International year of biodiversity : "destruction of natural habitats"

The celebration of the International year of Biodiversity is continuing in various ways. At the initiative of WWF, two days were organized in Fianarantsoa on the 18th and 19th June in the premises of the Alliance Française. The programme included a poster exhibition on the Biodiversity of Madagascar and the Western Indian Ocean region.

Two major themes were highlighted. First, the marine environment, through the Network of marine protected areas, a project of the member countries of the Indian Ocean Commission. There was also a series of very explicit posters on climate change, its manifestations, its impacts and the adaptation that man now has to undergo, an adaptation that puts forward the imperatives of conservation.

Man and his activities are somehow the sources of the troubles that the world has been facing since a few decades, a series of changes, which keep on increasing. The path to the mitigation of the impacts of climate change must go through the conclusion of an agreement, which unfortunately did not come forth at the Summit in Copenhagen.

These days of biodiversity in Fianarantsoa were also marked by a conference at the Alliance française lead by Dr. Fara Lala Razafy, Ecoregional leader of the Ala Tsinanana Programme within WWF.

The intervention was focused on the loss of natural habitats in Madagascar, which first led her to define biodiversity, which is a contraction of the words « biological diversity”, an expression which refers to the variety and diversity of the living world. In its broadest meaning, this word is really the synonym of “ variety of the living world”. While a habitat is an ecological or environmental area, inhabited by particular species of plants or animals or other kinds of living organisms.
Coming to the heart of the matter, the speaker stressed that the dread of the destruction of habitats causing the massive extinction of species is very present. It is not risky to state that there is a shared observation of the quick disappearance of many species, and that is it really important to protect this diversity, according to the principle of precaution.

During the discussions, the rich biodiversity of Madagascar was emphasized. Its flora has about 12.000 species, over 80% of endemic species, 209 endemic genera, and 6 endemic families. The differences between the ecoregions in Madagascar and, more generally, the marked differences of the flora of the Big Island compared with those existing in other continents, was also discussed. In terms of fauna, Madagascar has an extraordinary wealth, only to mention the amphibians and reptiles; a quarter of the diversity of primates in the world; at least 11 endemic families of vertebrates, most of them having a very high rate of endemicity.

The days of biodiversity organized by WWF in Fianarantsoa were just the beginning as other events are still planned in various towns across the country.