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CEPF Madagascar Vegetation Mapping

Field collecting for the project using hand held GIS. Pictures Susana Baena (Kew) and Karyn Tabor (CI-CABS)

The CEPF Madagascar Vegetation Mapping project is a three year project (2003-2006), funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and managed jointly by RBG Kew, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Conservation International’s Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. The project is innovative in a number of ways. It employs state of the art remote sensing technology and methodologies to delimit Madagascar’s vegetation. It represents an all-inclusive collaboration between specialists from a wide range of botanical and conservation institutions, which will result in the most thoroughly ground-truthed vegetation map ever compiled for Madagascar. Finally, through a series of workshops, it incorporates detailed consultations with the conservation community to ensure that the final products are of maximum relevance and utility to conservation planners and natural resource managers.

Over the next few years the Government of Madagascar aims to increase protected areas from a total of 1.7 million to 6 million hectares. The new vegetation map will make a significant contribution to this ‘Durban Vision Process’, providing accurate baseline data on the current extent of remaining primary vegetation. The data and vegetation map will be freely available to all conservation organisations, Government departments, academic institutions and other stakeholders so that they have the best information on which to assess, monitor and manage biological diversity both within and outside the existing protected areas.

The project outputs are:

·         a printed vegetation map in the form of a 64 page road atlas (due Summer 2007)

·         an interactive website, with regularly updated electronic maps for download and forms for users to upload new information and survey data

·         delivery of all Landsat and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) products, all co-registered, to Madagascan conservation-based collaborators, researchers and other stakeholders

·         a revised vegetation classification scheme for Madagascar, developed, published and made accessible to non-specialists through the Madagascar Biodiversity Network and through the Project website

·         Malagasy personnel trained in the use of remote sensing and GIS for conservation purposes

·         a network of botanists, conservationists and other stakeholders working in collaboration throughout Madagascar

Please see our website (http://www.madagascar-vegetation.org/) for more information.

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