|
|
Masoala
The Masoala Peninsula as become one of Madagascar's top conservation priorities for its extensive rainforest (by Madagascar standards) and high biodiversity of plant and animal life. In the late 1990s, the 410,000ha Masoala National Park was created. Today the Masoala can only be reached by boat.
Despite the high number of animal species, wildlife in the rainforest can be exceedingly difficult to spot. Nevertheless you may find the red-ruffed lemur, white-fronted brown lemur, aye-aye, greater hedgehog tenrec, fossa, fanaloka, falanouc, and a number of bird species. Look carefully for chameleons and relatively abundant Uroplatus geckos. There are also lots of insects.
Watch where you swim -- the Gulf of Antongil is notorious for sharks. During my first visit we saw several as we made our way across stormy seas.
Province: Antsiranana (Diégo-Suarez)
Area: 230,000
Protected area status: National park
Year established: 1997
General location: Northeastern
Location and Access: The Masoala Peninsula lies east of Maroansetra, a 2-3 hour boatride from the town or a 5 day hike
Climate: Lowland tropical rainforest
Average temperature: 24°C
Elevation: 0 to 1224
Precipitation: 300-400 cm
Description: The Masoala Peninsula is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. The tropical rainforests extend from the white sand beaches of the Bay of Antongil to the mountainous center 1224 meters above sea level. Within the park visitors can find ecosystems ranging from coral reefs to mid-altitude rainforests. It is estimated that the forests of the Antongil Bay watershed contain 50% of Madagascar's biodiversity, despite making up less than 2% of its land mass.
FAUNA
Birds: 90
Reptiles: 60
Frogs: 44
Mammals: 50
Lemurs: 10
Rodents: 9
Insectivores: 10
Bats: 14
Carnivores: 7
Fish: 23
Butterflies: 135
Lemur species:
FLORA:
Species: 2435
Dominant ethnic group(s): Betsimisaraka
Official web page
Additional notes:
Marine wildlife:
- 164 coral species
- 49 mollusk species
- 4 species of sea turtles
- 27 sea cucumber species
- 97 species of bony fish
- 2 species of whales
- 2 species of dolphins
- 1 species of dugong.
Masoala National park includes the 520 ha Special Reserve of Nosy Mangabe and more than 20 "multiple use zones" that allow local people to fish, collect food, harvest medicinal plants, and cut wood for construction under the supervision of park officials to ensure a that their activities do not exceed sustainable levels.
A total of 520,000 ha has some form of protection on the Masoala peninsula, a large area is considered a "zone of action" and is theoretically protected from certain activities.
Despite its protected status, Masoala park still suffers from encroachment from villages, illegal logging (especially ebony and rosewood), and hunting and poaching of lemurs and carnivores. Around 85,000 people live around the park which suffers a 1% deforestation rate according to Masoala - The Eye of the Forest A New Strategy for Rainforest Conservation in Madagascar
The forests of Masoala suffered significant damage during Cyclone Hudah which struck on April 2, 2000. According to NASA, Hudah was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Indian Ocean with winds over 230 km/hr and gusts exceeding 380 km/hr. Masoala - The Eye of the Forest A New Strategy for Rainforest Conservation in Madagascar reports that red ruffed lemur population fell 50% in some areas and trees on windward slopes were stripped bare of their leaves. However, cyclones such as Hudah may play an important role in forest dynamics on the Masoala. Studies by the Missouri Botanical Gardens suggest that hardwoods - rosewood and ebony -- may survive cyclones better than other species while some tree species on the peninsula may have reproductive strategies that actually depend on periodic cyclones to trigger mast fruiting events (following Hudah, researchers observed a mass flowering in Masoala's rainforest).
Masoala has 9 species of mangroves.
NASA satellite image of the Masoala region:
Image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. 25 Mar. 2005. "Astronaut Photography of Earth.
Image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. 25 Mar. 2005. "Astronaut Photography of Earth.
MAP/Satellite Picture
-->
Pictures on this site were taken with a Konica Minolta
|
|
|
WILDMADAGASCAR.ORG
WildMadagascar.org aims to raise interest in Madagascar, a land of cultural and biological richness
SUPPORT
You can help support wildmadagascar.org by using this link to buy from Amazon.com.
RECENT NEWS
Satellites being used to track illegal logging, rosewood trafficking in Madagascar
(01/28/2010)
Analysts in Europe and the United States are using high resolution satellite imagery to identify and track shipments of timber illegally logged from rainforest parks in Madagascar. The images could be used to help prosecute traders involved in trafficking and put pressure on companies using rosewood from Madagascar.
