11年後のレッドリスト｜カフェマロン：伐採の後で、手が森を編む【IUCNレッドリスト比較】

Hi, Keijin here.

Today, I want to share a story about the “human hands” trying to save the Café Marron (scientific name: Ramosmania rodriguesii).

According to a 2014 botanical guide, this species was assessed as “CR: Critically Endangered.” Rodrigues is a small island with terrain well-suited for agriculture, which led to its forests being rapidly cleared away.

Fast forward to 2026, and its status on the IUCN Red List remains unchanged: “CR: Critically Endangered.” However, conservation efforts have recently begun shifting their focus. Instead of merely “preserving the species,” the goal is now “restoring the entire forest ecosystem”—aiming to create a “self-sustaining forest.”

Because of this, I believe the Café Marron is currently in a phase where “human hands are carefully weaving the forest back together in the aftermath of deforestation.”

This is a short piece that takes about 5 minutes to read. I hope you’ll stick with me to the end.

特徴

• 別名の意味：フランス語の通称 Café marron は「茶色いコーヒー」の意味として説明されることが多い
• 見た目：白い星形（5裂）の花が紹介されることが多く、低木〜小高木の姿で栽培展示されている例がある
• 希少性：長い期間、野生で「たった1個体」だけが確認されていた時期があり、極端に希少な植物として知られる
• 繁殖上の壁：自家不和合（同じ個体の花粉では受精しにくい仕組み）が大きな障害になり、個体数が1つしかない状況では種子ができない問題が起きやすい
• 保全の進展：栽培下での増殖・種子生産のブレークスルーが報告され、ロドリゲス島側の苗畑・保護区での再導入（再定着）を目標にした動きが継続している

生態など

• 生育環境：海洋島ロドリゲスの限られた生育地に依存する固有種として扱われ、生育地の面積・質の影響を受けやすい
• ふえ方（繁殖）：被子植物の木本として花をつけ、結実・種子で更新するが、歴史的には結実が極めて難しかった経緯がある
• 受粉の問題：自家不和合がネックになり、単独個体しかいない状況では種子が作れない（＝自然更新が止まる）という構造的問題が説明されている
• 脅威：島嶼固有種に典型的な、生育地の劣化・消失、外来動物や外来植物の影響、採取圧（希少性ゆえの採集・盗掘を含む）が複合して効きやすい
• 保全の方向性：栽培増殖（挿し木など）で個体数を増やし、結実・種子生産を成立させたうえで、保護区や苗畑を介して野外個体群の再構築を狙う、という流れで語られることが多い

出典

• Kew（公式記事）｜Meet the plant undateables（自家不和合・増殖・種子生産の経緯）
• Kew（Plants of the World Online）｜Ramosmania rodriguesii（分布・生育環境の一次データ）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation｜Grande Montagneでの保全活動（保護区と再導入個体に触れている記事）
• BGCI（Botanic Gardens Conservation International）｜The loneliest tree in the world（再導入・現地での世代更新に関する記述）
• Sibbaldia（RBG Edinburghの園芸ジャーナル）｜Raising the living dead: Ramosmania rodriguesii（栽培・繁殖ブレークスルーの詳細）

出典

• IUCN Red List（1998評価・CR・e.T33659A9801264
• Kew（Meet the plant undateables：Café marron、自家不和合性の説明
• BGCI（The loneliest tree in the world：Grande Montagneへの再導入に言及）
• Sibbaldia（Carlos Magdalena 2010：Raising the living dead: Ramosmania rodriguesii）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（2025-12-03：Grande Montagneで再導入されたcafé marronに言及）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（2023-12-06：Grande Montagneの復元作業継続と一般公開・ガイドツアー）

出典

• BGCI ケーススタディ（Mauritiusの樹木絶滅回避プロジェクト）
• IUCN Red List 種ページ（Ramosmania rodriguesii, 1998, DOI）
• Sibbaldia 論文（Raising the living dead: Ramosmania rodriguesii）
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 解説（loneliest plants / Café marron）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（Grande Montagneでの保全活動・外来種除去や柵など）

Me: So, what are your thoughts after reading this?

Questioner: It sounds like they’re currently focused on replanting the grown seedlings back into their native forest, aiming for a state where they can naturally reproduce generation after generation. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear some positive news for a change!

Me: It really is an uplifting story. But there’s one thing that’s been bugging me: has the “clearing of forests for farmland” genuinely stopped? If that root cause is still around, I can’t help but feel this might just end up being an isolated success story confined to a small nature reserve. Let me dig a little deeper into that.

