Madagascar's forests have been reduced to a narrowing strip along the eastern escarpment. Of the original forest cover of 11.2 million hectares, only 7.6 million remained in 1950. Today this has been halved to 3.8 million hectares--which means the habitat for the island's unique wildlife has been halved, in just 40 years. Every year some 3% of the remaining forest is cleared, almost all of that to provide land for populations expanding at 3.2% a year. The story of 1 village, Ambodiaviavy, near Ranomafana, shows the process at work. 50 years ago the whole area was dense forest. 8 families, 32 people in all, came here in 1947, after French colonials burned down their old village. At first the new settlers farmed only the valley bottoms, easily irrigated by the stream running down from the hilltops. There was no shortage of land. Each family took as much as they were capable of working. Over the next 43 years, the village population swelled 10 times over, to 320, and the number of families grew to 36. Natural growth was supplemented by immigration from the overcrowded plateau, where all cultivable land was occupied. The valley bottom lands had filled up completely by the 1950s. New couples started to clear forest on the sloping valley sides. They moved gradually uphill until today, they are 2/3 of the way to the hilltops. There was a parallel decline in the size of each family's paddy holding--also fueled by population growth. When children marry, parents have to subdivide their own land and give them a plot. So holding in the irrigated valley bottoms have dwindled. Today only a few are big enough to feed a family. The more children in a family, the smaller their share as adults will be. The village chief lives in a small mud hut, looking out over a valley he once owned entirely. Since then he has had 10 children, and given parcels away to each. Though he is the wealthiest man in the village in cattle, his son are among the poorest. They 1/2 a hectare of paddy each. They moved from prosperity to pauperdom in a single generation.
马达加斯加的森林已缩减为东部悬崖沿线一条日益狭窄的地带。在原本1120万公顷的森林覆盖面积中，1950年只剩下760万公顷。如今，这一面积又减半至380万公顷——这意味着该岛独特野生动物的栖息地在短短40年内就减少了一半。每年约有3%的剩余森林被砍伐，几乎全部是为了给以每年3.2%的速度增长的人口提供土地。拉努马法纳附近的安博迪亚维亚维村的故事展现了这一过程。50年前，整个地区都是茂密的森林。1947年，在法国殖民者烧毁他们的老村庄后，8户人家、总共32人来到了这里。起初，新定居者只耕种山谷底部，那里很容易得到从山顶流下的溪水灌溉。土地并不短缺。每个家庭都尽其所能耕种。在接下来的43年里，村庄人口增长了10倍，达到320人，家庭数量增加到36户。人口的自然增长加上来自过度拥挤的高原地区的移民，那里所有可耕种的土地都已被占用。到20世纪50年代，山谷底部的土地已被完全开垦。新婚夫妇开始在山谷的斜坡上砍伐森林。他们逐渐向上迁移，直到如今已到达离山顶还有三分之二路程的地方。每个家庭稻田的面积也相应减少——这同样是人口增长导致的。孩子结婚时，父母不得不分割自己土地并分给他们一块。因此，灌溉山谷底部的稻田面积逐渐减少。如今，只有少数稻田面积大到足以养活一家人。家庭孩子越多，成年后他们分得的份额就越小。村长住在一个小泥屋里，望着曾经完全属于他的山谷。从那时起，他有了10个孩子，并给每个孩子都分了地。尽管他是村里养牛最多的富人，但他的儿子们却是最穷的。他们每人只有半公顷稻田。他们在一代人的时间里就从富裕沦为贫困。