Coup leaders sell out Madagascar's forests, people
(01/27/2010)
Madagascar is renowned for its biological richness. Located off the eastern coast of southern Africa and slightly larger than California, the island has an eclectic collection of plants and animals, more than 80 percent of which are found nowhere else in the world. But Madagascar's biological bounty has been under siege for nearly a year in the aftermath of a political crisis which saw its president chased into exile at gunpoint; a collapse in its civil service, including its park management system; and evaporation of donor funds which provide half the government's annual budget. In the absence of governance, organized gangs ransacked the island's biological treasures, including precious hardwoods and endangered lemurs from protected rainforests, and frightened away tourists, who provide a critical economic incentive for conservation. Now, as the coup leaders take an increasingly active role in the plunder as a means to finance an upcoming election they hope will legitimize their power grab, the question becomes whether Madagascar’s once highly regarded conservation system can be restored and maintained.
Natural rafts carried Madagascar's unique wildlife to its shores
(01/20/2010)
Imagine, forty million years ago a great tropical storm rises up on the eastern coast of Africa. Hundreds of trees are blown over and swept out to sea, but one harbors something special: inside a dry hollow rests a small lemur-like primate. Currents carry this tree and its passenger hundreds of miles until one gray morning it slides onto a faraway, unknown beach. The small mammal crawls out of its hollow and waddles, hungry and thirsty, onto the beach. Within hours, amid nearby tropical forests, it has found the sustenance it needs to survive: in a place that would one day be named Madagascar.
Conservation organization, Durrell Wildlife Trust, forced to cut staff due to economic downturn
(01/19/2010)
The Durrell Wildlife Trust—which turned fifty last year—has announced that it will be cutting back 10 percent of its workforce, approximately 12-14 positions, due to an ongoing deficit caused by the economic recession.
World Bank, European governments finance illegal timber exports from Madagascar
(01/11/2010)
While Madagascar's current government has drawn sharp criticism from the international community for its failure to prevent the environmental destruction of recent months, France, Holland, Morocco, and the World Bank have all been implicated in financing illegal logging operations in Madagascar's national parks over the past year. Even as foreign governments condemned the surge in illegal logging last year, many--either directly or through institutions they support--are shareholders in the very banks that have financed the export of illegal lumber from Madagascar's SAVA region. The Bank of Africa Madagascar, for instance, is part owned by Proparco, a subsidiary of the Agence Française du Développement, as well as the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, Dutch development bank FMO, and the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur. Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais, both part-owned by the French government, have also provided loans to illegal timber traders.
Madagascar sanctions logging of national parks
(01/11/2010)
Madagascar has legalized the export of rosewood logs, possibly ushering in renewed logging of the country's embattled rainforest parks. The transitional authority led by president Andry Rajoelina, who seized power during a military coup last March, today released a decree that allows the export of rosewood logs harvested from the Indian Ocean island's national parks. The move comes despite international outcry over the destruction of Madagascar's rainforests for the rosewood trade. The acceleration of logging since the March coup has been accompanied by a rise in commercial bushmeat trafficking of endangered lemurs.
Facing cash crunch, will Madagascar's politicians sanction rainforest plunder?
(01/07/2010)
Facing a severe cash crunch in the aftermath of a March military coup which triggered donor governments to suspend aid and crippled its economy, Madagascar's top politicians are reportedly mulling the export of tens of millions of dollars' worth of precious hardwoods illegally logged from the country's rainforest parks, according to high-placed sources in the Indian Ocean island nation.
Shipment of questionable Madagascar rosewood canceled after international outcry
(12/28/2009)
A planned shipment of rosewood that had been illegally logged from Madagascar'a rainforest parks has been canceled following international outcry, report sources in Madagascar. The shipment, which would have been transported by Delmas, a French shipping company, had been scheduled for December 21st or 22nd out of the port of Vohemar.
Rainforest conservation: a year in review
(12/27/2009)
2009 may prove to be an important turning point for tropical forests. Lead by Brazil, which had the lowest extent of deforestation since at least the 1980s, global forest loss likely declined to its lowest level in more than a decade. Critical to the fall in deforestation was the global financial crisis, which dried up credit for forest-destroying activities and contributed to a crash in commodity prices, an underlying driver of deforestation.
French company CMA-CGM facilitating destruction of Madagascar's rainforests, undermining France's position in Copenhagen
(12/17/2009)
Delmas, a subsidiary of French shipping giant CMA-CGM, is facilitating the destruction of Madagascar's endangered rainforests by providing transport for timber illegally logged from the country's national parks, report multiple sources that have been investigating the illegal rosewood trade in the Indian Ocean island nation. The accusations put Delmas directly in conflict with the French government's push at climate talks in Copenhagen to establish stronger safeguards against illegal logging.
More news
GEAR
Madagascar Wildlife T-shirt
Dancing lemurs T-shirt
Madagascar Chameleons Calendar
Madagascar wildlife bag
|
|
