Tracking Development - Rio Tinto - Qit Madagascar Minerals

The Production Phase
a unique context
The Red Island
Located in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the fourth largest
island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.
With a high, central plateau and thousands of kilometres
of white, sandy beaches spanning its pristine coastline,
Madagascar stretches 1,500 kilometres (km) north to south
and 500km east to west. Eighteen ethnic groups makeup the
current population of 22 million, and all inhabitants share the
common language of Malagasy, spoken in various dialects 1 .
biodiversity. Unique, rare, and in many cases endemic species
of flora and fauna inhabit the island. However, it is one of
the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Only ten to
15 per cent of Madagascar’s land mass is covered by forest
and what remains continues to be cut down or burned at a
high rate 4 . As a result of its rapid environmental degradation
and high concentration of unique species, Madagascar is
considered to be a global biodiversity “hotspot.”
Despite its image as a tropical paradise, Madagascar is
one of the poorest countries in the world, with an annual
gross national income per capita of US$420 1 . Ranking 151
out of 187 countries in the 2011 United Nations Human
Development Index (HDI) 2 , 68 per cent of the population
is estimated to live below the international poverty line of
US$1.25 per day. Life expectancy is 61 years and the underfive
mortality rate is 58 per 1,000 live births, with an infant
mortality rate of 41 per 1,000 live births 3 .
Due to its impoverished state, the majority of Madagascar’s
population depend on natural resources for their daily survival.
Cast adrift from the east coast of mainland Africa more
than 140 million years ago and isolated from the rest of the
world, Madagascar, a place unlike any other, has tremendous
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