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Madagascar's Sapphire Rush

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they seek comes at a price.

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A handful of raw sapphires.

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Beautiful and valuable.

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But they also pose a threat to this,

the indri lemur, one

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of the rarest animals on Earth.

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Poor people in their thousands have

invaded the animal's home,

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seeking their fortune in the remote

forests of Madagascar.

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Are you rich?

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No, not yet.

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Not yet?

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LAUGHS.

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Not yet rich!

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They mine the land,

but for little reward.

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Very hard, the life here.

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In the rush for sapphires,

there's a price to be paid.

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In Ocotober 2016 in

eastern Madagascar,

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there was a chance discovery

of sapphires, sparking a gem rush.

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Tens of thousands of people

flocked to the area.

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And we are now following

the route they carved out.

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When the road ends, we walk.

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About one hour in, six to go,

and I'm carrying half

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the weight these guys are.

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But in these hills there

are hidden dangers.

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Disease, bandits.

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And every journey to

the mine has its risks.

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Time to visit the Vatto

Mesina, sacred stones.

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An offering to ancestors ensures

safe passage and good fortune.

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After this the going gets tougher.

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A once narrow forest path churned

to mud by thousands of feet.

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As we walk, the trees

close in on us.

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And then we hear them.

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LEMURS CALLING.

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Indri, right above us.

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The mining trail leads directly

through their territory.

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Naturally timid, we have

to go to a national

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park to get this close.

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The indris live on the

fourth-biggest island on the planet,

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500km off the coast of east Africa.

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The wildlife is

spectacular and rare.

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Many species live

here and only here.

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It is a privilege to see them

in their natural habitat,

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but for how much longer?

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This has taken more than nine hours

of walking, but we are finally here.

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We are right at the centre

of what is the latest sapphire rush,

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the biggest sapphire rush.

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For at least 20 years,

and still they come,

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men, women and children.

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Building homes of wood and plastic,

creating a makeshift town

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in the heart of the forest.

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There are shops, and bars...

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..but no hospital,

school or police station.

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No-one wants to be here long.

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But they will stay as long

as it takes to get lucky.

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And the bluer the sapphires,

the more money they're worth.

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These are poor men, working hard,

hoping to get rich.

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Tens of thousands of people have

moved here to clear the land

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and dig for gemstones.

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This was once virgin rainforest.

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But now look.

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Mineshafts and spoil

heaps scar the landscape.

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There are thousands of men right

across this valley working all day,

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every day, down these pits,

digging out hundreds of bags

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of sand, and all of them are looking

for something no bigger

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than the size of my fingernail.

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And this is what they are after.

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A handful of stones.

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It took Bruno and his team many

days to dig them out.

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He comes from the other

side of the island,

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more than 1000km away.

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He has invested all

his money on this.

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Every morning, the work

takes him down into the dark.

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The pit is deep.

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Very deep.

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The job is cramped,

backbreaking and dangerous.

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None of these men are locals.

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They have travelled

from all over the island,

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because there isn't any

work at home.

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So they come here, hoping to find

a sapphire that makes their fortune.

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This one took days to find,

but is worth only about $200,

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split between a team of four.

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What does it feel like

when you find a sapphire?

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But it's always a gamble.

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Stephane has been here for months

and has nothing to show for it.

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University-educated,

now he works these pits

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to support his family.

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The future, I don't know.

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Do you want to be here?

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For this moment.

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I am here.

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But when I don't have

money to live here, maybe

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I will go back to my home.

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Do you have family,

children, a wife?

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Yeah, I have a wife,

one daughter, and three sons.

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Yeah.

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And you come all the way

here to help them?

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Yeah, that's why I came here.

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What do you want for

them, your children?

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I want them to have a good life.

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It is not greed which drives

men here, but poverty.

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Madagascar is one of the poorest

countries on earth.

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80% of the population lives

on less than $1 a day.

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There are few jobs

for men like these.

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Keen eyes sieve and search, a

promise of wealth in every handful.

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Have you found any sapphires?

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Many, but not very good.

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So are you rich?

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No, not yet, not yet rich.

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But the wealth they

seek comes at a cost.

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The mines eat away at the forest.

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The villages that spring

up pollute the water,

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and threaten the habitat

of the indri lemur.

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LEMURS CALLING.

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Can you hear that?

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That's the sound of indris singing.

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They are on that side

of the valley and are singing

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to the indris on this side.

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They are critically endangered

and they only live in a very

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small area of Madagascar.

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They cannot survive in captivity.

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So when they're gone from here,

they're gone for good.

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We travelled to Mitsinjo,

a conservation project

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where the indri are able to thrive.

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The biggest of all the lemurs,

they spend most of their lives

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in the trees, eating and sleeping

in the branches.

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They produce few young, only

breeding every two or three years.

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This is extraordinary.

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These indris come down

from the forest canopy.

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They live in small family groups.

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This is a group of five,

two adults and three juveniles.

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They eat nothing

but leaves and seeds.

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They need a bigger range,

a large territory to live in.

