Missouri Botanical Garden

            The island nation of Madagascar is one of the most important places on Earth for biodiversity conservation. Situated in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar is home to a unique, diverse, and extremely threatened flora and fauna that have captured the attention of the international conservation community and fascinated biologists worldwide.
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With 13-14,000 native plant species, more than 90% of which are found only on this remarkable island, the Malagasy flora stands out as a global priority for research and conservation. Over the last three decades, a concerted effort has been made to prevent the massive extinction that would surely result from continuing habitat loss. However, despite many encouraging results, the battle to ensure the long-term survival of Madagascar’s plants and animals and the ecosystems in which they live is still far from over and much remains to be done.

            The Missouri Botanical Garden has been active in Madagascar for nearly 47 years and has had a continuous in-country presence since 1983. The past two decades have, however, seen a remarkable expansion in both the scope of our activities and the size of our local staff as we have increasingly taken a proactive role in conservation.
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The MBG-Madagascar Research and Conservation Program now numbers more than 60 full-time Malagasy staff members working throughout the country, currently assisted by an expatriate technical advisor, and supported and aided by six staff members based in St. Louis and Paris. In addition to maintaining our traditional focus on documenting the diversity of Malagasy plants through inventory, taxonomic revision, and information dissemination, MBG-Madagascar now directly oversees conservation activities related to the management of 13 new protected areas