Most species of Lemur now face extinction, according to an alarming new report.
The new finding is from the 'Primate Specialist Group', a group of wildlife conservationists. These wildlife conservationists found that most Lemur species now face extinction in Madagascar. This would mean that Madagascar would lose most of its Lemurs; as the rainforest of Madagascar would become silent without these animals. That's if, the Madagascan rainforest survives.
The Risk Of Losing The Madagascan Rainforest The Madagascan rainforest has been quickly disappearing over the last few decades. From just 1950 up until 2000, 40% of the Madagascan rainforest was destroyed through deforestation.
To put that into perspective, almost half of this forest was lost to human destruction of the forest in just 50 years. Wildlife conservationists say that since humans landed in Madagascar 2000 years ago, there has been an alarming 90% of the forest which has been destroyed, because of humans destroying the forest.
If nothing is done to prevent the destruction of Madagascar's forests, then it will be gone within just 25 years. We would not just lose Madagascar's forests, we would also lose all the animals (and biodiversity) that call the forest their home. This would be a significant loss, as 80% of the animal species in Madagascar are not found anywhere else in the world.
The Threats To Madagascar's Forests There are many threats which threaten the survival of this forest. The main threat, however, is deforestation - clearing the rainforest through logging. Other threats include forest fires, hunting and mining.
A new threat has opened up this forest to mining - a sapphire boom. This new threat of sapphire mining began just last October (2017). It's so big that 45,000 miners have been employed to mine the sapphires out of the ground. These sapphires have proved 'profitable' in monetary terms, but the forest which has been eroded is not being seen as valuable. Ironically, the forest is more valuable. As the native American proverb says:
Nature is essential for our survival; greed is not. But it's not just about mans pursuit of greed, it's also about the morals of destroying the natural world and the animals that make it their home. It shows that we have no respect or tolerance for the animals we share this world with or their forest home. This makes it an environmental rights issue and an animal rights issue. How can we say humanity is tolerant or civil if humanity is neither tolerant or civil towards forests or forest animals. When we look at how our rainforests are being eroded, it shows humanity as a destructive force. In many ways, humanity is at a crossroads, do we become known as the human race that destroyed the last forests and animals, or do we become the generation that finally cared enough to stop the natural world being pushed over an edge?
Do we really want to be known as the generation who cared more about Kim Kardashian changing her hair colour, than mass species extinction?
What Are The Threats To The Lemurs? One of the main threats to the Lemurs is what we have just discussed - deforestation. Deforestation of the country is the biggest threat to the survival of these animals. There are other threats, such as people hunting them, mining and forest and agricultural fires. Whatever threatens the forest, inevitably threatens these animals - the two are interlinked.