Seizing an opportunity in Madagascar

The largest of all living lemurs, Indri indri, at Mananara-Nord, Madagascar.

Approximately 50 percent of plant and over 70 percent of vertebrate species are crammed into biodiversity “hotspots” that make up only 2.3 percent of Earth’s land surface.

Madagascar is one of these hotspots, and its government is planning to triple the amount of the protected land where the plants and animals can live without interference from humans.

Scientists now have a plan for deciding which areas should be included in this expansion.

Claire Kremen of the University of California, Berkeley and colleagues compiled data for endemic species of ants, butterflies, frogs, geckos, lemurs and plants, and developed a map of the areas that will be most important to consider for expanding the current reserve network.

These areas included several regions within mountainous areas and coastal forests, which are areas with relatively low forest cover but considerable biodiversity.. These regions have historically been neglected in favor of protecting large forest blocks.

The authors say the method they used could also be applied to other biodiversity hotspots. Their study appears in the 11 April issue of the journal Science.

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