Geography of Madagascar

The island of Madagascar , located in the Indian Ocean at 400 km at the east of the African coasts , is the territory which occupies the République of Madagascar. The Canal of Mozambique separates it from the continent.

The island of Madagascar separated from the African Continent approximately 165 million years ago, because of the continental drift. It can be divided into five area geographical: the east coast, the solid mass Tsaratanana, high plateaus of the center, the west coast and south-west. Maximum altitudes skirt the east coast.

Stretching itself on: 1600 km of north in the south and on 600 of west in are, the island offers the most varied landscapes. In the North-East, they are only wet and luxuriant forests , where push with abundance a lillier of species of orchises, of which vanilla, but also various flowered lianas, coffee-trees, banana trees, girofliers, pepper plants and litchis. These forests offer a contrast seizing with the landscapes of the great south, which resemble the bush of Southern Africa and summarize in dry savannas and undergrowth revêches. Only spots of color - and life - to emerge from this dull monochromic ocher landscape: tombs, decorated frescos representing the trade or the circumstances of died of the late one. Between these extreme landscapes, there are the central Highlands. Of Fianarantsoa to Tananarive, they are only rice plantations in terraces , carved in the hills, and equipped with clever systems of irrigation.

Climate

The climate is tropical along the coast, moderate inside the grounds and arid in the south. The Alizé of the south-east generated by the Anticyclone of the Indian Ocean, which moves with the liking of the seasons, dominates the climatic mode of the island. Madagascar knows two seasons: one hot and wet season from November to April, then one dry season, fresher, from May to October. The climates however are very varied according to altitude and the situation compared to the dominant winds. The east coast, exposed directly with the trade winds, receives most important precipitations with 3 ' 500 mm per year. The cyclones, coming from the Mascareignes, are frequent there during the rain season. The center, isolated from the trade wind by the mountains of Andringitra, is definitely drier and, because of altitude, fresher. Precipitations with Antananarivo reach 1 ' 400 Misters during the dry season, the nights can beings very fresh but freezing is rare - it is on the other hand more frequent with higher altitudes. At this period, the sky of the plains surrounding the capital is regarded as among clearest of the world. The west coast is even drier because the trade wind lost there most of its moisture. South-east and the south are semi-desert. Toliara receives only 300 mm of precipitations per year.

Ground

Madagascar is sometimes called “the large red island” because of its grounds gorged with Latérite. The red grounds are dominating in the high plateaus of the center. A narrow band of alluvia skirts the east coast and the mouths of the rivers. In the west, one finds a mixture of clay, sand and limestone.

Fauna and flora

The scarcity and the single character of many animal species and vegetable of the island often were worth to him to be described as “world with share”. These characteristics are supposed to reflect the origins of Madagascar, isolated since several million from years from the Supercontinent Gondwana to which it was previously attached. Thus, certain plants such as the Arbre of the traveller meet in Madagascar and in South America, but not in Africa. Many typically African species, in particular the large mammals like the elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Giraffe, the Zebra and the Antelope, or the animals of prey like the Lion and the leopard, are unknown in Madagascar, just like the snakes poisonous which populate the continent. If it is certain that the majority of the indigenous species are of African or South American origin, insulation could make it possible species elsewhere extinct to survive and support the appearance of new single species it. Thus, all the indigenous terrestrial mammals - that is to say 66 species - are single in Madagascar.

Formerly, the island was covered with forests which were replaced by rice plantations, especially on the high plateaus of the center. The tropical forest is now concentrated on the mountainous sides bordering the east coast, of the Tsaratamana solid mass in north in Tolagnaro in the south. A made secondary vegetation of trees of the traveller, Rafia and baobab trees succeeded the original forest on the coasts of the east and north. The vegetation of the central plates and the west coast is mainly made up of meadows, steppes and Savane.

The tropical forest shelters a great number of single plant species. The country counts approximately 900 species of orchises. The mangos, bananas, Coconut, the Vanilla as of other tropical plants push easily along the coasts. The Eucalyptus, imported Australia, is also widespread.

Wood and the coal extracted the forests provide 80% of the national needs out of fuel. In 1990, the the World Bank initiated an environmental program aiming at intensifying the culture of the pine and the eucalyptus to satisfy the demand for combustible wood.

Natural resources

The natural resources of Madagascar are the Graphite, the Chromite, the coal, the Bauxite, the salt, the quartz, the bituminous Sable, the Mica like several semi-precious Pierres. The fishing is developed and the island has a potential for the hydraulic power.

In 2001, the cultivated grounds were estimated at 5,07%, of which 1,03% carried permanent crops. The culture on Brûlis made move back the forest, which currently covers 26% of the surface of the island.

The majority of the population saw Agriculture of subsistence, mainly of the culture of rice and breeding. The industrial sector is restricted, but tends to develop.

Environmental problems

Madagascar currently suffers from the erosion due to deforestation and the intensive pastures, of turning into a desert and the water pollution of surface. Several animal plant species and, single in the world, are in danger of disappearance. The cyclones are regularly the cause of flood in the coastal regions.

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