Environmentalists looking after one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests in Madagascar are increasingly worried about climate change putting endemic wildlife at risk.
A small group of guardians of the Analamazaotra Forest in east-central Madagascar said poverty fuelled by global warming is driving deforestation and poaching.
They said that extreme weather patterns pose the most serious problem, especially affecting the nation’s lemur population.
Madagascar is one of the world’s lowest carbon emissions emitters, yet is severely affected by yearly cyclones, long droughts followed by flooding.
The climatic challenges have forced the disadvantaged to increasingly turn to cutting trees, poaching wildlife for sale, even eating the animals and plants to survive.
Countries have agreed a new deal at the climate summit in Glasgow. But the agreement was criticised for not making firm commitments to help developing countries mitigate the effects of climate change.
