Can the Pope's visit to Madagascar save humanity's smallest living relative?

The Madame Berthe mouse lemur is our smallest relative.

But it's being driven to extinction by slash and burn farmers in its native Madagascar.

Frustrated conservationists hope Friday's (September 6) arrival of the environmentally-conscious Pope Francis will highlight some of the island's problems.

Madagascar lost two percent of its rainforest last year -- the most of any tropical nation, according to the World Resources Institute.

The Kirindy forest, on the west of the island, spans 100,000 hectares.

It's lost almost half its size in two decades.

The forest is home to a multitude of rare species, including the tiny mouse lemur.

In 2016, the harvest failed in the south, prompting thousands of farmers to migrate to the west - to Kirindy - accelerating the forest's destruction.

People here say that businessmen linked to local politicians pay just over $13 for every hectare of forest cleared.

After trees are felled, the area is torched to clear land for maize.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONSERVATION NGO FANAMBY, TIANA ANDRIAMANANA, SAYING:

"So we know for sure that 50 tonnes are registered as an official production from the Menabe region, and the rest is obviously illegal. Everybody sees the trucks of maize coming back and forth, usually at night, but nobody really records them, takes pictures of them."

In the past nine months, the government has made some efforts to slow the destruction, arresting several farmers and destroying corn in the protected area.

But bigger players remain free.

Prosecutors want to go after the politicians involved and big companies that buy the maize.

But the crops are often mixed before being sold, so building a case is difficult.

Even though life for humanity's smallest relative is under threat.