Two-thirds of Madagascar’s endemic tree species are threatened with extinction.

As well as the release of the State of the World’s Trees report, the Global Tree Assessment initiative released two more red list publications in 2021. These were the Red List of Trees of Madagascar and the Red List of Bornean Endemic Dipterocarps. The former was the outcome of three years of red listing effort, completed by researchers from the Missouri Botanical Garden Madagascar Program, Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre, University of Antananarivo, and members of the IUCN SSC Madagascar Plant Specialist and Global Trees Specialist Groups.

The report documents the conservation status of the 3,118 trees native to Madagascar, of which 93% are endemic to the island, making it one of the most specious countries in terms of endemic trees across the world. The Red List of Trees of Madagascar provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Malagasy trees. Prior to 2017, only 379 assessments for trees were available on the IUCN Red List and therefore conservation priorities could not be set for the country’s tree flora.

This is an essential activity as the report reveals 63 per cent of Madagascar’s endemic tree species are threatened with extinction. A shocking 320 native tree species are assessed as Critically Endangered, of which 59 species are tagged as ‘Critically Endangered possibly extinct in the wild’, the highest threatened category before Extinct. Of the other threatened groups, 915 native tree species are assessed as Endangered and 605 are assessed as Vulnerable. It is these species that can now be targeted for effective conservation action.

The Red List of Trees of Madagascar Report provided a unique opportunity to identify the most threatened habitat for trees (lowland rainforest) and the distribution of threatened trees. The latter found that the states of SAVA, DIANA, Analanjirofo, and Anosy have the highest proportion of tree species and are sites in particular need of tree conservation effort. With information like this, Emily Beech, Tree Red List Manager at Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) says,

‘…The Red List of Trees of Madagascar aims to both provide information to prioritise conservation efforts and inspire action to improve the conservation status of those trees most at risk of extinction, to maintain this unique diversity for years to come.’

As well as the production of red list assessments, an in situ and ex situ survey was also carried out for the Malagasy tree flora. It found that only 285 (16 per cent) of threatened trees endemic to Madagascar are in ex situ collections; therefore the majority of species have no safeguard in place against extinction. More positively, 83 per cent of threatened endemic tree species are recorded in at least one protected area. This is not surprising as protected areas represent where much of the remaining natural vegetation is. However, as these species remain threatened in protected sites, more action needs to be taken to save the species in the wild. These efforts need to be particularly focused on the 307 threatened species endemic to Madagascar that occur entirely outside of the protected area network.