naturalfeature:indian ocean island

#Madagascar could lose battle against locusts if funds don’t come, UN warns | Global development | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/27/madagascar-locusts-united-nations-food-agriculture-organisation

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/1/22/1421935113308/9c25681e-8ce9-470d-a070-1cf6fe914be1-1020x612.jpeg

The plague started in 2012 and the Indian Ocean island’s government declared a national disaster, as locusts infested more than half the cultivated land and pastures.

As part of a joint 2013-16 anti-locust programme with the government, the FAO surveyed more than 30m hectares (74m acres) – an area almost the size of Japan – and controlled locust infestations over 1.3m hectares using pesticides and biopesticides. It said the plague was successfully halted last year.

France’s Indian Ocean prize, by Maggy Donaldson
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/france-s-indian-ocean-prize?

Mayotte — one of four main islands that comprise Comoros, an Indian Ocean island group — became an overseas department of France in 2011, at the wish of its inhabitants. Yet its three sister islands form the separate, sovereign Union of the Comoros.