Madagascar

Located in southern Africa, Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean. While it is situated east of Mozambique, Madagascar exists in relative isolation from the African continent. In this low-income country, the population of 23,201,926 lives in an area covering 581,540 square miles (approximately 1,506,000 square kilometers), and Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world. Less than a third of the people live in urban areas. Eighty percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Since 85 percent of the rainforest has been lost to the Malagasy, who cut down trees for use as fuel, Madagascar faces ongoing problems with deforestation and erosion. Madagascar has a tropical climate along its coast, a temperate climate in the inland, and an arid ...