Madagascar suffering due to embargo

Madagascar began to suffer when President Marc Ravalamanana learned that perhaps the largest emerald crystal ever unearthed anywhere (valued at 130,000 Euros) was legally exported from Madagascar by an established Malagasy Emerald dealer and a Chinese national. President Ravalamanana attempted to get Interpol to help him get the 1169 lb. stone back from a museum in Hong kong where it is currently on display.  He illegally boarded and searched the plane he believed held the stone on Feb. 28, 2008, in Mada, and imprisoned the dealer for more than a month.  When he could not retrieve the stone, he implemented policy that makes it illegal for any gem material to leave Madagascar.  This action came as a surprise as the President had been well respected and believed to be helping the people of Madagascar.

His decision to implement the embargo is destroying the gem industry in Madagascar and adversely affecting more than 1.5 million people whose income came from the legal sale of gems. 

The situation in Madagascar further illustrates the critical role that the gem trade plays in developing countries. Embargoes and boycotts are not the answers for helping these communities as they often punish the artisanal miner and local trader.

Change must be a multi-pronged approach that includes (but isn’t limited to) lab-created gems as alternatives to those that have been mined, involvement of NGO’s on the ground in developing communities, action among governments and corporations to establish better human rights and environmental practices, and third party industry regulators.