New research reveals that all but nine of the 104 recognized species of lemur, a furry primate endemic to the isolated island of Madagascar, are at risk of extinction in the next 20 years, making them the most endangered primate in the world, the Telegraph reports.
For more than 160 million years, Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island off of the southeastern coast of Africa, has been isolated from all landmasses. Thousands of exotic species are unique to the island, including the lemur.
A new assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reveals that decades of habitat destruction in the form of logging, mining and and slash-and-burn farming have destroyed "90 percent of Madagascar's forests, with around 500,000 acres going up in smoke each year. Only around 19,000 square miles remain," making the lemur, among other resident animals, part of a "conversation hotspot" as the rates of deforestation continue to rise.
"We can say that within 20 to 25 years there will be no more forest and thus no more lemurs," Jonah Ratsimbazafy, a well-known local primatologist, told AFP. A whopping 94 percent of the world's lemurs are at risk of extinction.
In order to combat the high risk of lemur extinction, the IUCN has created a three-year, $7.3 million conservation plan this month, devised by some of the world's leading primate experts.
The conservation action plan going forward, according to Russ Mittermeier, President of Conservation International, will involve grassroots campaigns with local communities to support "eco-tourism projects" and establish strategically placed "research stations" to help protect lemurs from hunters and loggers who destroy them and their habitats.
"We try to fund activities that generate revenues, like planting beans, rearing pigs and chickens or developing fish farming, so that peasants stop destroying the forest," Benjamin Andriamihaja of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments told AFP, adding that "it's very difficult to meet [the] needs [of the lemurs] in the long term."
Christoph Schwitzer, Head of Research at Bristol Zoo Gardens and part of the IUCN primate specialist group, told AFP that despite the grim outlook for the lemurs of Madagascar, he remains optimistic that they could be saved. "The hard work is yet to come," he said.
