The Market Triumph of Ecotourism: An Economic Investigation of the Private and Social Benefits of Competing Land Uses in the Peruvian Amazon
Annual revenue flow to developing countries for ecotourism (or nature-based tourism) could be as large as US$ 210×1012, providing an enormous financial incentive against habitat loss and exploitation. However, is ecotourism the most privately and/or socially valuable use of rainforest land? The question is rarely answered because the relevant data, estimates of profits and fixed costs, are rarely available. We present a social cost-benefit analysis of land use in an ecotourism cluster in the Tambopata region of Amazonian Peru. The net present value of ecotourism-controlled land is given by the producer surplus (profits plus fixed costs of ecotourism lodges): US$ 1,158 ha−1, which is higher than all currently practiced alternatives, including unsustainable logging, ranching, and agriculture. To our knowledge, this is the first sector-wide study of profitability and producer surplus in a developing-country ecotourism sector and the first to compare against equivalent measures for a spectrum of alternative uses. We also find that ecotourism-controlled land sequesters between 5.3 to 8.7 million tons of above-ground carbon, which is equivalent to between 3000–5000 years of carbon emissions from the domestic component of air and surface travel between the gateway city of Cusco and the lodges, at 2005 emission rates. Ecotourism in Tambopata has successfully monetized the hedonic value of wild nature in Amazonian Peru, and justifies the maintenance of intact rainforest over all alternative uses on narrow economic grounds alone.
Citation: Kirkby CA, Giudice-Granados R, Day B, Turner K, Velarde-Andrade LM, et al. (2010) The Market Triumph of Ecotourism: An Economic Investigation of the Private and Social Benefits of Competing Land Uses in the Peruvian Amazon. PLoS ONE 5(9): e13015. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013015
Editor: Brock Fenton, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Received: July 2, 2010; Accepted: August 7, 2010; Published: September 29, 2010
Copyright: © 2010 Kirkby et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Madagascar's Atsinanana rainforest is world heritage
Six national parks along the eastern part of Madagascar have been found so unique that they were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List today. The Atsinanana site represents almost all the remaining rainforest on the Great Island, and almost 90 percent of all species in the forest live no other place on earth.
The mini-continent of Madagascar completed its separation from all other land masses more than 60 million years ago and has since that lived in splendid isolation. During these years, the Malagasy flora and fauna has become unique, diversifying in the island's desert, savannah and rainforest climate regions.
Especially the Malagasy rainforests, mostly located in the east and north, have a high degree of biodiversity. But deforestation has left just 8.5 percent of Madagascar's original forests and the new World Heritage site - the Rainforests of the Atsinanana - is now to protect the remaining habitat.
The Atsinanana site comprises six national parks of the eastern part of the island and was approved of by a UNESCO committee currently united in New Zealand. Following the inscription, a delegation from Madagascar noted that this is "a wonderful present for the country" and also supported "the commendable vision" of President Marc Ravalomanana to triple the size of the island's protected area system.
Also the UNECO committee applauded what it called "the tremendous efforts of Madagascar in protecting its remaining eastern rainforests," after most has been lost to deforestation. President Ravalomanana has strongly increased efforts to stop deforestation, protect remaining valuable natural sites and boost ecotourism to Madagascar.
The inscription of Atsinanana had been prepared for a long time by Malagasy authorities, who won the full support of the world conservation union IUCN. IUCN is used as consultants by UNESCO when it comes to natural World Heritage sites, and its recommendations are mostly followed. IUCN Vice-President Christine Milne noted that the inscription of these "exceptionally diverse rainforests" was "a great success story for Madagascar and global biodiversity conservation."
IUCN had strongly recommended the naming of Atsinanana as World Heritage. "These forests are critically important for maintaining the island's unique plants and animals, 80 to 90 percent of which can only be found in Madagascar and some of which date back to glacial periods," IUCN noted prior to the decision. "The site comprises a representative selection of the most important habitats of unique rainforest life, including many threatened and endemic plant and animal species," the recommendation read.
The UNESCO committee agreed, holding the Malagasy rainforests to be of great "importance to ecological and biological processes." Uniqueness is a major presupposition to qualify for the prestigious list. "The property is of global significance for fauna, especially primates. Many rare and threatened species occur in this site, including at least 25 species of lemur," UNESCO noted.
And the fauna of the six Malagasy rainforests is indeed unique. All five families of Malagasy primates, all endemic lemur families, seven endemic genera of rodents and six endemic genera of carnivores are represented in Atsinanana. Of 25 endemic and near-endemic mammal species in the rainforests, 22 are threatened; eight are critically endangered and nine endangered.
IUCN hopes that the World Heritage inscription of the six disconnected national parks will lead to further protection of Madagascar's remaining rainforests. The environmentalists were somewhat critical to the Malagasy government's decision to nominate such a fragmented natural site. Geographically, the parks are widely separated, especially a northern and a southern group.
"There are significant discontinuities in habit between the northern and southern groups such that connectivity has essentially been permanently lost; however habitat connectivity still exists within the northern and southern groups, albeit not yet permanently protected," IUCN noted. It is reported that none of the forested areas between the parks are likely to be given national park status or added to current parks, to the disappointment of environmentalists.
For Malagasy authorities, the inscription is welcome news to the country's great effort to promote ecotourism. Several of the parks that are now World Heritage are already developed as tourist destinations. The professionally managed Ranomafana National Park has significant tourism infrastructure and the park shares the income from entrance permits with local communities living adjacent to the park.
