a slash and burn agriculture, also known as Tavy, in the
Malagasy culture. Tavy for rice also has spiritual and cultural ties that transcend the economic
and nutritional value of rice as a crop (Bolton, 2010). Few acres of the forest in Madagascar is
cut, burned, and then cultivated for rice but left to fallow for four to six years in order to restore a
crop rotation. However, Bolton (2010) stated that [a]fter 2-3 years of such cycles, the soil is
exhausted of nutrients and the land is likely [to be] colonized by scrub vegetation, making the
forest susceptible to erosions and landslides if theyre located on slopes. These loggings that are
cut down from trees are used for cooking, heating the home, and providing light during the night
due to 4% of the populating [having] access to electricity (Bolton, 2009). Both erosion and fire
contributes to climate change because they release carbon dioxide and nitrogen into the
atmosphere, trapping more heat, especially within the Madagascar region where people heavily
depend on wood for survival.
Erosion affects the freshness of water especially if it directly contaminates through
landslides and slopes. Forests keeps soils intact by providing nutrients and moisture, however
through deforestation and climate change, soil becomes exceptionally dry and powdery due to
the lack of nutrients and moistures. With Madagascar being surrounded by bodies of water from
the Indian Ocean and the Mozambique Channel, with multiple rivers connecting to them, these
dry soil located on slopes will erode into these waters and contaminate the freshness and quality.
Pesticides, some metals and other toxins may sometimes cling to suspended sediments in water
and increase the concentration of toxins in water with high amounts of suspended sediments
(Hawley & Murphy, 2000). Humans and animals survive off these waters, however, if the
freshness of the water continues to be contaminated by metals and toxins within the soil, the
health of the humans and animals will be endanger. Deforestation leads to erosion through
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burning and removing of the trees, which dries out the soil by removing the nutrients and
moisture. Due to various forests located on slopes, and being close to rivers and oceans, the soil
will eventually end up in the water from the process of eroding or landslides, contaminating the
water with a variety of sediments and toxins.
As temperature gets warmer, agriculture becomes more difficult due to the area more
susceptible to droughts, which leads to crop failure. Biodiversity is also impacted due to certain
species living in the Madagascars forests can only survive in that ecosystem; hence being
unique only to that area. Clearing the forests will destroy their habitats and food sources,
whereas the warming climate will make it difficult for both plants and animals to survive in that
area. Scientists fear the rapid, additional clearing of the islands forests for cash crops such as
cotton and tobacco endangers the habitat of the many plant and animal species unique to the
island while at the same time creating soil erosion problems that impact water quality and the
future productivity of agricultural lands (Steininger, 2003). Deforestation is a major threat, both
economically and to the ecosystems by affecting the climate, agriculture (resources), and
biodiversity (for both humans and animals) in Madagascar.
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Deforestation threatens the existence of plants, animals and humans, especially regarding
Madagascar as a poor country with a small trade system and limited resources. Malagasy and the
people in Anjamahavelo depend on deforestation for survival, using the logging from trees as a
source of heat, light, and shelter. Knowingly, deforestation has gone on for decades since 1895s
where 70% of the forest cover of Madagascar was destroyed; Largely due to deforestation, the
country is currently unable to provide adequate food, fresh water and sanitation for its fast
growing population (Wikipedia, 2014). With various forests located on slopes in Madagascar,
let alone the countless rivers scattered across the region, erosion is a major contributor to water
contamination from the aftermath of deforestation. Clearing trees also means to remove nutrients
and moisture from the soil, hence drying up the substance and through agricultural means and/or
natural means (Such as landslides), these substances are driven into rivers and oceans containing
various sediments and toxins that can be vital to a human or a animals health. However, how
does climate change play a role? Due to trees releasing carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect,
heat is trapped within the atmosphere thus warming the temperature especially in areas where
there are fewer trees to capture water and allow it to evaporate into rainfall. Soil is more
susceptible to become dry in areas that are warmer due to lack of rainfall.
Climate change greatly impacts the resources and biodiversity in Madagascar with the
help of deforestation. Climate limits agriculture by drying the soils and killing off plants due to
lack of rainfall within the area. Its also difficult to regrow any vegetation, especially trees
without rainfall: the process would be ten times slower, even at the rate of failure if its
dependent only on the sun. With deforestation, the various species living in the forest wouldnt
have a place to inhabit and with the warming climate, these species would have a small chance of
survival due to certain species being unable to survive in warm temperature. Eventually, the
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entire chain of species living in the forest of Madagascar would die off and so will the people
who depend on them when agriculture fails.

* A picture from Wikipedia displaying the number of forests in Madagascar.




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References
Agarwal, D., Silander, J., Gelfand, A., Dewar, R., Mickelson, J. (2005). Tropical deforestation in
Madagascar: analysis using hierarchical, spatially explicit, Bayesian regression models.
Ecological Modelling, 185(1).
APA Style. (2014). Deforestation in Madagascar. Wikipedia.
Benstead, J., Douglas, M., Pringle, C. (2003). Relationship of stream invertebrate communities
to deforestation in Eastern Madagascar. Ecological Applications, 13(5).
Bolton, T. (2010). Deforestation in Madagascar. North Carolina State University.
Butler, R. (2004-2012). Threats to Madagascars biodiversity and ecosystems.
Colby, A. (1995). Deforestation: Madagascar. Sustainable Development/Economics.
Deforestation of Tropical Rainforests A Case Study of Madagascar
Grady, H., Steininger, M., Tucker, C., Juhn, D., Hawkins, F. (2007). Fifty years of deforestation
and forest fragmentation in Madagascar. Environmental Conservation, 34(4).
Green, G., Sussman, R. (1990). Deforestation History of the Eastern Rain Forests of Madagascar
from Satellite Images. American Association for the Advancement of Science (Science),
248(4952), pp. 212-215.
Hawley, J., Murphy, K. (2000). Effects of Erosion on Water Quality. Environmental Planning
and Sciences Divisions. New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local
Government.
Jorgen, K. (2002). Deforestation in the Madagascar Highlands Established truth and scientific
uncertainty. Geojournal, 56(3).
Steininger, M. (2003). Deforestation in Madagascar. Earth Observatory/NASA.
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Smith, D. (2009). Ravaged by drought, Madagascar feels the full effect of climate change. The
Guardian.