A mighty blaze in Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park is menacing the home of the world’s rarest lemur species. Disastrous dry conditions have turned the biodiversity haven into a tinderbox.
The park, one of the country’s leading tourist destinations, is a 10-hour drive from Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, and is also home to the prestigious Centre ValBio research center (CVB).
Patricia Wright, a leading authority on lemurs who helped establish the park, described a nightmarish scene, with “the sun beating down and the wind whipping the flames into a frenzy.” Wright is at the forefront of firefighting efforts along with hundreds of residents.
There’s no official estimate yet about the fire damage, but more than 260 hectares (642 acres) are likely impacted, Wright, executive director of CVB, told Mongabay via email. The fires erupted near the park’s western boundary and spread within its limits.
The national park was created in 1991, encompassing 43,550 hectares (107,614 acres) of rainforests that line Madagascar’s eastern coast. The presence here of the greater bamboo lemur (Hapalemur simus) and the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) recorded in the 1980s lent urgency to efforts to preserve the area.
“It is an important habitat for lemurs, reptiles, geckos, amphibians, insects, and mammals such as bats and tenrecs,” a shrew-like animal, Rhodin Rafidimanandray, a tourist guide, told L’Express de Madagascar. “Bird species that cannot fly high are surely burned. Not to mention the flora that has simply disappeared with the fire.”
While CVB and residents play a role in the protection of the park, it’s officially managed by Madagascar National Parks (MNP), a quasigovernmental agency that also oversees most of Madagascar’s protected areas.
Ranomafana’s appeal for researchers and tourists has afforded it some protection against deforestation. But many of Madagascar’s protected areas face high rates of forest loss because of expanding slash-and-burn agriculture along with a lack of funding to safeguard green cover. A changing climate is making conservation even more challenging.
Human activities, not natural causes, likely caused the current fire, Ollier Andrianambinina, an MNP spokesperson, told Mongabay. Two major fires broke out in the park in late December. One is now contained, but the other persists, fueled by dry vegetation and strong winds, according to Andrianambinina.
Madagascar’s rainy season runs between November and April, but “it has not rained in December or January,” Wright said. “Everything in the rainforest is wilted and dry.”
Park authorities, the gendarmerie (a militarized arm of the police), the military, CVB and the nonprofit Pivot Works are fighting the fire alongside residents. On Jan. 8, more than 1,500 community members were involved in the operation. “Everyone worked beating the fires with shovels and branches and making firebreaks,” Wright said.
Community members provided food and water for firefighters, using funds from MNP and CVB. The research station has deployed two drones to track the fire’s spread.
Banner image: A community member participates in firefighting efforts in Ranomafana National Park. Image courtesy of Fabrice Odon Rasolomampionona/Centre ValBio.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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