#With accordance to driver#
“Slash-and-burn” farming – cutting down and burning vegetation to clear land for new crops – is a major driver of deforestation and land degradation in Madagascar. Some 98% of amphibians and 74% of reptiles on the island are endemic.Īgricultural practices threaten forests and biodiversity on the island. Madagascar is home to a large number of “endemic” species – those that are not found anywhere else on Earth. The island is also a hotspot for unique biodiversity. An estimated 87% of Malagasy farmers live below the national poverty line. The commodity provides a major source of income for smallholder Malagasy farmers. The African island nation of Madagascar is the world’s largest vanilla producer. Prioritising agroforestry on open land as opposed to converting old growth forests is a “no brainer” for jointly addressing both climate change and biodiversity loss, a scientist not involved with the study tells Carbon Brief. However, the research also finds that establishing agroforests in existing forests is associated with a 23% decline in species richness – highlighting that the benefits of agroforestry hinge on the type of land it uses. The results show that increasing levels of species richness were not associated with a decline in vanilla yields, suggesting agroforestry could offer a “win-win” solution for farmers and biodiversity, according to the study authors. It finds that establishing vanilla agroforests across fallow land – arable land that has been set aside to recover for a period of time – increases species richness by 12%, when compared to fallow land without agroforests. The research examines the impacts of “agroforestry” – a practice whereby farmers grow trees and agricultural crops in the same space – on vanilla production in Madagascar. Planting trees across tropical farmland can help to restore biodiversity without sacrificing crop yields, a new study finds.
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