Madagascar Geography
Madagascar is the largest island on the African continent, from which it is separated by the Mozambique Channel. It is completely surrounded by the Indian Ocean.
Madagascar originated from the supercontinent Gondwana. Its eastern shoreline was formed when Africa broke away from Gondwana around 165 million years ago. Later, Madagascar separated from the Indian subcontinent 65 million years ago.
This long isolation is the cause of the existence on this island of a multitude of unique species in the world, which has sometimes been called "a world apart".
Madagascar is the largest island on the African continent, from which it is separated by the Mozambique Channel. It is completely surrounded by the Indian Ocean.
Madagascar originated from the supercontinent Gondwana. Its eastern shoreline was formed when Africa broke away from Gondwana around 165 million years ago. Later, Madagascar separated from the Indian subcontinent 65 million years ago. This long isolation is the cause of the existence on this island of a multitude of unique species in the world, which has sometimes been called "a world apart".
Geographic Regions
Madagascar can be divided into five main geographic areas: the eastern coast, the Tsaratanana massif, the central highlands, the western coast, and the southwest. The highest elevations are parallel to the eastern coast.
East Coast
The eastern coast consists of a narrow strip of lowlands one kilometer wide, formed by alluvial sedimentation soils and an intermediate zone composed of escarpments that alternate with ravines bordering a steep slope of 500 m that gives access to the lands tall. The coastal region stretches from north to south from Antongil Bay, south to the Masoala Peninsula, where the Masoala National Park is located. The coastline is straight, except for one bay, and has fewer natural harbors than the west of the island.
In the central part of the eastern coast is the Palanganes channel, built in 1896 for commercial purposes transporting sand to the interior of the island, it is about 700 km long and connects Farafangana, to the north, with Tamatave, to the south, where it ends. It runs parallel to the coast and was built to avoid reefs on the shark-infested cyclone coast.
Tsaratanana Massif
The Tsaratanana massif is located in northern Madagascar, with a maximum elevation of 2,880 m on Mount Maromokotro. At the northern end is the Amber Mountain (Ambohitra), of volcanic origin, where the Amber Mountain National Park is located. The coast is very irregular. The most important city is Antsiranana (formerly Diego Suárez), sheltered in a bay formed by a peninsula that projects to the north and in which is the population of Andranovondronina (2,400 inhabitants). To the west is the island of Nosy Be. The entire far north is rich in unique endemisms.
Central Highlands of Madagascar
The island's interior highlands form a high plateau ranging from 800 to 1,800 m with varied topography: rolling, eroded hills, massive granite outcrops, extinct volcanoes, eroded peneplains, and floodplains and wetlands converted to rice paddies. They stretch between the Tsaratanana massif, in the north, and the Ivakoany massif, to the south. Another characteristic is the abrupt descent towards the eastern coast and a softer one towards the western coast. It includes the Anjafy plateau, with an average elevation of 960 m, the Itasy volcanic formations, and the Ankaratra massif, an extinct volcano 2,642 m high. The Isalo Roiniform massif is in the southwest, between the highlands and the western coast.
Antananarivo, the capital, is located in the northern portion of the central highlands, at an altitude of 1,276 m. To the east of the capital, a tectonic valley extends from north to south that includes Lake Alaotra, with a length of 40 m, at an altitude of 761 m, bordered by a cliff 700 m to the west and another 490 m to the east.. It is a subsidence zone that suffers frequent earthquakes.
West Coast
The west coast, made up of sedimentary formations, is more rugged than the east and offers many ports safe from cyclones, such as the port of Mahajanga. hence, it has always attracted explorers, merchants and pirates, as a bridge with the continent. But the area is far from exploiting its full potential. the alluvial plains between Mahajanga and Toliara, very fertile, are sparsely inhabited and in many places the mangrove of Madagascar, little explored, dominates. There are two oil fields in the central zone, somewhat separated from the coast: Tsimiroro and Bemolanga.
Southwest
The southwest is bordered on the east by the Ivakoany massif and on the north by the Isalo massif. It includes two regions: the Mahafaly Plateau and the Tandroy-occupied desert region.
Floors
Madagascar has been called the Great Red Island because of the predominance of lateritic soils. Laterite predominates in the central highlands, although there are much richer soils in the volcanic zones: Itasy, Ankaratra and Tsaratanana, in the north. To the east lies a narrow zone of alluvial soils and at the mouths of the largest rivers on the western coast. In the west, there are clays, sands and limestones, and in the south, a shallow layer of laterite and limestone. Deforestation has caused extensive erosion in many places on the island.
