"A nice but destroyed enviroment " a Mauritius Travel Page by JustinJansen

Once I should make a visit towards this island. This because one of the most fascianting birds ever existed on this planet the Dodo lived over here, and second the Dutch History of Maurice in relation with Dodo!

I was luckly enough to stay 3 times for short ore long time on the island as it was part of a trip I made towards Madagascar and Reunion! I visited Mauritius (Maurice) on 21 august, 10 and 11 september and 12 to 14 september 2004.
Birdwatching was good despite very low numbers of the very few endemics still remaining on the island!
It was that worst that we found in the Black River Gorge NP the largest where the most birds who are almost extinct are (less then 100 indivials for 3 of the 7 enemics) mongoose, cats and rats! And that a large road is exactly build in the centre of the parc!

The first visitors, the Arabs and the Portuguese, used the island belonging to the MASCARENES, together with Reunion and Rodrigues to supply their provisions, among others with the meat of the DODO bird, easy prey for it was not accustomed to predators, and soon became extinct.
Mauritius was uninhabited when Admiral WYBRAND VAN WARWYCK landed in 1598 and claimed it for the Dutch Republic, naming it after stadholder Prince Maurits (Maurice) of Oranje-Nassau (still the Dutch Royal Family is named van Oranje-Nassau). In 1602 the Dutch claim was transferred to the newly established V.O.C. (Dutch United East India Company), whose most valuable asset became the Spice Islands (= the Moluccas).
It turned out that Dutch sailors travelling to India suffered from a disease called BERI BERI, i.e. the lack of vitamins. In order to provide fresh vegetables on their way home, a settlement was established on Mauritius in 1638; the Dutch also introduced SUGAR PLANTATIONS.
The foundation of KAAPSTAD (Cape Town) by Jan van Riebeeck in 1652 made vitamin supply at Mauritius unnecessary; the first Dutch settlement was abandoned soon after, in 1658. Another attempt to settle was made in 1664, but in 1710 the V.O.C. finally abandoned Mauritius.
Then the French took over the the control of the island!

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sight from Mahebourg

Some General Maurice Information

Mauritius, once an uninhabited Eden, is now one of the world's most densely populated countries, the immigrant multiracial population cleared forest to make way for human settlements, as well as
introducing cats, rats, mongoose, dogs, goats, pigs, monkeys, Java deer, Indian house shrews, foreign lizards and fast-growing acacias to feed the goats.
Today only 1.9 per cent of Mauritius is covered even partially by native forest, and rare Muaritius Olive White-eye, Echo Parakeet, Mauritius Kestrel, Mauritius Fody and Pink Pigeon are severely endangered because rats eat their eggs (the only endemic that is reasonably common is Mauritius Grey White-eye).
In the last 20 years, however, there has been a change in attitudes towards the environment, both internationally and in Mauritius itself, where the tourism industry depends heavily on the island's image as an Indian Ocean paradise.
The coral Ile aux Aigrettes is now managed by the MWF as an eco-tourism destination. As the goal here is to return it to original state (nowdays many introduced birds still flying around, so I doubt the succes rate?).
The model will be tested on the main island, too. Environmentalists want to cordon off areas of forest with rat-proof fences and cut off overhanging branches to keep out the monkeys before seeking to re-establish zones of natural forest (Crab-eating Maqacue is introduced on the Island).
Mauritius's marine environment, perhaps more important to tourism than anywhere else, has escaped irreparable damage from industrialisation, population growth and the clumsy tourists themselves over the last two centuries.
Divers and snorkellers disturb delicate coral reefs. But, unlike islands such as the Seychelles in equatorial waters further north, Mauritius has not so far suffered from the severe coral "bleaching" caused by a rise in sea temperatures.
There have been other problems, including overfishing, extraction of sand from the lagoon for construction (dredging smothers coral with sediment and piping of untreated sewage straight into the sea.
Mauritius has finally managed to stop the use of dynamite for fishing, but other environmental laws - banning spear-fishing and protecting turtles, for example - are frequently broken with impunity.

Once the sole lifeline for the island's economy, and still one of the defining elements of its culture, politics and development, Mauritius' famous sugar industry is today facing a crisis. For many years, it has enjoyed a wonderfully easy ride due to a large quota to Europe (more than 500,000 tonnes under the sugar protocol, plus about 80,000 more under the special preferential sugar agreement), and the European Union's (EU) guarantee of prices far greater than could be expected on a free market.
The first blow came in 1999 when, after a period of already low yields,
drought caused production to fall by 40 per cent to under 400,000 tonnes - well below the historical average of 650,000 tonnes.
The next shock was the introduction of the euro. Before 1999, the bulk of
Mauritian sugar exports were denominated in pounds sterling, and the EU's agri-monetary mechanism acted as a cushion against fluctuations with the
ecu. When this was dismantled, EU sugar prices were expressed and paid for in euros.
The industry is saddled with increasing labour costs and tight regulatory control.
and in the next decade, the sector faces the toughest blow of all - the steady erosion if not the end of EU prices and preferences, and the imminent introduction of competition from other developing countries.