Also Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées (ANGAP) - the managing authority of all the parks - gets a great part of its revenues from tourism taxes and fees. In all parks, ANGAP shares revenues from fees with communities neighbouring the parks on a 50-50 basis.
The growing tourism market in Madagascar therefore is increasingly important to both the management of the island's unique nature and to fighting widespread poverty in the Malagasy countryside. It is a win-win situation and the publicity given by the prestigious World Heritage List may become an important drive for ecotourism in Madagascar.
By staff writers
© Geoffroy Mauvais/IUCN/afrol News
The mini-continent of Madagascar completed its separation from all other land masses more than 60 million years ago and has since that lived in splendid isolation. During these years, the Malagasy flora and fauna has become unique, diversifying in the island's desert, savannah and rainforest climate regions.
Especially the Malagasy rainforests, mostly located in the east and north, have a high degree of biodiversity. But deforestation has left just 8.5 percent of Madagascar's original forests and the new World Heritage site - the Rainforests of the Atsinanana - is now to protect the remaining habitat.
The Atsinanana site comprises six national parks of the eastern part of the island and was approved of by a UNESCO committee currently united in New Zealand. Following the inscription, a delegation from Madagascar noted that this is "a wonderful present for the country" and also supported "the commendable vision" of President Marc Ravalomanana to triple the size of the island's protected area system.
Also the UNECO committee applauded what it called "the tremendous efforts of Madagascar in protecting its remaining eastern rainforests," after most has been lost to deforestation. President Ravalomanana has strongly increased efforts to stop deforestation, protect remaining valuable natural sites and boost ecotourism to Madagascar.
The inscription of Atsinanana had been prepared for a long time by Malagasy authorities, who won the full support of the world conservation union IUCN. IUCN is used as consultants by UNESCO when it comes to natural World Heritage sites, and its recommendations are mostly followed. IUCN Vice-President Christine Milne noted that the inscription of these "exceptionally diverse rainforests" was "a great success story for Madagascar and global biodiversity conservation."
IUCN had strongly recommended the naming of Atsinanana as World Heritage. "These forests are critically important for maintaining the island's unique plants and animals, 80 to 90 percent of which can only be found in Madagascar and some of which date back to glacial periods," IUCN noted prior to the decision. "The site comprises a representative selection of the most important habitats of unique rainforest life, including many threatened and endemic plant and animal species," the recommendation read.
The UNESCO committee agreed, holding the Malagasy rainforests to be of great "importance to ecological and biological processes." Uniqueness is a major presupposition to qualify for the prestigious list. "The property is of global significance for fauna, especially primates. Many rare and threatened species occur in this site, including at least 25 species of lemur," UNESCO noted.
And the fauna of the six Malagasy rainforests is indeed unique. All five families of Malagasy primates, all endemic lemur families, seven endemic genera of rodents and six endemic genera of carnivores are represented in Atsinanana. Of 25 endemic and near-endemic mammal species in the rainforests, 22 are threatened; eight are critically endangered and nine endangered.
IUCN hopes that the World Heritage inscription of the six disconnected national parks will lead to further protection of Madagascar's remaining rainforests. The environmentalists were somewhat critical to the Malagasy government's decision to nominate such a fragmented natural site. Geographically, the parks are widely separated, especially a northern and a southern group.
"There are significant discontinuities in habit between the northern and southern groups such that connectivity has essentially been permanently lost; however habitat connectivity still exists within the northern and southern groups, albeit not yet permanently protected," IUCN noted. It is reported that none of the forested areas between the parks are likely to be given national park status or added to current parks, to the disappointment of environmentalists.
For Malagasy authorities, the inscription is welcome news to the country's great effort to promote ecotourism. Several of the parks that are now World Heritage are already developed as tourist destinations. The professionally managed Ranomafana National Park has significant tourism infrastructure and the park shares the income from entrance permits with local communities living adjacent to the park.
Also Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées (ANGAP) - the managing authority of all the parks - gets a great part of its revenues from tourism taxes and fees. In all parks, ANGAP shares revenues from fees with communities neighbouring the parks on a 50-50 basis.
The growing tourism market in Madagascar therefore is increasingly important to both the management of the island's unique nature and to fighting widespread poverty in the Malagasy countryside. It is a win-win situation and the publicity given by the prestigious World Heritage List may become an important drive for ecotourism in Madagascar.
By staff writers
© Geoffroy Mauvais/IUCN/afrol News
Madagascar gets US$ 20M to protect nature
Madagascar government has signed largest debt-for-nature swap agreement with France, allocating US$ 20 million to preserve the country’s rich biodiversity.
The agreement is part of Madagascar’s ambitious national effort, pledged by President Ravalomanana, to triple the size of the country’s protected areas. The singing also brings to total, funding for this purpose to its targeted US$ 50 million endowment, which shall be managed independently by an established conservation trust between Malagasy government and its partners, aimed at supporting the country’s distinct ecosystems and extraordinary wildlife.
Nearly 98 percent of Madagascar’s land mammals, 92 percent of its reptiles, and 80 percent of its plants are found nowhere else on earth and according to international wildlife conservationists, there is a need to stabilise revenues, resources and credibility to fight against deforestation and biodiversity loss in that country.
“This initiative is an excellent example of innovative financing for sustainable development,” said Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, acting regional representative for WWF in Madagascar further adding that increasing funding to endowment means support for protected areas' recurrent costs will be available long term.
