The international wildlife regulator CITES is considering whether or not to allow Madagascar to sell seized rainforest trunks worth millions of dollars. The island says it would allow it to fund conservation work, but activists warn it could encourage further logging - and destroy the island's remaining forests. Dan Ashby reports.
IN: Amid
OUT: that decision
DUR: 2:30
GENERIC: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/2811madagascarpack2-da-generic.mp3
Amid birds of paradise and giant spiders webs,
we are searching for a more sombre sight.
Madagascar's Marojejy Park may be wild jungle untamed,
but deep in the forest - mankind has done its worst.
'So this is the stump of the Rosewood.
It was very beautiful to see, but now it's just a stump. It's sad to see like this.'
Guide Franco Rajaonarison shows us what's left of a Rosewood tree.
Gangs stole it to traffick the wood to China.
And he never wants them to come back.
'If we have no forest, then we have no rain, life will become more difficult. We'll also have no tourists, and therefore no jobs. So that's why we have to protect it.'
But could his forest hang in the balance?
The Madagascan Government owns millions of dollars rosewood stumps
in stockpiles that were seized from the gangs.
But now it wants to sell them, to raise money for conservation.
Alexander Von Bismark from the Environmental Investigation Agency says that's bad news.
"The reality is that the Malagasy Government has no control over the stockpile. What actually happens is, if you let one piece out, the next piece is illegally cut in the national park and brought into the stockpile. It's a laundering mechanism."
The Government's director of forestry in SAVA region Arsonina Bera,
says he think it's time to destroy the stockpiles.
But the Government clearly disagrees.
It argues that a stockpile sale will help it meet tough requirements to protect its forest.
It says it has already employed more forestry officers, but needs to do much more.
But local activists say it will use the money to help in an election year,
and it is not doing nearly enough.
More than 90% of the country's iconic lemurs are threatened,
in part, by unrestrained deforestation.
This week CITES - the wildlife regulator - must decide what it will allow.
And the course of Madagascar's future, may depend on that decision.
IN: Amid
OUT: that decision
DUR: 2:30
GENERIC: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/2811madagascarpack2-da-generic.mp3
Amid birds of paradise and giant spiders webs,
we are searching for a more sombre sight.
Madagascar's Marojejy Park may be wild jungle untamed,
but deep in the forest - mankind has done its worst.
'So this is the stump of the Rosewood.
It was very beautiful to see, but now it's just a stump. It's sad to see like this.'
Guide Franco Rajaonarison shows us what's left of a Rosewood tree.
Gangs stole it to traffick the wood to China.
And he never wants them to come back.
'If we have no forest, then we have no rain, life will become more difficult. We'll also have no tourists, and therefore no jobs. So that's why we have to protect it.'
But could his forest hang in the balance?
The Madagascan Government owns millions of dollars rosewood stumps
in stockpiles that were seized from the gangs.
But now it wants to sell them, to raise money for conservation.
Alexander Von Bismark from the Environmental Investigation Agency says that's bad news.
"The reality is that the Malagasy Government has no control over the stockpile. What actually happens is, if you let one piece out, the next piece is illegally cut in the national park and brought into the stockpile. It's a laundering mechanism."
The Government's director of forestry in SAVA region Arsonina Bera,
says he think it's time to destroy the stockpiles.
But the Government clearly disagrees.
It argues that a stockpile sale will help it meet tough requirements to protect its forest.
It says it has already employed more forestry officers, but needs to do much more.
But local activists say it will use the money to help in an election year,
and it is not doing nearly enough.
More than 90% of the country's iconic lemurs are threatened,
in part, by unrestrained deforestation.
This week CITES - the wildlife regulator - must decide what it will allow.
And the course of Madagascar's future, may depend on that decision.