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So as the forests are cut around

them, they have to retreat

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to smaller and smaller areas.

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But when those forests

are gone, they will die out.

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In this park, our guide is one

of the world's most foremost

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authorities on lemurs.

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That's really sad.

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He's horrified by what we show him.

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You can see the scale.

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Yeah.

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It's huge.

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Oh, yeah.

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And make no mistake,

this is all illegal.

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On paper, the land is protected.

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But the authorities seem unwilling

or unable to stop it.

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Here in Madagascar, there

are fortunes to be won or lost.

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The miners who dig up sapphires

sell them on to dealers.

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They call this man 'The President'.

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He holds court, waiting

for the sapphires to be brought

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to him so he can inspect them

and offer a price.

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Notice the torch -

every dealer needs one -

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and the rings - you'd have thought

business was good.

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But far from it.

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But getting a good price

for sapphires means

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keeping them safe first.

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This man stores them

in his mouth because,

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he says, he has no pockets.

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TRANSLATION:

It's calm

here but beneath the surface,

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there's fear too.

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He said they need security

because when you walk from the city,

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from town to here, there are some

people who attack you.

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Bandits?

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Yeah, bandit.

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Is he scared?

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Yes, yes, we are afraid of that.

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Sapphires are sold in England,

in France, for rings...

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Yeah.

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..necklaces.

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Uh-huh.

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Do you think those rich people

understand your life here?

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I think they, yeah,

they understand the life

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here but they don't care, maybe.

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When I talk about the government,

the government in Madagascar,

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you know, they don't care about us.

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Deep in the forest, a day's walk

from the nearest road,

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the authorities can seem remote,

indifferent, and powerless.

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Vibrant, polluted,

and poor - Antananarivo,

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Madagascar's capital city.

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From here, the country's elite

monitor the sapphire rush

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with great interest.

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The sapphire trade is

a sensitive issue here.

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The government really doesn't

like to talk about it,

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and some journalists have been

arrested for trying

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to expose the nepotism

and corruption at its heart.

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The authorities claim they are

trying to regulate the industry.

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But still, the illegal

mining goes on.

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In recent months, ministers have

talked of reform, to tighten the law

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and control small-scale mining.

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But NGOs working in conservation say

what really stops effective

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policing is a lack of money.

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Officials on the ground can't even

buy fuel for their vehicles.

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These are in national parks, often,

where it's happening.

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The authorities seem powerless.

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Yes.

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Unfortunately, most

of the sapphires, gems,

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even gold rushes that we've had have

been in protected areas,

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sometimes national parks.

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And it's all illegal,

of course, but then,

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there is very little capacity

to enforce legislation

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generally in Madagascar -

especially in very, also remote

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areas, because you have, I mean,

they are usually remote areas

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so it's even more difficult

to enforce the law in this case.

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Do you think the government

wants to enforce the law?

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I wouldn't dismiss also

that there is maybe a lack

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of willingness to act.

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Which means gems from illegal mines

continue to flow to the capital

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and on into backstreet workshops.

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Here, skilled hands and sharp

eyes work to unlock

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the value of the gems.

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Stones will go through several pairs

of hands before they reach

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the capital Antananarivo and a place

like this, where they're cut

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and polished for export.

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A stone sold by a miner

for £25 will be sold

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by a dealer like this for £250,

and when it is in the US

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or in Bangkok or in Dubai,

will go for more than £5,000.

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Shaolin is happy to show this stock.

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The mining may be against the law

but the trade isn't.

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This is his favourite, sold

in the US for more than $2 million.

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Some sapphires are mined

legally in Madagascar

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but how can a buyer know?

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The truth is, they probably cannot.

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Most big dealers come

from Sri Lanka or Thailand.

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In Shaolin's view, they buy

up Malagash sapphires

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to pass off as their own.

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But now, there are calls

for greater transparency,

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demands that each gem be traceable

to the mine it came from -

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a worldwide agreement

to reform the trade.

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There could be some kind

of international regulations

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on the trustability of gems.

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So that, at the retailer's side,

you can know where this came

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from and how it was produced,

whether it was in a sustainable way.

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So you would call for some kind

of international accord,

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rather like that which regulates

the trade in diamonds?

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Yes, yes - and we have

started this discussion

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with the Malagasy authorities.

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It has just started,

so I think that with also

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international support and pressure,

this discussion could move

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forward more quickly.

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How urgent is that need?

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That would be urgent

because we are not protected

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from the next rush.

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It can happen anytime,

anywhere in Madagascar.

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And so, it would be urgent to act,

it would also help us in the future.

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That sounds like a good

place to start.

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But for Jonah Ratsimbazafy,

the lemur expert, real

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change can't wait.

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We're almost out of time.

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There are valuable gems

beneath this red soil.

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Unique wildlife in the trees above.

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The question for the people

of Madagascar is how do

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they profit from one

without destroying the other?

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And for those who buy sapphires,

it's impossible to know the real

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origin, or the true cost

of the gems they wear.

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