The Situation of
the Environment
in Madagascar

Natural environment

• The resources, among which:
  1. Water resources : whose distribution and potentiality are not homogeneous through the island, but which manage overall to meet the needs, as well in quantity as in quality;
  2. Vegetation : which is very varied according to the areas and the situation;
  3. Fauna and flora : which have high levels of diversity and endemicity;
  4. Subsoil resources.

• Some physical aspects of the environment, such as:
  1. The state of soils,
  2. The climatic situation.

Human environment

• The human activities have more or less important impacts on the environment; moreover, the social and economic living conditions of the population have rather close bonds with the management of the surroundings in which this population evolves/moves.

• Madagascar being a country with agricultural vocation, like the majority of the developing countries agriculture constitutes one of the dominant activities. Regarding the industry,
  1. the agro-alimentary sector represents half of the production.
  2. The sector of transport, which is also essential to the economic development, can have considerable impacts on the environment.
  3. It is also necessary to look at the sector of energy production, since many environmental problems are caused by the insufficiency of the energy provisioning.

  Last, it is necessary to announce that the characteristics of the Malagasy natural environment (fauna and flora, natural site) should constitute a factor which would support the development of the tourism.

• In addition, it is certain that a better management of the environment is conditioned by the behavior of the population and the various actors implied by the question. However, the adoption of a favorable attitude towards the environment depends not only on the awarness of the problem importance problems, but more especially on the economic and social living conditions as of the context in which evolves/moves the various development operators.

• The socio-economical aspects are characterized by:
  1. A strong growth of the population compared to the resources and the production;
  2. A degradation of the standard of living and social conditions (incomes, employment, health, education,...)
  3. A bad settlement distribution, of which more half is concentrated on a little more than the tenth of the total surface.

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