Audit of USAID/Madagascar's Biologically Diverse Forest Ecosystem Conservation Program; Audit rept

摘要

Madagascar has one of the most amazing biodiversities in the world. Tens of millions of years of isolation from the African mainland have resulted in a large number of species that are endemic to Madagascar. The first human encounter with Madagascar's biodiversity occurred only 2,000 years ago. Since then, much of the islands forest, the habitat for Madagascar's unique plant and animal species has been destroyed. Because 80 percent of Madagascars population lives in rural areas and makes its living through subsistence agriculture, a large part of the population depends on slash-and-burn cultivation. In addition, practices such as charcoal production, mining, logging, oil exploration, hunting, and collecting wild animals for the pet trade are detrimental to the environment. These practices have created erosion, decreased agricultural production, increased rural poverty, and threatened the biodiversity of the Madagascar ecosystem.