page_title: Illegal logging in Madagascar
section_title: Effects of the 2009 political crisis
hierarchical_section_title: Illegal logging in Madagascar / Effects of the 2009 political crisis
caption_attribution_description: English: Workers concealing illegally logged rosewood by burying it at a beach near Cap Est, adjacent to Masoala National Park
context_page_description: Illegal logging has been a problem in Madagascar for decades and is perpetuated by extreme poverty and government corruption. Often taking the form of selective logging, the trade has been driven by high international demand for expensive, fine-grained lumber such as rosewood and ebony. Historically, logging and exporting in Madagascar have been regulated by the Malagasy government, although the logging of rare hardwoods was explicitly banned from protected areas in 2000. Since then, government orders and memos have intermittently alternated between permitting and banning exports of precious woods. The most commonly cited reason for permitting exports is to salvage valuable wood from cyclone damage, although this reasoning has come under heavy scrutiny. This oscillating availability of Malagasy rosewood and other precious woods has created a market of rising and falling prices, allowing traders or "timber barons" to stockpile illegally sourced logs during periodic bans and then flood the market when the trade windows open and prices are high. Over 350,000 trees were illegally felled in Madagascar between 2010 and 2015, according to TRAFFIC.
context_section_description: In late January 2009, increasing political protests led by the mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina destabilized the Malagasy government. With the backing of the military, former President Ravalomanana was removed from office on March 18, and power was handed power over to Rajoelina, making him the President of the High Transitional Authority of Madagascar. This  drew sharp criticism from the international community and resulted in a sharp cut in foreign assistance from donor countries. Foreign embassies also discouraged their citizens from visiting the country, causing a sharp drop in ecotourism—a critical part of the economy. Coupled with a recent crash in vanilla prices, this has left an already impoverished Malagasy government and economy in an even more desperate state, especially since communities living within the vicinity of the national parks receive half of the park entrance fees. This set the stage for profitable, illegal activities. To meet the surge in demand for Malagasy rosewood, illegal logging of rosewood surged in the SAVA Region, or northeast corner of the island, including Marojejy and Masoala national parks, starting around the time of the first political protests.
  On January 19, just before the beginning of the riots, the export of precious woods, which had been stockpiled for the past two years, was once again allowed. This permitted the sale of 500,000 logs of rosewood, ebony, and palisandre, along with many more logs that appeared from hidden caches, thus increasing the pressure for renewed logging. When riots and looting broke out in Antalaha on January 27 and 28, the rosewood mafia recovered an estimated 500 metric tons (500,000 kg) of previously seized logs from the Water and Forests Headquarters. Armed militia backed by foreign profiteers (primarily from China) descended on local villages and began soliciting workers for logging, issuing death threats for villages who opposed them. As a result, the people who had once relied on tourism were left with no other means of support, dividing the community and families. Some turned to the rosewood trade out of desperation, while others who feared prosecution for directly participating in logging instead acted as guides by helping the loggers find the trees.
  By March 2009, the national parks of the SAVA Region were swarming with thousands of loggers. This period of intense logging lasted six to eight weeks, and park rangers and guides were forced by armed gangs to abandon their posts, resulting in the closure of Marojejy National Park for over a month, from March 20 to May 11. By early April, the roads leading from the parks were streaked with red from rosewood logs that had been dragged across the pavement. In late March, a representative of the Ministry of Environments, Water and Forests for the new government met with NGOs concerned with conservation and declared that stopping illegal logging was a top priority. He proposed the following action plan:
  Send gendarmerie to the region as reinforcements for forest control
  Use a radio and print campaign to remind people that logging in protected areas is illegal
  Ceases export at Vohemar (the primary export location for illegal wood) and assess exports more closely
  Annul the permissions for export given in January
  Check the visa status of foreign traders in the regions plagued by illegal logging
  Replace the head of the Directorate General of Waters and Forests
  Police the radio calls promoting logging in the parks
  However, if any of these actions were taken by the cash-strapped central government, they met only limited success.  In fact, all attempts by the transitional authority to implement control over trade have had little effect.
  Between March and mid-July, authorities in Masoala National Park found a total of 23 stumps, 2,906 logs, 142 logging camps, and over 130 workers within the park. (Few stumps were found because these rare trees are found at low densities—up to 5 trees per hectare, whereas workers, camps, and logs can be found concentrated along paths cut into the forest.) With an estimated 1
caption: Malagasy laborers work to conceal rosewood illegally harvested from Masoala National Park by burying it at a beach near Cap Est
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