Oct 04 2009

Madagascar's cash-strapped government has opened the door for criminal syndicates to plunder the Indian Ocean island's precious natural resources, conservation groups said on Saturday.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International and Wild life Conservation Society said an inter-ministerial order issued last month granted an exceptional authorisation to export raw and semi-processed hard wood.

"It legalises the sale of illegally cut and collected wood onto the market; allows for the potential embezzlement of funds in the name of environmental protection and constitutes a legal incentive for further corruption in the forestry sector," the statement signed by the three groups said.

Eco-tourism is the backbone of Madagascar's $390-million-a-year tourism industry, which has been wrecked by months of political turmoil this year.

Conservationists say its biodiversity is being wiped out on a shocking level as gangs take advantage of a security vacuum to pillage rosewood and ebony from supposedly protected forests and trap exotic animals, mainly for Asia's pet market.

Isolated from land masses for more than 160-million years, the world's fourth largest island is a biodiversity "hotspot" home to hundreds of exotic species found only there.

Prime Minister Monja Roindefo denied the government was legitimising the plundering of forests, but refused to rule out issuing future licences.

"We have brought the logging under control. For the moment we don't foresee another order being issued," he told Reuters.

The September 21 government order authorised 13 operators to export 325 containers of timber, with the authorities taking a 72-million ariary tax on each container.

www.mg.co.za