Antananarivo: Pope Francis denounced the illegal logging and exploitation of Madagascar's unique natural resources on Saturday as he opened a visit to the Indian Ocean nation.
He urged the government to fight the corruption that is ravaging the island's environment and keeping its people in 'inhumane poverty'.
Pope Francis urged President Andry Rajoelina to provide Madagascar's people with jobs and alternative sources of income so they aren't forced to cut down trees to find fertile soil, poach the island's wildlife and engage in contraband and illegal exportation of its diverse flora, fauna and mineral resources.
"The deterioration of that biodiversity compromises the future of the country and the Earth, our common home," Pope Francis warned Rajoelina and other government authorities as he began the second leg of his weeklong trip to southern Africa.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, Madagascar is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, with around 95% of its reptiles and 89% of its plant life existing nowhere else on Earth.
Yet it is also one of the world's poorest countries, with 75% of its 25.5 million people living on less than $2 a day.
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