Madagascar
Future Plans
Collections (2006 onwards)
Our immediate plan is to develop our collection strategy, protocols and data standards so that all RBG Kew work in Madagascar contributes to a single database designed for conservation orientated output, such as checklists, maps and species conservation assessments. The database will be based on over 100,000 historical records that are currently divided between many smaller research databases. We aim to contribute at least 2,000 fully identified herbarium specimens each year to the collections of RBG Kew and our Malagasy partners and other collaborators. The emphasis will be on developing our in-country expertise for naming, as well as filling gaps in the herbarium coverage at RBG Kew. Poorly represented dryland species will be supplemented by new herbarium specimens grown from MSBP seed, when feasible. We are providing technical assistance to Antsokay Arboretum to establish a local herbarium in the dryland SW and we will continue providing duplicates of RBG Kew collections to the national herbarium at PBZT and other institutions with which we have agreements.
We will continue to develop collections for ex situ conservation and education. The MSB will bank the seeds of at least 100 dryland species per year until the end of 2009, and 85% of these will be endemic. The MSB Enhancement species targeting team will produce collection guides to target species for our partner SNGF to focus the collecting. RBG Kew is also developing a partnership with Antsokay Arboretum near Toliara, which has a collection of over 900 dryland species, which we plan to backup in the seed collections at SNGF and the MSB. We will continue to collaborate with PBZT to enhance their living collections, concentrating on palms and orchids, and building on the work of the Threatened Plants Project. We will also continue to develop the living collection of Madagascan plants at RBG Kew.
Baseline Plant Diversity Research (2006 onwards)
Baseline plant diversity research has been the foundation and strength of our programme in Madagascar for many years and we will continue our inventory of the flora with specialist focus on selected groups. Our taxonomists have already contributed hefty treatments covering legumes, palms and orchids. These are being followed-up with field guides and a second edition of Orchids of Madagascar. A checklist to the Rubiaceae is in preparation and we will continue regional revisions of genera in Dioscoreaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, Orchidaceae, Palmae and Rubiaceae, as well as publication of new species and genera across the flora.
Several checklists are planned for small geographical areas and vegetation types, including the spiny vegetation of the south west. However, our main objective is to collaborate with PBZT, MBG and Paris herbaria to complete a comprehensive inventory of the flora of Madagscar.
Comparative Plant Biology (2006 onwards)
The new genus Radcliffea (Euphorbiaceae) will be described after confirming its genetic and morphological distinctiveness, and will be placed in the family tree using methods that include molecular phylogenetics and palynology. Research is planned on the phylogenetic systematics of the ‘edible’ yam clade in Dioscorea, a significant subclade of which is the endemic lineage from Madagascar.
Sustainable Utilisation of Plant Resources (2006 onwards)
Currently only a very small proportion of the wild food species growing in Madagascar are used sustainably to provide income to communities. As part of our interests in supporting the Millennium Development Goals to alleviate poverty and support the health of poorer communities we plan to obtain financial support to assess and develop the sustainable utilization and/or domestication of wild food plants in rural areas.
In the southern littoral forest areas we are advising on a domestication programme of forest species for the house plant market. Our partner QIT Minéraux de Madagascar (QMM) hopes to raise local incomes and reduce exploitation of the few remaining patches of forest, which it is actively conserving. We will also continue the work, started by the Threatened Plants Project, on propagating and marketing threatened orchid species through PBZT to take pressure off wild populations, and we are participating in a new project with FOFIFA on crop wild relatives, which aims to identify key areas and priority species for conservation.
Conservation and Environmental Monitoring (2006 onwards)
Our priority is to become proactive in the Durban Vision process, providing expert advice on key areas for plant conservation and species conservation assessments. We have provided a GIS service for the botanical community in Madagascar for many years and this is culminating in the publication of the Vegetation Map of Madagascar in 2007. We are strengthening our local GIS capacity and will maintain and refine the vegetation map with new data. This will combine with enhanced species data across the flora, including habit, habitat, distribution, rarity and conservation status, to enable us to map plant diversity and identify conservation priorities. We will continue to apply and refine techniques for calculating IUCN ratings and extinction risk models.
The strength of our local team is critical to our conservation work and we aim to add at least two new local staff and build team expertise in five key areas: conservation management, the dryland and humid forest floras, GIS and systematics. We are developing the capacity and tools for rapid inventories and conservation assessments, building on our extensive collection data, GIS capacity and the botanical knowledge of our staff. We are widening this capacity through collaboration, and one area we seek to propagate is expertise in conservation genetics. The Threatened Plants Project (TPP) has provided a framework for the ex situ conservation of critically endangered species, in order to reduce collection pressure on wild populations, provide insurance against extinction and facilitate the re-establishment of species and populations in the wild. We aim to build on the TPP with smaller projects focusing on selected groups, as well as integrating ex situ conservation into all future projects where possible.
Identification is a problem for any inventory work in Madagascar as the flora is large, there are few specialists, the herbarium representation is patchy, many groups need revising and the literature is sparse or out of date. We aim to begin to solve this with a series of conservation orientated identification tools, following on from the palm and orchid field guides that will be in press in 2006-07. The format will be similar to the Field Guide to the Rattans of Lao PDR by Tom Evans et al (RBG Kew, 2001) and will cover small and difficult groups. Production will be centred at our local Madagascan office, and we will make full use of recent advances in digital photography and printing. Solofo Rakotoarisoa is producing the Field Guide to the Aloes of Madagascar as a pilot, and we are also working with QMM and MBG to produce the Field Guide to the Littoral Forest Tree Species of Southern Madagascar.