Saturday, April 3, 2010

Saving Madagascar's Forests

You may have seen my recent cover story in April's Smithsonian magazine on the Silky Sifakas of Madagascar.  As few as 100 of these endangered primates cling to a small area of highland rainforest in northeastern Madagascar.  


After a coup that left this poor nation in political chaos, loggers took advantage of the turmoil to move into national parks and extract valuable timber - especially the precious Rosewood tree. 


I spent a week following endangered primates in this remote area, and came across this illegal logging camp where rosewood trees had been cut down -   inside the boundaries of Marojejy National Park, one of the last refuges for the Silky Sifaka.  


Read about the latest here:      
Rosewood Logging Update

I am currently helping to set up a non-profit to support Silky Sifaka conservation in Madagascar : stay tuned for more developments.

2 comments:

  1. Okay Kev, why don't we get Kirstie Alley to be the spokes person for Lemur Conservation in Madagascar? I'm sure she'd be interested especially since she has a house full of lemurs. No, I'm not kidding! I'm serious!

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  2. Please, please keep working towards setting up that non-profit! We're waiting.........

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