Some of the world’s rarest animals are in danger.
Angelica Crottini
Madagascar is a marvel of biodiversity. The large island is home to a tremendous number of plants and animals that don’t exist anywhere else.
82 percent of Madagascar’s plants and 90 percent of the island’s vertebrates aren’t found anywhere else on Earth. Of those plants, 1,916 are used by humans, and 1,596 are endemic to Madagascar.
Angelica Crottini
The authors of the new study determined that around 75 percent of Madagascar’s fungi are endemic, but data on fungal diversity is lacking. Madagascar’s insects are even less understood.
Madagascar has safeguards in place, with 10 percent of its land designated as protected areas. Though that’s a small portion of the island overall, 79.6 percent of threatened plants and 97.7 percent of threatened vertebrates are present in these areas.
Using techniques including machine learning, the researchers predicted species’ extinction risks and their biggest threats. They found overexploitation and unsustainable farming were the biggest risks.
The researchers predict that improving existing protected areas will be more effective than creating new ones, and improved monitoring of species will be key to their protection.
They also say the root causes of biodiversity loss must be addressed. Poverty and food insecurity in nearby communities are major causes of overexploitation, so any conservation strategy must take them into account.
Angelica Crottini
Researchers point to recent efforts to record more of Madagascar’s animal species as a positive development. Cataloging endemic species is a necessary first step toward conservation, but the road to actually protecting them is far longer.
Tobias Andermann
The new research provides the best look yet at Madagascar’s incredible biodiversity and points the way toward preserving it for the future.