Madagascar’s ecosystems provide essential services that support local communities and an array of economic activities. With 70 percent of Madagascar’s population living below poverty line, the country is one of the poorest in the world. Burdened with high levels of debt, Madagascar has limited domestic resources to address environmental degradation and preserve its unique and globally significant biodiversity.
Debt-for-nature swaps, such as this one, are designed to free up resources in debtor countries for much needed conservation activities.
This historic agreement demonstrates the commitment of both the French and Malagasy governments to protect biodiversity in Madagascar and serves as a prime example of a debt-for-nature swap success that other nations can follow, WWF have said following the signing.
Madagascar Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity was created in 2005 to support sustainable financing for protecting, maintaining and expanding the country’s protected areas network, including certain buffer zones and ecological corridors, and ultimately to reduce dependence on external project assistance. The Foundation is already widely recognized as a “model” foundation for Africa and an anchor for sustainable financing of Madagascar’s protected areas system.
By staff writer
© afrol News
The agreement is part of Madagascar’s ambitious national effort, pledged by President Ravalomanana, to triple the size of the country’s protected areas. The singing also brings to total, funding for this purpose to its targeted US$ 50 million endowment, which shall be managed independently by an established conservation trust between Malagasy government and its partners, aimed at supporting the country’s distinct ecosystems and extraordinary wildlife.
Nearly 98 percent of Madagascar’s land mammals, 92 percent of its reptiles, and 80 percent of its plants are found nowhere else on earth and according to international wildlife conservationists, there is a need to stabilise revenues, resources and credibility to fight against deforestation and biodiversity loss in that country.
“This initiative is an excellent example of innovative financing for sustainable development,” said Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, acting regional representative for WWF in Madagascar further adding that increasing funding to endowment means support for protected areas' recurrent costs will be available long term.
Madagascar’s ecosystems provide essential services that support local communities and an array of economic activities. With 70 percent of Madagascar’s population living below poverty line, the country is one of the poorest in the world. Burdened with high levels of debt, Madagascar has limited domestic resources to address environmental degradation and preserve its unique and globally significant biodiversity.
Debt-for-nature swaps, such as this one, are designed to free up resources in debtor countries for much needed conservation activities.
This historic agreement demonstrates the commitment of both the French and Malagasy governments to protect biodiversity in Madagascar and serves as a prime example of a debt-for-nature swap success that other nations can follow, WWF have said following the signing.
Madagascar Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity was created in 2005 to support sustainable financing for protecting, maintaining and expanding the country’s protected areas network, including certain buffer zones and ecological corridors, and ultimately to reduce dependence on external project assistance. The Foundation is already widely recognized as a “model” foundation for Africa and an anchor for sustainable financing of Madagascar’s protected areas system.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Madagascar selected to benefit from conservation fund
Madagascar will be one of the ten beneficiaries of the new fund aimed at assisting professional and organisational development of selected national conservation NGOs within the BirdLife network in key biodiversity countries around the world.
The grant from Arcadia, formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust, a new fund has been established to strengthen NGOs in key countries around the world, with a US$1.5 million that will help organisations achieve objectives such as preventing extinctions, securing land for conservation, and tackling climate change through strengthening local capacity.
The goal of the fund is to create a dynamic network of high-impact, self-sufficient conservation NGOs, able to work effectively with local people, governments and the international community, and empowered to protect key species, sites and habitats in their own countries.
Through the fund the ten countries: Turkey, Ukraine, Latvia, Romania, Brazil, Ecuador, Madagascar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Fiji with be provided financial support over five years, at the end of which it is anticipated that the organisations and their activities will be self-sustaining.
"Many NGOs in financially poor but biodiversity rich countries are facing serious challenges to resource their vital conservation activities, particularly now in a climate of global downturn," said Dr Marco Lambertini, BirdLife's Chief Executive.
He said through the programme, an 'NGO Health Check' at the start of the programme - a self assessment, against an ideal scenario for a thriving, successful NGO - will provide a base line to work from, and highlight the priority areas in which the selected NGOs need the most support.
A development plan, listing training and support activities, will then be agreed between each Partner NGO and the BirdLife Secretariat. Each development plan will have clearly agreed targets, measuring conservation impact, NGO sustainability, and NGO stability.
"The Arcadia/BirdLife fund will provide targeted core support to develop long term sustainable plans, retaining key staff and enabling our partners to grow in confidence and effectiveness," he added.
By staff writer
© afrol News
The grant from Arcadia, formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust, a new fund has been established to strengthen NGOs in key countries around the world, with a US$1.5 million that will help organisations achieve objectives such as preventing extinctions, securing land for conservation, and tackling climate change through strengthening local capacity.
The goal of the fund is to create a dynamic network of high-impact, self-sufficient conservation NGOs, able to work effectively with local people, governments and the international community, and empowered to protect key species, sites and habitats in their own countries.
Through the fund the ten countries: Turkey, Ukraine, Latvia, Romania, Brazil, Ecuador, Madagascar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Fiji with be provided financial support over five years, at the end of which it is anticipated that the organisations and their activities will be self-sustaining.
"Many NGOs in financially poor but biodiversity rich countries are facing serious challenges to resource their vital conservation activities, particularly now in a climate of global downturn," said Dr Marco Lambertini, BirdLife's Chief Executive.
