The Map

Upon the combination of the vegetation zone, geologic zone and protected area boundaries, it is quite obvious which zones are well protected, and which drastically need protection. As only 18% of Madagascar is still covered by primary vegetations, they protected primary vegetation is very low.

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Du Puy and Moat decided to use only the top three levels of protection for their study, as they felt they were the only three which could give adequate protection to vegetation. Although they used only the most highly protected categories, due to a lack of funding, staffing and management, the protection is still often times quite nominal. Of the primary vegetation still remaining in Madagascar, only 6% occurs within protected boundaries. This means, that only 1.17% of Madagascar's total surface area is covered by protected primary vegetation! Of all the vegetation zones, only the Evergreen, Humid Forest has over 10% of its total area within protective boundaries. The Deciduous, dry, southern forest and scrubland is the zone of the highest concern. Although much of Madagascar is still unprotected, changes are occurring. The maps produced by Du Puy and Moat are currently being used by the Malagasy government in order to choose which locations to further protect.

.............map showing currently protected areas. For larger version of this map click here. ...........................................For a larger version of this map click here...................................

One note of caution given by the maps makers, is to focus efforts on further enforcing already protected areas, before creating more. If the local Malagasy people do not support the protected status, than it is doomed to fail. A zone already protected, is much more likely to be supported by locals, than is a zone which is newly created.

 

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