Madagascar’s unique nature

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. It is situated in the Indian Ocean, 400 km off the eastern shore of Africa. It is fourteen times the size of Switzerland, or about as large as both Switzerland and France together. Roughly 150 million years ago the island drifted away from the primeval continent, which is why flora and fauna have developed over millions of years undisturbed. Thus Madagascar is often called the “eighth continent”.

In our times Madagascar is a true treasure trove of nature. 90% of the plants and animals are endemic, i.e. they can only be found in Madagascar. Among many others there are 30 different species of lemurs and 66 species of chameleons. Agricultural produce is abundant (vanilla, cloves, pepper, rice), as are the mineral resources (sapphire, tourmaline, aquamarine).

The thornbush forest and the dry forest in the south and southwest of the island abound in a variety of plants, e.g. the unique Pachypodium (a succulent, spine-bearing tree or shrub, its name meaning „thick-footed“), Didiereaceae and the gigantic Baobabs (monkey bread trees), which grow to a height of 40m and live to an age of up to 5000 years.

Only about 1000 years ago people from Africa and from Arab, Indonesian and Malaysian regions settled on Madagascar. In those days it used to be a green island, covered with forest. Nowadays only about 10% of the island are forested.