He said through the programme, an 'NGO Health Check' at the start of the programme - a self assessment, against an ideal scenario for a thriving, successful NGO - will provide a base line to work from, and highlight the priority areas in which the selected NGOs need the most support.
A development plan, listing training and support activities, will then be agreed between each Partner NGO and the BirdLife Secretariat. Each development plan will have clearly agreed targets, measuring conservation impact, NGO sustainability, and NGO stability.
"The Arcadia/BirdLife fund will provide targeted core support to develop long term sustainable plans, retaining key staff and enabling our partners to grow in confidence and effectiveness," he added.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Malagasy NGOs unite against plunder of natural resources
Asity Madagascar has joined a group of Malagasy civil society organisations, Voahary Gasy, calling for an end to the plundering of natural resources in the national parks of north-east Madagascar.
Following the change of government in March this year, all but essential humanitarian aid has been withdrawn by the international community, leaving Madagascar's national park and forestry services with little or no funding.
Loggers are said to have moved into the protected areas, stripping the forests of valuable hardwoods such as rosewood, ebony and mahogany. They work for influential business people who are in possession of illegal but "official" documentation permitting them to export these hardwoods.
Local communities who depend on forest resources and on tourism have been threatened and attacked when opposing these illegal and highly destructive activities. A new trade in bushmeat has developed, according to reports, with Lemurs in particular being killed in large numbers, and some hunters are supplying restaurants 'to order'.
According to BirdLife Madagascar, a number of endemic birds are largely or entirely confined to pristine primary forest in north-east Madagascar, among them the Endangered Madagascar Serpent Eagle Eutriorchis astur and Vulnerable Helmet Vanga Euryceros prevostii and Bernier's Vanga Oriolia bernieri. With the complete breakdown of the enforcement of protected area regulation, and armed gangs operating with impunity in the forests, it has not been possible to assess the impact on these and other threatened species, the group said.
The Malagasy NGOs which have come together to form Voahary Gasy are calling for an immediate halt to exports of hardwoods, particularly rosewood, the enforcement of protected area regulation, the creation of a task force to combat environmental crime, and a campaign to raise awareness within Madagascar of the nature and extent of the destruction of the island's remaining forests.
Voahary Gasy also emphasise that the range of new and extreme threats to Madagascar's environment and biodiversity is very broad and not restricted to the north-east of the country or to precious hardwoods - although most severe here. Other parts of the country, and valuable resources such as reptiles, shark fins and rare plants, are also affected or at least at risk.
Asity Madagascar is working with other groups to control or prevent problems in the far south-east, where the largest expanse of lowland forest, Tsitongambarika, is under threat, and similar initiatives are taking place elsewhere.
Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency are currently preparing a detailed report on the illegal timber trade in Madagascar, due to be released in the coming weeks.
Ms Voninavoko Raminoarisoa, Coordinator of Asity Madagascar warned that if this situation is allowed to continue, many of the conservation gains in Madagascar, including the efforts of local communities to protect their resources, will be lost. "Asity Madagascar, as BirdLife Affiliate, calls on the international community to join efforts to solve these urgent problems."
"These events are a disaster for Madagascar, profiting a tiny number of individuals at immense cost to the country’s economy and extraordinary heritage," said Dr Roger Safford, Senior Programme Manager at BirdLife International. "The global community must help to resolve the situation, but the emergence of Voahary Gasy is a very positive step, showing the commitment of Malagasy institutions and individuals to lead in publicising and tackling the problems."
By staff writer
© afrol News
Following the change of government in March this year, all but essential humanitarian aid has been withdrawn by the international community, leaving Madagascar's national park and forestry services with little or no funding.
Loggers are said to have moved into the protected areas, stripping the forests of valuable hardwoods such as rosewood, ebony and mahogany. They work for influential business people who are in possession of illegal but "official" documentation permitting them to export these hardwoods.
Local communities who depend on forest resources and on tourism have been threatened and attacked when opposing these illegal and highly destructive activities. A new trade in bushmeat has developed, according to reports, with Lemurs in particular being killed in large numbers, and some hunters are supplying restaurants 'to order'.
According to BirdLife Madagascar, a number of endemic birds are largely or entirely confined to pristine primary forest in north-east Madagascar, among them the Endangered Madagascar Serpent Eagle Eutriorchis astur and Vulnerable Helmet Vanga Euryceros prevostii and Bernier's Vanga Oriolia bernieri. With the complete breakdown of the enforcement of protected area regulation, and armed gangs operating with impunity in the forests, it has not been possible to assess the impact on these and other threatened species, the group said.
The Malagasy NGOs which have come together to form Voahary Gasy are calling for an immediate halt to exports of hardwoods, particularly rosewood, the enforcement of protected area regulation, the creation of a task force to combat environmental crime, and a campaign to raise awareness within Madagascar of the nature and extent of the destruction of the island's remaining forests.
Voahary Gasy also emphasise that the range of new and extreme threats to Madagascar's environment and biodiversity is very broad and not restricted to the north-east of the country or to precious hardwoods - although most severe here. Other parts of the country, and valuable resources such as reptiles, shark fins and rare plants, are also affected or at least at risk.
Asity Madagascar is working with other groups to control or prevent problems in the far south-east, where the largest expanse of lowland forest, Tsitongambarika, is under threat, and similar initiatives are taking place elsewhere.
Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency are currently preparing a detailed report on the illegal timber trade in Madagascar, due to be released in the coming weeks.