Climate
The climate is tropical along the coast, temperate in the interior, and arid in the south. The weather is dominated by the trade winds that originate in the Indian Ocean anticyclone. Madagascar has two seasons, a hot and humid one from November to April, and a dry and cold one from May to October. there is great variation, however, depending on altitude and position relative to the prevailing winds.
The eastern coast has an equatorial climate as it is directly exposed to the trade winds, and rainfall reaches 4,000 mm in well-situated highlands. The climate here is hot and humid, prey to tropical fevers and subject to destructive cyclones that appear during the rainy season from the Mascarene Islands. In Toamasina, on the east coast, 3,370 mm falls, with 255 days of precipitation and a maximum in January of more than 400 mm and a minimum in September of 120 mm, with more than 20 rainy days each month. Temperatures range from 17.oC minimum between July and September, and 30. oC maximum between January and March
The central highlands receive much less rain and are drier and cooler, but thunderstorms are normal in the rainy season. Antananarivo, in the center, receives 1400 mm of rain between November and April, with 136 rainy days on average. In the dry season it is sunny, with cold in the mornings, about 10.oC, and some frost in high areas. In the dry season it does not exceed 21.oC, but in the wet season it reaches 28.oC at noon.
It only snows in the upper areas of the Ankaratra massif.
The west coast is drier, as the winds have lost moisture as they traverse the island. The southwest and the southern tip are semi-desert. In Toliara, 330-420 mm fall annually. Temperatures range between 14-27.oC in July and 23-32.oC for January and February.
Occasionally, major cyclones appear. The worst occurred in 1994, Cyclone Geralda, which caused extensive damage and killed dozens of people.
On the island of Nosy Be, about 2,100-2,200 mm fall annually in 100 days of rain, with maximums that exceed 400 mm in January and February, and minimums of 40 mm between July and September. It is not affected by the cool winds from the Indian Ocean, so it is hot all year round, between 18-29.o C for dry months and 23-31.oC for months wet.
Ecology
WWF divides the island of Madagascar into seven ecoregions:
- Subhumid Jungle of Madagascar, downtown
- Forest of lowlands of Madagascar, east
- Dry Jungle of Madagascar, northwest
- Brezal de Madagascar, at higher summits
- Madagascar's thorn bush in the south
- Succulent Monte de Madagascar, Southwest
- Mangrove Madagascar, in several enclaves on the west coast.
All of them are included in the Global 200 list, grouped into
- Madagascar Jungle and Brezal (Madagascar sub-humid jungle, Madagascar lowland forest and Madagascar brezal)
- Dry Jungle of Madagascar
- Matorral of Madagascar (spine bush of Madagascar and succulent mountain of Madagascar)
- Madagascar Mangrove.
Fauna and flora
Madagascar has one of the most varied and special faunas in the world with many endemic animals such as lemurs, radiated tortoise, angonoka tortoise, flat-tailed tortoise and spider tortoise. It has been described as a world apart due to the rarity of its species, which could be due to the fact that the island was part of Gondwana and has remained isolated ever since.
Due to isolation, species have evolved independently of their ancestors. For example, on the island there is a kind of orchid as in other parts of the world, but there is a difference, the species of butterfly in charge of eating the nectar and thus ensuring the reproduction of that plant is not present on the island of Madagascar.. How did the orchid survive? Some scientists asked themselves that question and began to investigate. His final conclusion was that the orchid had adapted its external structure to a very common bird on the island, making the tube shorter since the bird's beak was not as long as a butterfly's trunk. In this way, this orchid evolved into a new branch of orchids within the family to which it belonged. In terms of amphibians, this population is made up almost entirely of frogs; 99% of the 373 species are endemic, including the critically endangered Mantella cowanii frog found only in the central highlands.
In Madagascar there are no large African mammals, nor are there poisonous snakes. The island was once completely covered in forest, but slash-and-burn to expand cultivation has denuded much of the highlands. The tropical rain forest is preserved in the high hills of the north-south axis that borders the eastern coast, from the Tsaratanana massif to Tolagnaro. To the east also, and in the north, there is a secondary forest made up of the traveler's tree, Raphia palms and baobabs. In the highlands and the western coast, steppe or savanna predominates, with grasslands covering areas where lateritic soil has not been exposed. In the southwest, the vegetation has adapted to semi-desert conditions.
