In November 2008 the previous government of this country signed a deal with South Korean firm Daewoo for the lease of half (!) of its total arable land for 99 (!) years to grow food crops (ex., palm oil which is already a curse in South East Asia) for South Korea.

But that’s not all. Daewoo were not even planning to pay rent for it, they were planning to build $2 bln worth of infrastructure investment as a compensation. I don’t even want to go into detail re  this compensation arrangement.

No surprise this deal has been called neo-colonialism by many commentators.

No surprise people rebeled against this state of affairs, staged a coupl d’etat and canceled this deal.

And no surprise, rainforests and animals have now become victims of this chaotic situation in the country.

Lemurs, these rare unique primates, are now at the mercy of illegal loggers who are taking advantage of this situation and looting Madagascar’s rainforests.

National Geographic is reporting on this in more detail in their blog.

Come visit it here for updates and please please help spread the word as much as you can:

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/03/lemurs-threatened-by-madagascar-strife.html

You can now find some new articles on the orangutan in general, orangutan intelligence and orangutan conservation.

I have always wanted to write about these animals, and finally did it. They are just so beautiful, and there is so much intelligence in their eyes. It is just impossible to stay indifferent to them!

The Bornean species is now classified as endangered, and the Sumatran species – as critically endangered. I am very concerned about their well-being, but do hope that we can really do something to help protect them from potential disappearance.

Feel free to leave your comments here!

Irina