On one side were the island's abundant resources; on the other, its poor inhabitants—the contradiction between them grew increasingly severe.
Mined resources such as gold, nickel, cobalt, titanium, and sapphires on Madagascar Island were once abundant, accounting for one-third of the world market supply, but they were all in the hands of foreign conglomerates.
ExxonMobil Corporation explored the deep-sea oil here, high-end guitar manufacturers used local ebony to make instruments, and the local government even considered renting farmland to Korea and selling water resources to Saudi Arabia…
Thus, for a livelihood, islanders would smuggle endangered animals out of the country and fell precious trees. Out of 4.5 million hectares of protected areas, 10,000 hectares of timber was stolen.
However, no matter how hard they toiled in mining and logging, they would only receive a few dollars in compensation.