A look at the unique wildlife in Madagascar — an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth.
Here, located about 150 km east of Antananarivo, lies a 155 square kilometre protected area, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. This rainforest is habitat to a vast species biodiversity, including many endemic rare species and endangered species, including 11 lemur species.
However logging and deforestation for farming has resulted in these parks now being isolated. The main threat to this park comes from the disappearance of adjoining habitat outside the park.
To address the disappearing habitat threat, reserves have been created in the vicinity of Andasibe-Mantadia that balance resource extraction with environmental protection, and attempt to create economic and environmentally preferable alternatives to replacing native forests with eucalyptus and pine.