Protected areas as last bulwark against deforestation in Madagascar

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H. Andry Rasamuel, Serge C. Rafanoharana and Lucienne Wilmé, Africa, World Resources Institute, Antananarivo, Madagascar, Ollier Duranton Andrianambinina, Madagascar National Parks, Antananarivo, Madagascar, Patrick O. Waeber, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, Kevin Faragher and Laura Vary, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, Joerg U. Ganzhorn, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Background/Question/Methods
A majority of Madagascar’s endemic plants and animals are encountered in forests, which encompass humid and dry tropical forests. Since the 19th century, deforestation poses a real threat to terrestrial biodiversity. In response, Madagascar was one of the first countries establishing protected areas PAs since 1927 and has since been expanding the network to encompass over 110 terrestrial PAs. Since the 1950s, Madagascar has lost almost half of its forests.
Are protected areas effectively protecting forests?
We estimated forest cover according to Vieilledent et al. 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.008) within the PA boundaries and outside for the years 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017. The buffers considered inside PAs are Buffer 1 (0–500m), Buffer 2 (0.5–2.5km), Buffer 3 (2.5–5km), Buffer 4 (5–10km), and core areas. The same buffers have been calculated for the area outside the PA boundaries. All PA data and legal text have been obtained from Madagascar National Parks.
Results/Conclusions
The PAs covered an area of some 1200 kha in 1990; in 2000, the area has been increased to 1831 kha. Since 2015, the PAs network has increased by more than a factor 5 totaling 11,377 kha to date. Forest cover is increasing from the borders towards the core. The highest deforestation pressure exists within PAs Buffer 1, amounting to some 20% loss between 1990 and 2017. The forest loss in Buffer 1 outside PAs (similar total area) was bigger than 30%. Forest cover within PAs is highest between Buffers 2–4, ranging from 60% to 66% in 1990, 66% to 75% in 2000, and 60 to 63% in 2015; in comparison for the 0–500m, the forest cover in 2015 accounts for 48%. Forest cover outside PAs is decreasing with increasing distance from the PAs borders; e.g., in 2017: Buffer 1 is 30%, Buffer 2 is 22%, Buffer 3 is at 17%, and Buffer 4 accounts for 12%.
Highest pressure occurs in PAs within a distance of 500m representing some 15% of the total protected areas. Forest loss of 20% during 1990–2017 took place within Buffer 1 inside the PAs. Given the high pressure on the forests in this first buffer inside the protected areas, the buffers just outside—which still hold some forests—are becoming increasingly important to attenuate the pressure within the protected areas.