How deforestation and hunting are driving lemur welfare crises across Madagascar.
Lemur welfare represents one of the most acute and rapidly evolving wildlife crises in the world. Madagascar deforestation — driven by poverty and inadequate governance — is eliminating the only habitat where lemurs exist. The hunting pressure in some regions adds direct welfare harm through trapping and killing methods. As obligate forest specialists, lemurs cannot adapt to degraded secondary vegetation — habitat loss is fatal at the population level. The combination of having evolved in isolation on an island with no large predators and now facing human-introduced pressures has left lemur populations particularly vulnerable. Conservation must address the poverty drivers of deforestation alongside direct habitat protection.