Madagascar produces most of the world's vanilla -usually regarded as a 'basic' flavour(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/31/madagascars-vanilla-wars-prized-spice-drives-death-and-deforestation). The situation there, however, appears to be currently like the wild west, with criminality and corruption driving a rapid destruction of the country's unique forests (and their dependent wildlife- including the lemurs). The 'vanilla wars' are reportedly also being used to facilitate the illegal cutting and export of prized rosewood (a hard wood much in demand in parts of the world). Stories include environmentalists being imprisoned and extra-judicial killing of vanilla 'rustlers by farmers.
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