Tsingy De Bemaraha, Melaky Region, Madagascar

Another location is the Madagascar dry deciduous forests represent a tropical dry forest ecoregion generally situated in the western part of Madagascar. The area has high numbers of endemic plant and animal species but has suffered large-scale clearance for agriculture. This clearance is ongoing and therefore the WWF has designated these forests as a Global 200 ecoregion, one of the world’s most crucial regions for conservation. The Manambolomaty Lake area in particular is home to many species of fish and birds. The area is also home to distinctive limestone karst formations known as tsingy including the World Heritage Site of Bemaraha.
Anjajavy Forest is an element of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests situated on the Indian Ocean of northwest Madagascar. The Anjajavy Forest surrounds the village of Anjajavy and provides a habitat for many rare and endangered species. It covers roughly fifty square kilometres, and occupies a continuous portion of the peninsula upon which Anjajavy village lies. The peninsula is bounded by Majajamba Bay to the south and Narinda Bay to the north. Anjajavy Forest has much in common with other dry deciduous forests rising out of the tsingy limestone formations of western Madagascar. It is due to the presence of expansive tsingy outcrops as well as the remoteness of this part of Madagascar from the population center of the country at Antananarivo that the forest here has been less disturbed than many other forests in the country. For example, the central highland plateau, readily accessible from the population center, has been decimated by decades of slash-and-burn farming by indigenous peoples, leading to massive desertification and erosion. The incidence of species endemism in the western dry forests is very high, including ten of the fourteen known lemur genera, five of the eight tenrec genera and 16 of the 17 Chiroptera genera of Madagascar represented. There are a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and arthropods present within the Anjajavy Forest.