出典

• FAO（Rodrigues：森林減少・土壌侵食・水制約などの背景整理）
• MDPI Ecologies（Rodrigues：侵略的外来植物の整理と管理枠組み）
• FAO（Rodrigues：土地利用と劣化、作物地2〜5%・放牧地約6%の整理）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（Rodrigues Fruit Bat：種子散布・送粉の説明）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（Grande Montagne Nature Reserve：在来林残存・20ha・復元の継続）
• UNCCD（Mauritius LDN Target Setting Programme Country Report：Rodriguesの土地劣化と家畜圧の整理）
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation（Grande Montagne復元プロジェクト 2025年アピールPDF：外来種除去・苗生産・植栽など）

Questioner: So basically, aside from that tiny fraction left in the reserve, the virgin forests on Rodrigues Island have already been completely wiped out. Even if they wanted to clear more land for farming, there’s nothing left to cut down. That’s why they’re out there now, pulling invasive weeds by hand, trying to coax that self-sustaining native forest back to life.

Me: It’s pretty ironic, isn’t it? We bulldozed everything with machines in the blink of an eye, and now we’re on our hands and knees pulling weeds to rebuild a self-sustaining forest. I guess when it comes down to it, this kind of healing actually requires the human touch, not machinery.

Speaking of the “human touch,” that actually reminds me of something I saw on social media recently. I came across these videos of people doing an amazing job cleaning up washed-up plastic waste, like water bottles, off the beaches.

I got curious and looked into it. It turns out they’re an organization with a crystal-clear mission: “pull plastic from the ocean.” Their whole model is based on taking that recycled plastic, turning it into bracelets to sell, and then using those profits to fund even more cleanups. It’s a whole cycle.

Seeing all these young folks out there, full of energy and wearing matching uniforms—I have to admit, it looked pretty cool.

But here’s the catch: changing the actual system—the one where “humanity extracts fossil fuels to consume plastics”—isn’t that simple. A little voice in the back of my head kept tapping me on the shoulder, whispering, “Isn’t something off here?” So, I decided to do a little digging into this organization.

出典

• 4ocean PBC（法人形態・説明）
• B Lab（4ocean PBCのB Corp掲載）
• UNEP（海洋へのプラスチック流入量の推計）
• Pew（海洋への流入規模・上流を含む包括策の文脈）
• 4ocean公式（Pull A Pound・記録手続と監査への言及）
• Frontiers in Marine Science（下流回収中心と上流生産の論点）
• ACCC（環境・サステナビリティ表示とグリーンウォッシュ概念）

Questioner: It’s not like this company is some shady scam pretending to pick up trash, right? They’re a legit for-profit business actually hiring locals full-time in places like Indonesia and Guatemala. They’re cleaning up garbage while literally supporting people’s livelihoods. I think that’s incredibly cool and genuinely a great thing.

Me: I hear you. But think about the underlying system: “Consumers have to spend money and buy a product (like a bracelet) to save the ocean.” It’s exactly like what I wrote about in the Nymphaea thermarum article. I called it a vending machine where the drinks swapped from cola to coffee, but the machine itself—you putting the coin in—hasn’t changed one bit.

They’re basically taking products slapped with an “Eco-Friendly” label and cramming them into a vending machine called Capitalism. No wonder people look at it and go, “Wait, something’s off here,” or call it out as greenwashing. The core issue is the structure itself: we’re still extracting the exact same amount of fossil fuels, and we’re still pumping out the exact same amount of plastic.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a tangent. But bringing it back to the Café Marron—the underlying structure of “habitat destruction” has already run its course to the point of total devastation. And ironically, because it was completely wiped out, they’re now able to build a new framework and system from scratch where fresh life can finally take root.

And they’re doing it entirely by “human hands.”

What makes this so different from the plastic clean-up business? I think it boils down to whether the action is a pure, unconditional action without any strings attached—done without expecting any return or calculating profit and loss.

The natural world operates strictly on these unconditional actions. That’s exactly how it’s maintained a flawless balance—a true coexistence—for tens of thousands of years. The very second humans introduce “profit” into the equation, forests get bulldozed, oceans choke on plastic, and you end up with a vending machine that dispenses products at the push of a button, even if what’s inside is completely rotten…

Doesn’t it kind of paint that picture for you?

How did you feel reading this?
I would be incredibly happy to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Thank you so much for your valuable 5 minutes. I pray that those 5 minutes will reach the Café Marron.

Keijin