At the turn of the century the Island of Madagascar, which lies across the Mozambique Channel from the nation of the same name in southeast Africa, was perhaps 90% forest covered. As the events of World War II unfolded, Madagascar's forest cover had been reduced by approximately one half. Today less than 10% of the island remains forest covered. What does remain of this once vast forest is confined to the upper ridges of the mountain ranges which run around the perimeter of the island. This thin sliver of forest is now the last stronghold for many of the island's unique forest dwelling species such as the ring tail lemur. Forest acreage continues to dwindle as human consumption of forest resources goes unabated.

In this photograph taken aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in December of 1993 one can readily see the remnants of the once vast forest as a ribbon of dark green running around the island just inland from the coast. The areas seaward of this are covered with coastal grasses while areas inland to the center of the island are virtually devoid of any significant vegetation

This photograph taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in June of 1985 shows more of a close-up of the remaining forest at the southern end of the island.

In this next photograph, taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in November of 1984, of the mouth of the Betsiboka River in northwestern Madagascar one can readily see the end result of deforestation, erosion. The once navigable harbor is now choked with the iron laden soil from the island's interior as rainfall washes topsoil into river channels and out to sea.

A ground view of the island's interior as it looks today. With little in the way of vegetation to retain topsoil, gullies formed by erosion scar the landscape and are growing. The dry, barren, heavily eroded look to the landscape has been referred to by astronauts as moonscape

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