Ms Voninavoko Raminoarisoa, Coordinator of Asity Madagascar warned that if this situation is allowed to continue, many of the conservation gains in Madagascar, including the efforts of local communities to protect their resources, will be lost. "Asity Madagascar, as BirdLife Affiliate, calls on the international community to join efforts to solve these urgent problems."
"These events are a disaster for Madagascar, profiting a tiny number of individuals at immense cost to the country’s economy and extraordinary heritage," said Dr Roger Safford, Senior Programme Manager at BirdLife International. "The global community must help to resolve the situation, but the emergence of Voahary Gasy is a very positive step, showing the commitment of Malagasy institutions and individuals to lead in publicising and tackling the problems."
By staff writer
© afrol News
Prehestoric snakes still alive in Madagacar
Researchers have studied a rare form of blindsnakes, "not being very pretty", living in Madagascar. It turns out the species is a prehistoric remain from the times Madagascar still was part of the Gondwana continent about 155 million years ago.
Blindsnakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke from India about 100 million years ago
© Frank Glaw/afrol News
"Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms," admits Blair Hedges, professor of biology at the US Penn State University. "Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story."
Mr Hedges and Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, were among a team that discovered that blindsnakes are one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from India about 100 million years ago and are still living today. The results of their study were published in the latest issue of the scientific journal 'Royal Society journal Biology Letters'.
Blindsnakes comprise about 260 different species and form the largest group of the world's worm-like snakes - scolecophidians. These burrowing animals typically are found in southern continents and tropical islands, but occur on all continents except Antarctica. They have reduced vision - which is why they are called "blind" - and they feed on social insects including termites and ants.
"Because there are almost no known fossil blindsnakes, their evolution has been difficult to piece together," the scientists explain. "Also, because of their underground lifestyle, scientists have long wondered how they managed to spread from continent to continent."
The scientists investigated the evolution of blindsnakes by examining the genetics of living species. They reconstructed the branching pattern of their evolution, which allowed the team to estimate the times of divergence of different lineages within blindsnakes using molecular clocks. "Our findings show that continental drift had a huge impact on blindsnake evolution," explains Mr Vidal, "by separating populations from each other as continents moved apart."
Mutations in the genes record the history of these blurry-eyed serpents. The genetic research had revealed that "the original stock of worm-like snakes arose on Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent." The initial split occurred about 155 million years ago as Gondwana divided into East Gondwana (the landmasses of Antarctica, India, Madagascar, and Australia) and West Gondwana (the landmasses of South America and Africa).
The residents of East Gondwana - the blindsnakes - then diverged into several lineages including a new family named in this study and found only on Madagascar. Later, East Gondwana further divided into a new paleolandmass - called by the researchers "Indigascar" (India plus Madagascar) - and another comprised of Australia and Antarctica. The research suggests that the new family on Madagascar arose as a result of the break-up of the Indigascar landmass about 94 million years ago.
Madagascar's long isolation has led to the evolution of many unique endemic animals including this family of blindsnakes, various lemurs, and other rare mammals. Unfortunately, both the animals and plants of Madagascar are now endangered by habitat loss.
Says team member Miguel Vences, a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and authority on the biodiversity of Madagascar, "Finding such ancient roots for a group of animals in Madagascar gives us even more reason to protect their rapidly declining habitat."
If blindsnakes got their start on Indigascar, leaving an endemic living family as evidence on Madagascar, how did they get to all of those other places in the world that they occupy today - Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas?
The phylogeny constructed by the researcher team had shown a series of diversifications within the blindsnakes, outside of Madagascar, that occurred between 63 and 59 million years ago. The period of greatest diversification coincided with a time of low sea levels, when connections between continents were forming and the dispersal of such unlikely animals by floating on flotsam was easier.
"Blindsnakes must have moved either out of Africa via Europe and Asia - the ancient northern supercontinent Laurasia - or out of India and then from southeast Asia to Australia at about 28 million years ago," they hold.
Meanwhile, West Gondwana broke up about 100 million years ago, making Africa and South America separate continents, but the genetic split between African and South American blindsnakes occurred only at about 63 million years ago. "This finding shows that blindsnakes probably were confined to Africa when West Gondwana broke up and only later traveled to South America - and still later to the West Indies - by floating across the Atlantic from east to west," they conclude.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Blindsnakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke from India about 100 million years ago
© Frank Glaw/afrol News
"Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms," admits Blair Hedges, professor of biology at the US Penn State University. "Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story."
Mr Hedges and Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, were among a team that discovered that blindsnakes are one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from India about 100 million years ago and are still living today. The results of their study were published in the latest issue of the scientific journal 'Royal Society journal Biology Letters'.
Blindsnakes comprise about 260 different species and form the largest group of the world's worm-like snakes - scolecophidians. These burrowing animals typically are found in southern continents and tropical islands, but occur on all continents except Antarctica. They have reduced vision - which is why they are called "blind" - and they feed on social insects including termites and ants.
"Because there are almost no known fossil blindsnakes, their evolution has been difficult to piece together," the scientists explain. "Also, because of their underground lifestyle, scientists have long wondered how they managed to spread from continent to continent."
The scientists investigated the evolution of blindsnakes by examining the genetics of living species. They reconstructed the branching pattern of their evolution, which allowed the team to estimate the times of divergence of different lineages within blindsnakes using molecular clocks. "Our findings show that continental drift had a huge impact on blindsnake evolution," explains Mr Vidal, "by separating populations from each other as continents moved apart."
