HUMAN ENVIRONMENT AND INTERACTION
The most obvious human impact is the deforestation of the ecosystem. The forest has gradually been diminishing in the amount of land area it covers due to agricultural fires, logging, and the use of fuel wood for cooking fires. Because Madagascar is among the world's poorest countries, people's day-to-day survival is dependent upon agriculture. The country's extreme poverty forces farmers to convert tropical rain forest land into rice fields. In order to do so farmers must turn to the agriculture method of slash-and-burn. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the major cause of upland degradation and deforestation in eastern Madagascar. This typically involves a process in which an acre or two of the forest is cut down, burnt, and planted with rice.
The protected areas of Madagascar included three types of areas: Strict Nature Reserves, National parks, and Wildlife reaserves. At the Kirindy Mitea National Park, located in Menabe has about 178,410 acres. This park protects the unique wildlife of the hot and dry transitional landscape between the western and southern ecosystems. Although the diversity of species is relative to the eastern rainforests, endemism is very high, constituting 100% of its reptiles and amphibians, 91% of mammals in the park, 70%, of bird species and 70% of the park's plant species.
The most obvious human impact is the deforestation of the ecosystem. The forest has gradually been diminishing in the amount of land area it covers due to agricultural fires, logging, and the use of fuel wood for cooking fires. Because Madagascar is among the world's poorest countries, people's day-to-day survival is dependent upon agriculture. The country's extreme poverty forces farmers to convert tropical rain forest land into rice fields. In order to do so farmers must turn to the agriculture method of slash-and-burn. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the major cause of upland degradation and deforestation in eastern Madagascar. This typically involves a process in which an acre or two of the forest is cut down, burnt, and planted with rice.
The protected areas of Madagascar included three types of areas: Strict Nature Reserves, National parks, and Wildlife reaserves. At the Kirindy Mitea National Park, located in Menabe has about 178,410 acres. This park protects the unique wildlife of the hot and dry transitional landscape between the western and southern ecosystems. Although the diversity of species is relative to the eastern rainforests, endemism is very high, constituting 100% of its reptiles and amphibians, 91% of mammals in the park, 70%, of bird species and 70% of the park's plant species.