Forest loss and erosion
Forest loss remains an urgent problem throughout the island. 97 percent of Madagascar's households cook with wood and charcoal. Many people in the provincial towns obtain their charcoal illegally from natural forests or mangrove forests. Predatory loggers plunder precious wood for the world market even from protected national parks, often facilitated by bribed police officers and customs officers. Slash-and-burn agriculture for land reclamation is unfortunately still widespread and leads to environmental destruction and additional forest loss. Three-fifths of the tropical rainforests have already been transformed into savannahs and secondary forests in this way. Of the original approximately 53 million hectares of forest, only about ten percent remain today. This also has an impact on biodiversity. For example, 94 percent of the lemur species are considered to be threatened with extinction, a fate they share with countless other animals and plants on the island.
Poverty
More than 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line on less than 2 US dollars a day. Few people have access to clean water, medical care, electricity or schooling. About one third of the 27 million inhabitants live in urban areas. According to the United Nations World Development Index, Madagascar ranks 158 out of 188 and thus belongs to the category of Least Developed Countries (LDC). Poverty also causes malnutrition and hunger. Almost half of all children under five are malnourished. Only two out of three children go to primary school. More than 1.5 million children have no access to education. Only a quarter of the pupils make it to secondary schools. The hygienic conditions of many Madagascans are also fatal. Medical care is poor. Maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world and many diseases could actually be easily avoided if medical care were better.