Mutations in the genes record the history of these blurry-eyed serpents. The genetic research had revealed that "the original stock of worm-like snakes arose on Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent." The initial split occurred about 155 million years ago as Gondwana divided into East Gondwana (the landmasses of Antarctica, India, Madagascar, and Australia) and West Gondwana (the landmasses of South America and Africa).
The residents of East Gondwana - the blindsnakes - then diverged into several lineages including a new family named in this study and found only on Madagascar. Later, East Gondwana further divided into a new paleolandmass - called by the researchers "Indigascar" (India plus Madagascar) - and another comprised of Australia and Antarctica. The research suggests that the new family on Madagascar arose as a result of the break-up of the Indigascar landmass about 94 million years ago.
Madagascar's long isolation has led to the evolution of many unique endemic animals including this family of blindsnakes, various lemurs, and other rare mammals. Unfortunately, both the animals and plants of Madagascar are now endangered by habitat loss.
Says team member Miguel Vences, a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and authority on the biodiversity of Madagascar, "Finding such ancient roots for a group of animals in Madagascar gives us even more reason to protect their rapidly declining habitat."
If blindsnakes got their start on Indigascar, leaving an endemic living family as evidence on Madagascar, how did they get to all of those other places in the world that they occupy today - Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas?
The phylogeny constructed by the researcher team had shown a series of diversifications within the blindsnakes, outside of Madagascar, that occurred between 63 and 59 million years ago. The period of greatest diversification coincided with a time of low sea levels, when connections between continents were forming and the dispersal of such unlikely animals by floating on flotsam was easier.
"Blindsnakes must have moved either out of Africa via Europe and Asia - the ancient northern supercontinent Laurasia - or out of India and then from southeast Asia to Australia at about 28 million years ago," they hold.
Meanwhile, West Gondwana broke up about 100 million years ago, making Africa and South America separate continents, but the genetic split between African and South American blindsnakes occurred only at about 63 million years ago. "This finding shows that blindsnakes probably were confined to Africa when West Gondwana broke up and only later traveled to South America - and still later to the West Indies - by floating across the Atlantic from east to west," they conclude.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Origin of Madagascar's peculiar species
© Washington University in St Louis
afrol News -
Origin of Madagascar's peculiar species
Lemurs are Madagascar's signature species, mostly confined to the island's ever-shrinking forests.
Madagascar's isolated and fascinating fauna has puzzled scientists and laymen for centuries. The main question has been: How did they get to the Great Island in the first place, thus being allowed to evolve in splendid isolation?
It is well known that the Great Island once was connected to the African continent, to what is now the Mozambican coast. Popular wisdom has it that, since the island split from the continent, Malagasy animals and plants have been isolated from the evolution in Africa. Therefore, without competition from continental apes, the lemurs could survive, evolve into many species.
This popular belief however has a major shortcoming. Madagascar appears to have been an island for at least 120 million years, at a time when the lemurs and other typical Malagasy species had not yet evolved on the continent. In fact, Madagascar's animal population began arriving much later, sometime after 65 million years ago.
This contradiction has puzzled scientists for a century. Altering theories to the origin of Malagasy species therefore have prevailed during time.
As the evolution of species through natural selection had been scientifically accepted, Darwin's theories seemed to fit perfectly to the large island of Madagascar. The island's isolated fauna seemed to have frozen a moment of evolution when it drifted away from Africa, back to the time when lemurs had yet to evolve into monkeys and apes. Even modern encyclopaedias refer to this age-old theory, stating that "the resulting isolation left Madagascar's plants and animals to evolve independently" (encyclopedia.com).
Indeed, Madagascar has more unique species of animals than any location except Australia, which is 13 times larger. The island's population includes 70 kinds of lemurs found nowhere else and about 90 percent of the other mammals, amphibians and reptiles are unique to its 587,000 square kilometres.
The original theories about the origin of Madagascar's unique fauna stem from an age when the processes of plate tectonics were not well known. Critically, scientists of those times were unable to date geological processes.
Dating processes of fossils and sediments however improved. As it became more and more probable that Madagascar drifted away from Mozambique before the lemurs had evolved in Africa, the theory had to be altered. Scientists now held that the animals arrived on Madagascar via a land bridge that was later obliterated by shifting continents.
Yet, the land bridge hypothesis also is problematic in that there is no geologic evidence that such a bridge existed during the time in question. Also, there are no large mammals such as apes, giraffes, lions or elephants, indigenous to Madagascar. Only small species such as lemurs - the island's signature species - hedgehog-like tenrecs, rodents, mongoose-like carnivores and similar animals populate the island.
But already a century ago, some scientists started doubting the prevailing split-and-isolation theory. In 1915, the first alternative theory was launched, saying many of the animals found in Madagascar could have rafted to the island.
Rafting would have involved animals being washed out to sea during storms, either on trees or large vegetation mats, and floating to the mini-continent, perhaps while in a state of seasonal torpor or hibernation.
As improved dating made the land bridge theory even less plausible, the very influential palaeontologist and evolution theorist George Gaylord Simpson in 1940 launched a more detailed rafting theory. Mr Simpson introduced the concept of a "sweepstakes" process to explain the chance of raft colonisation events taking place through vast stretches of geological time. Once the migrants arrived on the island, their descendants evolved into the distinctive and sometimes bizarre forms seen today.