The original humid forest contains a large number of endemic species, for example some 900 species of orchids. Bananas, mangoes, coconut palms, and vanilla (Madagascar produces 80 percent of the world's vanilla) grow along the coast, as well as other tropical species. The eucalyptus, brought from Australia, is spreading.
Wood and charcoal are still the fuel for 80 percent of homes. For this reason, the loss of forests is constant. Periodic plans to reforest the country have been launched for many years. In Madagascar there are some 200,000 species of plants and animals unique to the world, but 90 percent of the original forest has been destroyed. Not only are pines and eucalyptus planted in the mountains, but the mangroves are also reforested with deciduous species.
Protected areas of Madagascar
In Madagascar, according to the IUCN, in 2021, there were 171 protected areas, occupying an area of 44,521 km², 7.49% of the country's surface, in addition to 11,018 km² of marine areas, 0.91% of the 1,205,825 km² that belong to Madagascar. Of these, 71 are national parks, 1 is a nature park (Makira, 7,224 km²), 1 is a marine protected area (Soariake, 450 km²), 2 are strict nature reserves, 21 are special reserves, 27 are locally managed marine areas, 1 is a game reserve, 2 are natural resource reserves and 5 are new protected areas.
As international designations, 2 sites are listed as World Heritage Sites, 19 are Ramsar Sites and 3 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.
The Ramsar organization for the protection of birds has cataloged 21 Ramsar sites in Madagascar considered wetlands of international importance, covering an area of 21,479 km². On the other hand, according to BirdLife International, in Madagascar there are 84 IBA areas (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas), of which 17 are in danger. In total, they cover an area of 5,840,853 ha. There are also 7 EBAs (Endemic Bird Areas).
National Parks
- National Park of the Amber Mountain, 182 km2
- Andohahela National Park
- Baobabs Avenue National Park
- Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, 155 km2
- Mananara-Norte National Park, 230 km2
- Ranomafana National Park, 416 km2
- Zahamena National Park, 649 km2
- Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park, 363 km2
- Tsingy National Park of Bemaraha, 723 km2
- Andohahela National Park, 760 km2
- South Midongy National Park, 1922 km2
- Baly Bay National Park, 571 km2
- Kirindy Mitea National Park, 722 km2
- Masoala National Park, 2,400 km2
- Marojejy National Park, 555 km2
- Andringitra National Park, 312 km2
- Isalo National Park, 815 km2
- Ankarafantsika National Park, 1,350 km2
- National Park of the Tsingy of Namoroka, 222 km2
- Tsimanampetsotsa National Park, 456 km2
Population and ethnic groups of Madagascar
In 2021, Madagascar had around 28,000,000 inhabitants. The country has a density of 48 inhabitants/km². Life expectancy is 68.21 years, with an infant mortality of 23 children per 1,000 births and 34.1 before the age of 5. The fertility rate is 4.1 children per woman, with an annual population growth of 2.68% and an average age of 19.6 years. It is expected that 50 million inhabitants will be reached between 2045 and 2050. The urban population in 2020 was 10,670,000 people, 38.5% of the population, with only one city with more than 1 million inhabitants, Antananarivo, with 1.4 million, followed by Toamasina, with 206,373. According to United Nations data, 43.41% of the population of Madagascar is malnourished, some 11.4 million people.
Ethnicities
More than nine-tenths of the people of Madagascar are Malagasy, an Austronesian people who speak one of the Austronesian languages. Traditionally, the Malagasy were divided into two groups: the inhabitants of the highlands, and those of the coast, but today, this division has lost value and there are about 20 different ethnic groups. The dominant group would be the Merina (24%), scattered throughout the island, but especially in the highlands (merina means high town). They are followed by the Betsimisaraka (the inseparable crowd) (13.4%), who live in the east, and the Betsileo (the invincible crowd) (11.3%), who live on the plateau around Fianarantsoa. The other ethnic groups would be the Tsimihety (7%), the Sakalava (5.9%), the Antandroy, the Tanala, the Antaimoro, the Bara, the Antankarana, the Antambahoaka, the Antefasy, the Antesaka, the Bezanozanos, the Komoro, the Sihanaka, the Zafimaniry, the Antanosy, the Mahafaly and the Vezo (a subgroup of which is the Sarodran), as well as the Asians.
The main language is the Malagasy language, which is written in the Latin alphabet and has many local variations.