This is a tragedy for everyone: “98 percent of Madagascar’s land mammals, 92 percent of its reptiles, 68 percent of its plants and 41 percent of its breeding bird species exist nowhere else on Earth,” according to the World Wildlife Fund. Madagascar is also home to “two-thirds of the world’s chameleons and 50 species of lemur, which are unique to the island.” Unfortunately, too many have been hunted. Thanks to the globalization of illicit flows, illegal wildlife trading has left Madagascar exposed to Chinese merchants, who work with corrupt officials to illegally export everything from
...more