Though influential, Mr Simpson failed to convince all scientists - and laymen at large. His theory had a major flaw. The prevailing currents and winds in Mozambique Channel - the straight splitting Madagascar from the continent - flow and blow south and southwest, away from, not toward, the island.
Since this controversy, no generally accepted theory could explain how the lemurs, flying foxes and narrow-striped mongooses got to the large, isolated island of Madagascar sometime after 65 million years ago. The split-and-isolation theory has therefore prevailed in popular science and belief, despite a 60 million year timing error.
Professor Jason Ali of the University Hong Kong, who has a research focus in plate tectonics - the large-scale motions of the Earth's outer shell - a few years ago caught interest in this unsolved major evolutionary mystery.
Mr Ali kept running across the land bridge hypothesis in the course of his work. The question intrigued him because the notion of a bridge between Madagascar and Africa appeared to break rules of plate tectonic theory. A background in oceanography also made him think ocean currents between Africa and Madagascar might have changed over time.
"Critically, Madagascar and Africa have together drifted more than 1,600 kilometres northwards and could thus have disrupted a major surface water current running across the tropical Indian Ocean, and hence modified flow around eastern Africa and Madagascar," says Mr Ali, an earth sciences professor. Maybe, he thought, Mr Simpson's rafting theory from 1940 still could prove right.
That led the Hong Kong professor to contact Professor Matthew Huber, a palaeoclimatologist who reconstructs and models the climate millions of years in the past, at the US Purdue University. Mr Huber has a particular interest and expertise in ocean currents and had recently developed a very potent programme modelling ancient ocean currents and climates.
The Purdue professor was able to show that 20 million to 60 million years ago, when scientists have determined ancestors of present-day animals likely arrived on Madagascar, currents flowed east, toward the island. Climate modelling showed that currents were strong enough - like a liquid jet stream in peak periods - to get the animals to the island without dying of thirst. The trip appears to have been well within the realm of possibility for small animals whose naturally low metabolic rates may have been even lower if they were in torpor or hibernating.
Mr Huber's computer modelling also indicates that the area was a hotspot at the time, just as it is today, for powerful tropical cyclones capable of regularly washing trees and tree islands into the ocean.
"It seems likely that rafting was a distinct possibility," their study concludes. "All signs point to the Simpson sweepstakes model as being correct: Ocean currents could have transported rafts of animals to Madagascar from Africa during the Eocene."
The new theory, published in the renowned journal 'Science' on 4 February 2010, has already found some support. "The raft hypothesis has always been the most plausible," says Anne Yoder, director of the Duke University Lemur Center. She specialises in the evolutionary history of Madagascar. "But Ali and Huber's study now puts hard data behind it," she adds.
The theory would also solve a problem related to new knowledge about Madagascar's evolutionary history. The island's animals appear to have arrived in occasional bursts of immigration by species rather than in a continuous, mixed migration. They likewise appear to have evolved from single ancestors, and their closest relatives are in Africa, scientists say. All of which suggests Mr Simpson's old theory was correct.
While the first reception in the scientific community seems to be positive, it remains to be seen whether the currently applied computer models of the region's palaeoclimate and ancient currents will have to be corrected. But surely, the popular split-and-isolation theory prevailing in most textbooks, in encyclopaedias and in popular belief, will not disappear for years to come.
Also surely, Madagascar's fascinating and poorly studied biodiversity will continue to pose challenges and present surprises for researchers and laymen in the future.
Only in 2006, three new species of lemurs were identified on the Great Island. Globally, new mammals are very nowadays very seldom identified, again showing how poorly Madagascar's amazing ecology has been studied.
Also in 2006, the first-ever comprehensive theory explaining the island's exceptionally rich biodiversity was presented. This is the only thorough study into Madagascar's evolutionary history and regional speciation. Also the island's geology and palaeoclimate is understudied.
Major discoveries are still to be expected on the Great Island.
By afrol News staff and Greg Kline
afrol News -
Origin of Madagascar's peculiar species
Lemurs are Madagascar's signature species, mostly confined to the island's ever-shrinking forests.
Madagascar's isolated and fascinating fauna has puzzled scientists and laymen for centuries. The main question has been: How did they get to the Great Island in the first place, thus being allowed to evolve in splendid isolation?
It is well known that the Great Island once was connected to the African continent, to what is now the Mozambican coast. Popular wisdom has it that, since the island split from the continent, Malagasy animals and plants have been isolated from the evolution in Africa. Therefore, without competition from continental apes, the lemurs could survive, evolve into many species.
This popular belief however has a major shortcoming. Madagascar appears to have been an island for at least 120 million years, at a time when the lemurs and other typical Malagasy species had not yet evolved on the continent. In fact, Madagascar's animal population began arriving much later, sometime after 65 million years ago.
This contradiction has puzzled scientists for a century. Altering theories to the origin of Malagasy species therefore have prevailed during time.
As the evolution of species through natural selection had been scientifically accepted, Darwin's theories seemed to fit perfectly to the large island of Madagascar. The island's isolated fauna seemed to have frozen a moment of evolution when it drifted away from Africa, back to the time when lemurs had yet to evolve into monkeys and apes. Even modern encyclopaedias refer to this age-old theory, stating that "the resulting isolation left Madagascar's plants and animals to evolve independently" (encyclopedia.com).
Indeed, Madagascar has more unique species of animals than any location except Australia, which is 13 times larger. The island's population includes 70 kinds of lemurs found nowhere else and about 90 percent of the other mammals, amphibians and reptiles are unique to its 587,000 square kilometres.
