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  PlanetArk 19 Jun 06
New Hope for Madgascar's Rare Birds
Story by Ed Stoddard

ANTANANARIVO - Hunting and the destruction of forests have put many of Madagascar's rare bird species on the endangered list, but the government's drive to protect habitat may turn the tide, a leading scientist said.

The wildlife of the huge Indian Ocean Island will be in the spotlight on Tuesday at the start of a major conservation conference that will examine ways to link Africa's natural treasures to poverty alleviation.

Madagascar is a paradise for bird lovers, with around 120 species that are found nowhere else. But about one quarter of these types of birds are endangered.

"There is hope. The rate of deforestation has slowed," said Frank Hawkins, an ornithologist and co-author of the main field guide on birds of Madagascar.

He said satellite imagery showed the island, located off the east coast of Africa, lost about a third of its forest cover between 1975 and 1990. "It was a free for all. ... It was part of government policy at the time which encouraged people to go back to their rural roots," said Hawkins, a technical director for the non-governmental organisation Conservation International.

Much of the forest had been cleared for slash-and-burn agriculture. Poor soil quality exacerbated the problem, as there were few nutrients left when trees were removed, forcing peasant farmers to move on.

But the pace of forest loss is slowing, with satellite imagery showing that 10 percent of forest cover was lost between 1990 and 2000. "In the past five years it has been only about one or two percent," said Hawkins, attributing the reduction to the government's 2003 decision to triple its amount of protected areas and make ecotourism a priority.

Ecotourism can give poor rural communities a vested interest in maintaining habitat rather than hacking it away.

Another issue high on the agenda of the conference is the rampant poaching for meat, which endangers wetland birds, including several species of ducks.

Madagascar is also home to five endemic families of birds -- groups that typically contain several different but closely related species -- which Hawkins said are found on no other comparable land mass anywhere in the world.

Madagascar broke away from the rest of Africa well over 100 million years ago, and much of its flora and fauna evolved in isolation. Its gems include the Madagascar crested ibis, a large bird with a striking red face, as well as lemurs, an archaic primate group distantly related to humanity.
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