Biodiversity and Endemism

Biodiversity and endemism, a small clarification is required as the main reasons that world travelers want to visit Madagascar to discover its unique flora and fauna.

Biodiversity reveals the natural diversity of the living organisms in the world. Madagascar is home to 2percent of the global diversity.
This is a huge bank of genes. That gives Madagascar the status of “Hotspot” among other 25 regions, mainly located in the tropical belt.

Endemism means the rate of the natural presence of biological group of animals or plants, exclusively in a defined territory – and found nowhere else in the planet.80% of the flora and fauna of Madagascar is endemic to the Island.

The rate of endemism is also one of the indicators for elements
assessment of biodiversity.

The very high biodiversity of Madagascar is mainly due to the geographical features of the island that range from the most arid to the rainforest. Separated from Africa mainland about 100 million years ago, the isolation of the present “primitive” life forms at the time and the absence of large predators have been
contributing to an evolution of species through a process called speciation.
It is also important to mention that Madagascar had been inhabited
only for about 1300 years.

Biodiversity and endemism, a small clarification is required as the main reasons that world travelers want to visit Madagascar to discover its unique flora and fauna. Biodiversity reveals the natural diversity of the living organisms in the world. Madagascar is home to 2percent of the global diversity. This is a huge bank of genes. That…