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Synthesis
• The island's geographic isolation created a wonderland of biological richness. Now population pressures and political turmoil speed the plunder of its rosewood, minerals and gems.
THE PIERCED HEART of MADAGASCAR
Process
• Rosewood Cut in Masola National park is hauled to riverside banks in pre-cut sections
• The Piroque men move this downstream in rafts continuously breaking up loads at cataracts
• Collected at larger camps it is then transferred to vehicles for transportation to Antalaha
• Eventually it will find itself to China – equivalent to $200 million in just a few months
• Here it is used for furniture,
Earnings
• Cutter earn $6 a day – fell tree, remove white exterior and cut into 7 foot lengths
• Two extractors drag the logs to the forest edge -1 to 2 days for $10 to $20 [400lbs each]
• Radeau [raft] operators earn $25 a log down the rapids
• Piroquemen paddle the flatter section [$12 a log]• Park officials bribed $200 for two weeks • Police officers $20 each on manned checkpoints• Middlemen select the logs and transfer these to
trucks for $12 a log
Rosewood
• Rosewood Bound for China• Rosewood dining table can cost you $5000• Timber exported largely to China – insatiable
appetite • Most ‘barons’ still dabble in Vanilla too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RosewoodGuitarBack.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RosewoodPieces.jpg
Vanilla
• Traditionally the main harvest based outside of Antalaha
• Falling prices and cyclones have reduced output
• Workers have explored new sectors to support their families
Masoala National Park – Rosewood earns this forester $6
• Selectively cut from the forest
• [typical Madgascan lives on a dollar a day]
• 20 million growing at 3% a year
Aid falls off and Tourists decline leaving flowers unsold at the market following the
2009 Coup
• 2002 Marc Raalomanana comes to power as president on a green platform
• 2009 routed from power by the military
• 2000 ban on exporting Rosewood
• 2009 overturned by cash-strapped government
Politics
Sapphire miners Ilakaka
• Most rights to prospect owned by foreign owned companies
• Gold• Nickel• Cobalt• Ilmenite [titanium]• + Sapphire [1/3 of
world market]
Pipeline for Ambatovy
Nickel Mine
• Tolanarro• Anglo Australian
company Rio Tinto • Good Neighbour project• Extraction or Ilmenite for
titanium – paints., paper and plastic
• Built new road, schools and employed locals
• Now has also secured unique littoral forests with endemic species as well.
$50 or best offer• Forest guide notices a real
difference in the forest – very quiet
• No lemur• Forest loggers supplement
their poor diet of rice with Lemur
• One group caught 16 Lemurs in one sitting
• ~Most species polygamous but the INDRI has no tail [black and white] and is monogamous
Locals [indigenous] either see the Lemur as evil or the realm of the white tourist
• All photographs Pascal Maitre
• http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/madagascar/maitre-photography
• Text from September 2010 National Geographic
• Slide 20 Jud Mc Cranie – chess pieces + guitar back – creative commons – address illustrates licences
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/madagascar/maitre-photography