These declines are rooted in scarcity. Madagascar is one of the poorest and most malnourished countries on the planet. Last year, 80 percent of the island nation lived in extreme poverty, earning less daily than what $2.15<\/a> could buy you in the US in 2017. Nearly 40 percent<\/a> of young children, meanwhile, have stunted growth due to a lack of nutrition.<\/p>\n This matters because, throughout much of the country, one of the only ways to earn money and buy food is by taking resources from the environment. People cut down forests, for example, to make and sell charcoal, a wood-based fuel, or to clear small parcels of land to grow crops. These sorts of activities aren\u2019t inherently harmful; humans have always relied on nature for survival. But when people have no other way to earn a living, the pressure of extraction can become too much.<\/p>\n This story, and the features below, are part of a package led by Vox senior environmental correspondent Benji Jones, who spent two weeks in Madagascar in September. To prepare for a trip like this, we collaborate with local photographers, translators, and researchers to ensure that our reporting both informs our audiences of the larger stakes of environmental issues unfolding in the country and serves the local community. That\u2019s why we are making our reporting accessible with stories translated into Malagasy, Madagascar\u2019s national language.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a privilege to have the resources to do reporting like this, and we thank our funders at the BAND Foundation for supporting this project. \u2014Paige Vega, climate editor<\/p>\n There are several complex reasons why poverty still grips Madagascar, including political instability and corruption. Just this month, the Madagascar government was dissolved, the president was impeached, and the military assumed power<\/a>, following weeks of protests in the capital of Antananarivo from people frustrated by power and water outages and a lack of economic opportunity. Together with climate change, the lingering effects of colonialism, and foreign aid structures, poor governance has stymied the growth of non-extractive industries.<\/p>\n As a result, a large number of people across Madagascar are highly dependent on the island\u2019s ecosystems for their livelihoods \u2014 for their survival \u2014 and those ecosystems are starting to fail, partly because of the sheer scale of dependency. That makes conservation here both incredibly challenging and incredibly important.<\/p>\n Last month, I visited Madagascar in search of solutions. I was after ideas for how to sustain the country\u2019s iconic ecosystems and animals as a means to support human well-being. What I found, in the southwest and eastern regions of the country, was more dim than I had expected. I saw clear signs of coral reefs in distress and fishermen facing hunger. I saw wildfires approaching one of the last intact stretches of highland forest.<\/p>\n But I ultimately did find what I was after: solutions that actually seem to work. And though they were small-scale, their significance felt large. Because, as several experts told me along the way, if you can get conservation to work under these conditions, it\u2019ll work anywhere.<\/p>\n Scientists are testing a surprising approach to fighting hunger in one of the poorest places on Earth.<\/p>\n
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