A miracle of nature

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world - after Greenland, Papua New Guinea and Borneo - and is about the size of France and Switzerland combined. It lies in the Indian Ocean, 400 km from the African mainland away. Madagascar was formed by continental drift, tearing off the African mainland around 165 million years ago. Teeming fertile forests and geographical isolation have served to preserve and propagate 'nature's design laboratory' in a mix found nowhere else on earth and Madagascar has become a unique treasure of nature. 90% of the fauna and flora are endemic, in other words they can only be found in Madagascar (including 30 species of lemurs and Chamaeleon). Madagascar has many agricultural products such as vanilla, pepper, rice as well as natural resources such as sapphires, turmalines and aquamarines. Madagascar and the nearby Comoros have nearly one-quarter of all the flowering plants in Africa. Add Baobab trees, unique Cacti and Aloes from the dry areas, and you start to build up a picture of an incredibly rich ecology. The thornbush and the open dry forest in the south and in the southwest of the island have an especially rich variety of plants, for example the unique Pachypodium (thickened stem plants), Didiereaceae and the gigantic Baobabs (monkey-bread trees), that can grow up to 40m high and be up to 5000 years old.

The Malagasy people are a mixture of Asian, African and Arab and have been in Madagascar for about 1000 years. At that time Madagascar used to be a green island covered by forests. Today only 10% of the island remains forested.

location of Madagascar