Word: madagascars
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Finally, last September, I went on an eco-trip of my own (on assignment for this magazine) to Madagascar, the utterly unique and fascinating island off the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar has wildlife that is found nowhere else on Earth and a prodigious variety of climates and vegetation that makes it virtually a planet unto itself. Ecology is what defines Madagascar - and what I discovered there, among other things, is that ecotourism when properly managed is not only not a scam, but a boon to conservation...
...village of Andasibe, about three hours' drive from the capital of Antananarivo, borders the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, a pristine rainforest that remains one of the crown jewels of Madagascar's denuded landscape. The park is full of the rare animals that Madagascar is famous for - the panda-like indiri lemur, Parson's chameleons that blend into the trees, the greater bamboo lemurs, perhaps the rarest primate on the planet. One of the local guides, Marie Razafindrasolo, led me on a tour of the forest, spotting animals that I would never have noticed myself...
Razafindrasolo is one guide in the many networks of local guides that are springing up in Andasibe and increasingly throughout Madagascar. The government is dedicated to tripling the size of its national park system, which directly supports the economic livelihood of the people who live near them - in Madagascar, the government shares half the revenue from parks with local communities. That revenue, of course, depends on ecotourism, which in turn depends on the conservation of wildlife - if there are no more lemurs left to see, then no one will come to see them...
Then there's the less tangible benefit that comes to the traveler himself. I write about endangered species all the time, but it wasn't until I went to Madagascar and saw an indri lemur for myself that I could really understand the value of what I wanted to defend. It wasn't until I saw how little of the Madagascar forest has survived - 90% of the country's original forest cover is gone - that I could truly fathom the risk. If environmentalism requires a revolution of consciousness, maybe that can't be done at home - even if traveling requires...
...photos of Madagascar's flora and fauna here...