The original theories about the origin of Madagascar's unique fauna stem from an age when the processes of plate tectonics were not well known. Critically, scientists of those times were unable to date geological processes.
Dating processes of fossils and sediments however improved. As it became more and more probable that Madagascar drifted away from Mozambique before the lemurs had evolved in Africa, the theory had to be altered. Scientists now held that the animals arrived on Madagascar via a land bridge that was later obliterated by shifting continents.
Yet, the land bridge hypothesis also is problematic in that there is no geologic evidence that such a bridge existed during the time in question. Also, there are no large mammals such as apes, giraffes, lions or elephants, indigenous to Madagascar. Only small species such as lemurs - the island's signature species - hedgehog-like tenrecs, rodents, mongoose-like carnivores and similar animals populate the island.
But already a century ago, some scientists started doubting the prevailing split-and-isolation theory. In 1915, the first alternative theory was launched, saying many of the animals found in Madagascar could have rafted to the island.
Rafting would have involved animals being washed out to sea during storms, either on trees or large vegetation mats, and floating to the mini-continent, perhaps while in a state of seasonal torpor or hibernation.
As improved dating made the land bridge theory even less plausible, the very influential palaeontologist and evolution theorist George Gaylord Simpson in 1940 launched a more detailed rafting theory. Mr Simpson introduced the concept of a "sweepstakes" process to explain the chance of raft colonisation events taking place through vast stretches of geological time. Once the migrants arrived on the island, their descendants evolved into the distinctive and sometimes bizarre forms seen today.
Though influential, Mr Simpson failed to convince all scientists - and laymen at large. His theory had a major flaw. The prevailing currents and winds in Mozambique Channel - the straight splitting Madagascar from the continent - flow and blow south and southwest, away from, not toward, the island.
Since this controversy, no generally accepted theory could explain how the lemurs, flying foxes and narrow-striped mongooses got to the large, isolated island of Madagascar sometime after 65 million years ago. The split-and-isolation theory has therefore prevailed in popular science and belief, despite a 60 million year timing error.
Professor Jason Ali of the University Hong Kong, who has a research focus in plate tectonics - the large-scale motions of the Earth's outer shell - a few years ago caught interest in this unsolved major evolutionary mystery.
Mr Ali kept running across the land bridge hypothesis in the course of his work. The question intrigued him because the notion of a bridge between Madagascar and Africa appeared to break rules of plate tectonic theory. A background in oceanography also made him think ocean currents between Africa and Madagascar might have changed over time.
"Critically, Madagascar and Africa have together drifted more than 1,600 kilometres northwards and could thus have disrupted a major surface water current running across the tropical Indian Ocean, and hence modified flow around eastern Africa and Madagascar," says Mr Ali, an earth sciences professor. Maybe, he thought, Mr Simpson's rafting theory from 1940 still could prove right.
That led the Hong Kong professor to contact Professor Matthew Huber, a palaeoclimatologist who reconstructs and models the climate millions of years in the past, at the US Purdue University. Mr Huber has a particular interest and expertise in ocean currents and had recently developed a very potent programme modelling ancient ocean currents and climates.
The Purdue professor was able to show that 20 million to 60 million years ago, when scientists have determined ancestors of present-day animals likely arrived on Madagascar, currents flowed east, toward the island. Climate modelling showed that currents were strong enough - like a liquid jet stream in peak periods - to get the animals to the island without dying of thirst. The trip appears to have been well within the realm of possibility for small animals whose naturally low metabolic rates may have been even lower if they were in torpor or hibernating.
Mr Huber's computer modelling also indicates that the area was a hotspot at the time, just as it is today, for powerful tropical cyclones capable of regularly washing trees and tree islands into the ocean.
"It seems likely that rafting was a distinct possibility," their study concludes. "All signs point to the Simpson sweepstakes model as being correct: Ocean currents could have transported rafts of animals to Madagascar from Africa during the Eocene."
The new theory, published in the renowned journal 'Science' on 4 February 2010, has already found some support. "The raft hypothesis has always been the most plausible," says Anne Yoder, director of the Duke University Lemur Center. She specialises in the evolutionary history of Madagascar. "But Ali and Huber's study now puts hard data behind it," she adds.
The theory would also solve a problem related to new knowledge about Madagascar's evolutionary history. The island's animals appear to have arrived in occasional bursts of immigration by species rather than in a continuous, mixed migration. They likewise appear to have evolved from single ancestors, and their closest relatives are in Africa, scientists say. All of which suggests Mr Simpson's old theory was correct.
While the first reception in the scientific community seems to be positive, it remains to be seen whether the currently applied computer models of the region's palaeoclimate and ancient currents will have to be corrected. But surely, the popular split-and-isolation theory prevailing in most textbooks, in encyclopaedias and in popular belief, will not disappear for years to come.
Also surely, Madagascar's fascinating and poorly studied biodiversity will continue to pose challenges and present surprises for researchers and laymen in the future.
Only in 2006, three new species of lemurs were identified on the Great Island. Globally, new mammals are very nowadays very seldom identified, again showing how poorly Madagascar's amazing ecology has been studied.
Also in 2006, the first-ever comprehensive theory explaining the island's exceptionally rich biodiversity was presented. This is the only thorough study into Madagascar's evolutionary history and regional speciation. Also the island's geology and palaeoclimate is understudied.
Major discoveries are still to be expected on the Great Island.
By afrol News staff and Greg Kline
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