Madagascar takes small step back to conservation

Science magazine is reporting (paywall) that the government of Madagascar is reversing a decision to log rosewood. Madagascar’s natural ecosystems are still very much under pressure, though, and they are a dangerous places:

(S)tudying Madagascar's forests has become dangerous. Fisher says visitors are sometimes threatened by organized criminal loggers. During his recent survey of the northeastern forests, he says, “we had to monitor our food for possible poisoning.” He found only a single unpaid ranger “confronting the lemur trappers and loggers. ... His life is continually threatened.”

Tracking the spread of Marmorkrebs in Madagascar is probably going to be nigh impossible for a while.