Madagascar at the crossroads: Youth, governance, and the rosewood reflex
Keywords:
GenZ, coup d'état, generation Z, CITES, political transition, governance failure, resource capture, rosewood, precious wood, traffickingAbstract
Madagascar’s 2025 political rupture has been driven in large part by Generation Z, whose mobilization reflects deep frustration with governance failure, structural inequality, and the erosion of basic public services. This editorial places the Malagasy uprising within a broader wave of youth-led movements across the Global South and examines a recurring political reflex: the use of natural resources as a fiscal shortcut during moments of political instability. Focusing on renewed debates over rosewood stockpiles and CITES governance, we argue that reopening timber circulation would repeat past cycles of elite capture, institutional weakening, and ecological loss. Gen Z’s demands instead call for a clear break with extractive crisis management, placing Madagascar at a crossroads between reform and repetition.
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