Madagascar — sometimes known as the “world’s eighth continent” — is a naturalist’s paradise. More than 80 percent of the flora and fauna on the island can be found nowhere else on earth. (..) Said Gilbert, a former rosewood logger, says he earned between $2 and $3 cutting down two trees a day. Gilbert is just trying to get by. But while locals like him subsist on rice and bushmeat, the 300-year-old trees they fell generate thousands of dollars in profits for businessmen at home and abroad. Most loggers never meet the financiers, traders, and buyers who deal in the timber, which is so sought-after that it sells for $20,000 to $25,000 per ton. Nor are they likely to ever see the finished product — mostly high-end furniture for China’s growing elite. Logging rosewood in Madagascar is a big business. According to estimates from 2013, between $250 and $300 million in exotic timber, mostly rosewood, was illegally exported from the island that year... Between 2009 and 2010, more than 1,500 containers of wood, worth over $150 million, were authorized for export in contravention of international regulations.
Dans CGTN
Despite being an island, one of the biggest problems facing Madagascar is water shortage. About half the island’s approximately 25 million people struggle to find clean water for basic use. Now however, a massive project is underway to change that narrative. The Chinese funded initiative seeks to drill about 200 boreholes – mainly in the southwest region – to ensure locals can access clean water. When complete, the project will enable more than 300,000 people to accesss clean water for their daily chores.
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