Politics, perceptions, and actions on illegal logging in Madagascar: Interacting with government officials and the poor

A recent NYTimes story reports on the trend of very open - though illegal - logging in reserve forests in Madagascar. The target species is rosewood - a highly valuable species in Asia, especially China, that has all but disappeared from that continent. According to the story, a lack of political will to enforce rules against rosewood logging has allowed the rosewood trade to persist in Madagascar. Often, government official benefit economically from allowing rosewood production to persist. Although illegal rosewood timber production has been going on for some time in Madagascar, recent political instability has ramped-up rose wood production, with reports of significant ecological disruption in Madagascar's rainforests - home to many endemic flora and fauna species.

NGOs are on the ground, documenting and exposing the illicit trade, which is a highly important part of this process. Given the current government's inability to leverage the rule of law toward forest conservation, civil society can play a role in seeking solutions, either from other governments, or from forces within Madagascar. On the ground reports of illegal logging that leads to ecological destruction can inform other nations' dealings with Madagascar, and could form the basis of diplomacy from rich nations that would incentive the government to crack-down - providing a counterweight to the current incentives officials have to turn their head.

The story misses a crucial element in the strategy on ceasing illegal logging. Interacting with those organizing the illicit logging at the top level is only one part of the solution, and while probably necessary, is ultimately insufficient to prevent future rosewood poaching. As it is now, the poor communities who traditionally lived in reserve forests, but who were displaced some time ago, are providing the labor necessary to extract the increasingly scarce trees, which earns them a wage they find hard to replace. In addition to focusing on interventions at the government level, NGOs must look to work directly with the poor, supporting initiatives that boost livelihoods and build institutions for forest conservation. When the poor have alternatives for income that beat the wages paid by illegal logging operations - typically logging mafias - they can be included in the efforts that seek to halt illegal logging. For, even if the government were to make genuine efforts towards stopping the logging, as long as a market existed for rosewood and the poor had no better livelihood options, illegal timber extraction with proceed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/africa/25madagascar.html?hp