Desertification of Madagascar

TC Freddy made landfall on the eastern coast of Madagascar at around 7 pm (local time). TC Freddy weakened from a category 4 cyclone into a category 3 ahead of landfall but hit Madagascar with sustained winds of 150 km/h. 

In anticipation of the landfall, the Government of Madagascar put seven areas of the country into red alerts and 4 in yellow. In collaboration with Red Cross and other partners, it also evacuated thousands of vulnerable people from the coastal area, limiting the potential loss of life. As TC Freddy crossed Madagascar, it brought upon heavy rains and strong winds led to flooding and widespread damage to houses and public infrastructure.

Madagascar is currently experiencing a humanitarian emergency due to Cyclone Freddy.
This caused significant damage to crops, arable land and livestock, resulting in loss of livelihoods and food insecurity.

People need help, including children who need treatment for acute malnutrition. The healthcare system was already under strain, and repeated crises only exacerbate the situation. The emergency has resulted in a dire need for food, health care, shelter, WASH and protection services. 

Sine 2018 Southern Madagascar experienced a prolonged drought as rainfall became scarcer amid a changing climate. Food security was devastated and widespread hunger ensued to reach near-famine proportions. The impoverishment and health impacts of malnutrition and stunting caused by these lean years will be felt for years to come. 

Drought takes a toll on social relationships.  The strain of losing access to water, watching crops die, losing livelihoods and seeing family members go hungry can lead to social stress within households and communities, and give rise to violence and conflict. Although the economic, health and environmental impacts of drought have been widely studied, the social impacts of drought remain largely overlooked.

According to the World Food Program, more than a million people in southern Madagascar are desperately trying to survive the first-ever famine caused by global climate change. The region has been hit hard by drought over the past few years.

Alice Rahmoun recently visited southern Madagascar, where the UN and its partners are assisting hundreds of thousands of locals. She saw villages there surrounded by dried-up fields and tomato beds that were "completely yellow or even brown" due to lack of moisture.

"In some areas, people can still grow something, but every year they have to overcome more and more difficulties," Rahman said. - In other areas, nothing grows now, so people survive by eating locusts, fruit, and cactus leaves. Cactus leaves used to be used only as fodder for cattle, people never ate them.

A study in Nature Climate Change has found that left unchecked, the combined effects of deforestation and human-induced climate change could eliminate Madagascar's entire eastern rainforest habitat by 2070, impacting thousands of plants, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that are endemic to the island nation.

The researchers' data suggest that the speed and intensity of destruction to Madagascar's eastern rainforest will be greatly determined by whether the country institutes strict protections against deforestation or a relaxed set of policies. Protecting forested areas that provide shelter to ruffed lemurs and serve as corridor links to their strongholds is particularly important to survival given their role as a keystone species that enables the survival of a large number of animal and plant species in one of the world's most biodiverse regions.

The effort sprinted forward this year, completing more than 2,400 assessments by a team of Malagasy and foreign researchers.

The World Bank teamed up with researchers at the Global Studies Institute, California State University, and put in place a monitoring system to track the social impacts of the drought in Southern Madagascar. Every four months, a representative panel of 480 respondents was asked to reflect on the impacts of the drought and how various social dynamics were faring. Respondents identified the drought as causing the following particular stresses: lack of access to water and food, increased food prices, increased poverty and pressure on livelihoods.

The President of the Republic of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, unveiled an ambitious reforestation plan at the One Planet Summit.

The island has lost 44 % of its natural forests since the 1950s and the rate of deforestation is increasing. Some 90 % of its species are endemic, and the island’s unique biodiversity is thus endangered. The challenge for the island is balancing the protection of its natural heritage with the fight against poverty. This is a huge task that calls for action on several fronts. 

“Madagascar was known as the Red Island, but it will now be the Green Island thanks to our national reforestation plan”, said the President of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina.

Scientists from MIT and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have found that a widespread and permanent loss of forests in Madagascar that occurred 1,000 years ago was due not to climate change or any natural disaster, but to human settlers who set fire to the forests to make way for grazing cattle.
Researchers came to this conclusion after determining the composition of two stalagmites from a cave in northwestern Madagascar.

Stalagmites are formed from water that seeps from the surface, through the soil, and enters the cave. These thin-layered pillars can persist for thousands of years, and their composition serves as a historical record of the environment above ground.