Logger’s Turn to Bush meat as Supplies Dry Up

Marojejy November 2009

The photograph shows the number of lemurs shot in one day by a team of hunters to supply food to the 200 or so loggers who are now inside the Marojejy National Park. The lemurs killed include the critically endangered Silky Sifaka (white lemur).

One logger told us “the living conditions are getting worse… we have run out of rice and are having to hunt lemurs to survive. We haven’t been paid yet, but we are hoping for money once we get back to our villages. It is a dangerous job without any specialist equipment. Last week I saw two men break their legs as they tried to float the heavy logs down the river. I don’t understand why, if China are getting these logs, why they don’t help us to get more of them out of the forest.”