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Threats to the Park
July, 2007: Marojejy has been officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site... [more]
April, 2007: Two cyclones (hurricanes) slammed into northeastern Madagascar last month... [more]
February, 2007: The illegal removal of rosewood out of northeastern Madagascar continues unabated... [more]
November, 2006: The hills surrounding Marojejy are again on fire... [more]
March, 2006: Death threats force evacuation of volunteer from Marojejy... [more]
January, 2006: The Park Logistics Coordinator has been fired for selling 9 ha (22 acres) of park land... [more]
December, 2005: The traffic in rosewood from Marojejy has begun once again... [more]
October, 2005: Areas within the boundaries of Marojejy National Park are currently being cleared for agricultural purposes... [more]
As a national park, Marojejy is officially protected from all human disturbance. In reality, though, the forests and wildlife of Marojejy are far from safe. Gunshots are heard all too frequently within park boundaries, and traps are still found as people hunt lemurs for food. Rosewood, palissandre, ebony and other valuable hardwood trees are being cut and hauled out of the park for foreign export. Land on all sides of the park is being cleared and burned yearly to grow rice and manioc.
Law enforcement patrols in Marojejy are both insufficient and inefficient. Park conservation agents are spread thinly around the park periphery. Local villagers know the agents’ schedules and when the agents will take their holidays. Recently, residents of Mandena, a village less than three km from the park boundary, reported that a local hunter had killed several lemurs in the park. But because it was a holiday, three days passed before anyone could respond to the incident. The hunter, in the meantime, disappeared.
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Regulations are often easy to circumvent. For example, in late 2004, the Malagasy government authorised the removal of rosewood, ebony, and other hardwoods from non-protected areas, but only under limited conditions and for a limited time. Trees could be legally taken only if they had been blown down by recent cyclones, and had been previously inspected and marked by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests (Minenvef). These requirements, however, were nearly impossible to enforce, not only because Minenvef agents rarely if ever venture into the field, but also due to the ease with which forged documents could be obtained and officials bribed. Corruption was only encouraged by the extremely high prices brought by these precious woods. As a result, many very old trees were cut and removed from local forests – including the "protected" forests of Marojejy and Masoala National Parks.
Even when violators are caught, penalties are commonly lenient. In one case, a hunter was apprehended in the park with a freshly killed Silky Sifaka (a highly endangered lemur) that he had shot under contract for another man in a neighboring village. However, neither man was fined or jailed, and the gun was returned within a month to the man who had contracted the kill. Very recently, a number of men were caught cutting and removing rosewood from within Marojejy National Park. The men were sentenced to ten days of light labor working around the park entrance and at a park employee's residence. Park employees who are known to have taken bribes and facilitated the removal of rosewood remain in their posts at the park with no punishment.
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Marojejy National Park is surrounded by a burgeoning human population that is inexorably clearing and burning the land. The area around Marojejy is one of the most densely populated in Madagascar: approximately 200,000 people – the vast majority of whom are subsistence farmers – live within a 40 km radius surrounding Andapa. Population growth rates are high, with the number of people tripling in the past 30 years. Land for growing crops is becoming increasingly scarce, and firewood is increasingly difficult to obtain. Slash-and-burn agriculture (tavy) is commonly practiced right up to the park boundaries, and results not only in fragmentation and loss of wildlife habitat, but also in severe erosion and siltation of rivers.
To protect Marojejy's remarkable resources, it is not enough to simply set aside the land and call it a park. Effective enforcement of regulations is essential. Most important of all, though, is the need for environmental education. Villagers in the surrounding communities must be made aware of the incredibly unique and remarkable place that Marojejy is, and the urgent need to preserve it for their children and their grandchildren. Toward this end, the Malagasy government and many international conservation organizations have been working to promote environmental awareness and resource conservation in the local communities, as well as to provide alternatives to current destructive practices. Youth conservation clubs, tree nurseries, fuel-efficient stoves, intensified agricultural techniques, ecotourism, and better schools and health-care facilities are all things that are being introduced in the Marojejy area in an attempt to eliminate the threats to this very special place.
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