Madagascar
Introduction
The Madagascar Science Team is a multi-disciplinary collaboration of scientists and horticulturists drawn from all departments at RBG Kew and our office in Madagascar. Our common goal is the better understanding and conservation of Madagascar’s unique and highly diverse flora. The team’s strength is founded on exhaustive taxonomic research and expertise in some of the most important plant groups of the Madagascan flora, including Euphorbiaceae, legumes, orchids, palms, Rubiaceae and yams. As well as publishing checklists, revisions, field guides and numerous new species, we are committed to developing taxonomic research in Madagascar and have trained or are training eight DEA (MSc) and four PhD students.
Over the last few years the team has drawn on RBG Kew’s expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), horticulture and ex situ conservation to add three flagship conservation projects to the Madagascar programme. The Threatened Plants Project has developed local capacity for ex situ conservation focusing on the most critically endangered plant species. It aims to reduce collection pressure on wild populations, provide insurance against extinctions and facilitate the re-establishment of species and populations in the wild. The project has built two nurseries, a greenhouse, an orchid shade house for public display and interpretation, developed a micro-propagation unit and is currently working on re-introductions of several species that are on the brink of extinction in the wild. The Millennium Seed Bank project in Madagascar aims to collect and preserve the seeds of 1,000 dryland species by 2010. So far it has banked over 5 million seeds of over 850 species, including many that are known from only a few small and vulnerable populations. Lastly, the Madagascar Vegetation Map project is producing an accurate vegetation atlas based on the latest satellite image data and extensive ground surveys. This will be an invaluable tool for researchers, resource managers, conservation organisations and the Government of Madagascar for many years to come and it will be updated regularly through an innovative website.
RBG Kew has a team of six in Madagascar, including three botanists and three support staff. We have recently acquired a 4x4 vehicle, which is in constant field use, and installed a small computer network in RBG Kew's local office. We are developing the capacity and tools for rapid inventories and conservation assessments, which will include a database covering the complete flora with preliminary IUCN conservation assessments and extinction risk probabilities for selected species, as well as identification guides to difficult plant groups. The driving force behind our work in Madagascar is conservation, and with our unique range of expertise we are in a strong position to help Madagascar meet its targets under the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation by 2010.