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Madagascar: Forests
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The economy of Madagascar is overwhelmingly agricultural, largely of a subsistence type; the best farmland is in the east and northwest. The principal cash crops are coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves, and cocoa. The main food crops are rice, cassava, beans, bananas, and peanuts. In addition, large numbers of poultry, cattle, goats, sheep, and hogs are raised. Fishing and forestry are ... important.
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The current situation of forest use in Madagascar is not much more promising than the historical situation. The Malagasy often subsist on per capita income equal to $200 per year and 750,000 acres of forest are still felled every year. Deforestation at 1994 levels still costs Madagascar between $100-$300 million in decreased crop yields and the loss of productive forests. Coffee still represents 24% of the nation's exports, and the rice production situation has become so bad that Madagascar import most of what is consumed. Environmentalists and economists agree that what factors the communities need to survive must be identified and obtained from sources other than their environment. One method that has been identified is using the fees generated from tourism to support the local villages.
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The carbon offset financing deal was developed through a partnership between Natsource Japan Co. Ltd., representing Mitsubishi, and Conservation International (CI), acting on behalf of the Government of Madagascar. The investment will help fund the Makira Forest Project which is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). This initiative was developed by WCS in partnership with the Government of Madagascar and CI to reduce the deforestation rate of Makira, prevent species extinctions, work with local communities to develop sustainable activities that provide alternative approaches to slash and burn agriculture, and demonstrate a viable market for some of the forest's ecosystem services.
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The Zahamena Protected Area is located on Madagascar's east flank, approximately 175 km north east of Antananarivo. It includes the RNI de Zahamena and the PN de Zahamena—that together have an area of 64,400 ha. The relief is hilly and the altitude ranges from 244 m to 1582 m. The bioclimate of Zahamena is classified as humid to perhumid (Cornet 1974), that is to say that during the year plants will normally experience zero to one month of drought. The eastern side of Zahamena is considerably wetter than the western side, with an average of 2012 mm and 1110 mm of rain per year respectively Although there is precipitation throughout the year, the months November–March are considerably wetter than the rest of the year. The vegetation in and around the Reserve and includes both and low- and mid-elevation evergreen humid forest, secondary forest, plantations and secondary grassland.
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