By RFPosted on 03-11-2019Modified on 03-11-2019 at 18:15

The grasshopper of Menabe is in imminent danger of extinction in Madagascar. The World Wildlife Fund warns of the probable disappearance of this rare and endemic species of the Menabe forest. In ten years, 34% of the forest habitat of this insect has disappeared.

It is an insect that the guides of this dry forest of the south-west of the country have more and more difficult to find. Green, yellow and red, Tetefortina lohenae or grasshopper of Menabe can not fly. Its ability to migrate to survive is almost non-existent.

" When we talk about the effects of deforestation on biodiversity, we often talk about lemurs, fosas, therefore animals a little more charismatic and we forget that there are many other animals that are experiencing a real tragedy . We see them less because they are small like the grasshopper. In Madagascar, there are certainly many species that we lose before we discover them, because of deforestation, "says Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, director of the World Wildlife Fund in Madagascar.

In July, experts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature classified this specimen as critically endangered.

" It's alerting about their condition, but after that there really needs to be concrete action at the country level so that they can be saved. It's really complicated because deforestation is really the result of poverty and climate change too, "added Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana.

Poor people who therefore need the forest to live and who clear land to cultivate on this fertile soil or to make coal.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature believes that the Menabé Forest will be gone within eight years if deforestation continues. The grasshopper population would be reduced by at least 90%.

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