{"id":229910,"date":"2019-09-07T23:58:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T03:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=229910"},"modified":"2019-09-07T23:58:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T03:58:31","slug":"pope-denounces-exploitation-of-madagascars-unique-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/07\/pope-denounces-exploitation-of-madagascars-unique-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope denounces exploitation of Madagascar’s unique resources"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Francis called on President Andry Rajoelina to provide Madagascar’s people with jobs and alternative sources of income so they aren’t forced to cut down trees to find fertile soil, poach the island’s wildlife and engage in contraband and illegal exportation of its diverse flora, fauna and mineral resources. (File Photo<\/a>: Vatican News\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ANTANARIVO, Madagascar \u2014 Pope Francis denounced the illegal logging and exploitation of Madagascar’s unique natural resources on Saturday as he opened a visit to the Indian Ocean nation by urging the government to fight the corruption that is ravaging the island’s ecosystem and keeping its people in \u201cinhumane poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis called on President Andry Rajoelina to provide Madagascar’s people with jobs and alternative sources of income so they aren’t forced to cut down trees to find fertile soil, poach the island’s wildlife and engage in contraband and illegal exportation of its diverse flora, fauna and mineral resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deterioration of that biodiversity compromises the future of the country and of the earth, our common home,\u201d Francis warned Rajoelina and other government authorities as he began the second leg of his weeklong trip to southern Africa.<\/p>\n

Madagascar is home to 5% of the world’s plant and animal species, with around 95% of its reptiles and 89% of its plant life existing nowhere else on Earth, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Yet it is also one of the world’s poorest countries, with 75% of its 25.5 million people living on less than $2 a day.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups and Transparency\u00a0International\u00a0have long highlighted the illegal logging of Madagascar’s rosewood forests and other endangered tree species as evidence of the rampant corruption that has made multimillionaires out of a few \u201crosewood barons\u201d who have plundered the island’s northeastern forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour lovely island of Madagascar is rich in plant and animal biodiversity, yet this treasure is especially threatened by excessive deforestation, from which some profit,\u201d Francis said. He cited forest fires, poaching and the \u201cunrestricted cutting down of valuable woodlands\u201d as particular threats.<\/p>\n

More so than any pope before him, Francis has made environmental concerns a pillar of his papacy, linking global warming to the persistent exploitation of the world’s poor by the wealthy. He has also frequently called attention to the devastation wrought on the poor by corruption, often calling public officials to account on his foreign trips.<\/p>\n

Transparency\u00a0International, which ranks Madagascar among the most corrupt countries, has accused local public officials of complicity or negligence in the illegal logging, mining of gold and sapphires and the poaching of tortoises, turtles and exportation of lemurs.<\/p>\n

In his speech Saturday, Francis urged Rajoelina, who came to power on a campaign to fight corruption, to make good on his pledges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage you to fight with strength and determination against all endemic forms of corruption and speculation that increase social disparity, and to confront the situations of great instability and exclusion that always create conditions of inhumane poverty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Francis, the world’s first pope from the global south, acknowledged that some of the island’s poor have no choice but to cut down forests to find soil or extract minerals in illegal ways that damage the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is important to create jobs and activities that generate income, while protecting the environment and helping people to emerge from poverty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rajoelina promised to look out for the interests of all, especially the poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this place on this day, I confirm my will and my engagement to repair and rebuild Madagascar,\u201d he said. \u201cI will pay attention to the weakest and the lowest. I will pay attention to justice and to equality, love and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the groups trying to protect Madagascar’s environment is Catholic Relief Services, the humanitarian arm of the U.S. bishops conference. The group has had a presence on Madagascar for five decades, and has focused much of its work on helping the rural poor find alternatives to cutting down trees for firewood or using slash and burn techniques to clear new land for agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work a lot to try to prevent that and work with farmers to help them with new techniques to kind of re-energize the soil so that they could use it again,\u201d said James Hazen, CRS country representative.<\/p>\n

Philip Boyle, British ambassador to Madagascar, estimated that 200,000 hectares (about 495,000 acres) of forest a year are lost in Madagascar and by some projections most of the damp, moist forest will be lost by 2040.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless there are measures to prevent mass deforestation and mass reforestation then possibly the most unique habitat on earth will be lost,\u201d he said on the sidelines of the pope’s speech.<\/p>\n

Francis met later Saturday with nuns and the island nation’s bishops before presiding over an evening vigil attended by an estimated 100,000 young people.<\/p>\n

Dancers who performed for the 82-year-old pope mobbed him on stage after the vigil ended, evidence of his rock-star popularity in a country where some 35% of the population is Catholic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very happy to get a chance to see the pope because I have only seen him on my phone,\u201d said Raspanambinina, 32, who attended the vigil with her three children. \u201cThis time is very important for me and family as it’s the first time he has come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his off-the-cuff remarks to a group of giggling nuns earlier in the day, the first Jesuit pope gave them advice about living in religious communities. He told them to speak up when there are problems and acknowledged that superiors can sometimes be the source of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all prioresses are Nobel Prize winners for niceness,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

AP videojournalist Joe Mwihia contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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