Madagascar is home to 3,118 tree species, making it the twelfth most species rich country in the world with respect to tree diversity. Moreover, 93 per cent of these trees are endemic to the island. However, until relatively recently there has been limited data available about the conservation status of the country’s trees. Released today, BGCI’s Red List of Trees of Madagascar provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Malagasy trees. Over 94 per cent of these assessments represented the first IUCN Red List assessment for the species

Like many islands, Madagascar is home to an incredible diversity of endemic species, but our latest 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. Almost all threatened species are assessed using Criterion B, owing to a small and restricted geographic range, occurrence in a few number of localities and experience of continuing decline. Continuing decline can affect a species in numerous ways. The primary causes of decline in Madagascar are logging and wood harvesting, agricultural expansion and increased fires.

In 2017, there were only 379 assessments for trees of Madagascar on the IUCN Red List and therefore conservation priorities for Malagasy trees could not be set. Over the past three years, over 2,400 assessments have been compiled by researchers from Missouri Botanical Garden Madagascar Program, Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre and University of Antananarivo members of the IUCN SSC Madagascar Plant Specialist Group, and other institutions across the world, in order to provide a full picture of the status of the trees of Madagascar. This also includes work conducted by GTSG Member, Laurent Gautier (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la ville de Genève) who assessed Malagasy Sapotaceae species for the report alongside revising the taxonomy of this group as part of a separate project.

Currently, only 285 (16 per cent) of threatened trees endemic to Madagascar are found in ex situ collections; therefore the majority of species have no safeguard against extinction as no specimens are available in a seedbank, botanic garden or arboretum. 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.

As well as performing an in situ and ex situ gap analysis for these species, 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 now available, Emily Beech, Tree Red List Manager, 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.”

This work was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in a project called “Assessing the Conservation Status of Madagascar’s Trees for Effective Conservation of Key Biodiversity Areas and Protected Areas” and Fondation Franklinia. As part of this project, the first priority was assessing all tree species in Madagascar’s Dry Forest. This initial report (The Red List of Dry Forest Trees of Madagascar) found that 50 per cent of species native to this habitat were threatened with extinction in the wild.

Read the Full Red List of Trees of Madagascar below.