2007/12/01 by Grady Harper, Marc K. Steininger, Compton J. Tucker +2 · 11 citations
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #African Botany and Ecology Studies
paper · doi:10.1017/s0376892907004262
openalex publication_date 2007/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
SUMMARY Tropical deforestation is a key contributor to species extinction and climate change, yet the extent of tropical forests and their rate of destruction and degradation through fragmentation remain poorly known. Madagascar's forests are among the most biologically rich and unique in the world but, in spite of longstanding concern about their destruction, past estimates of forest cover and deforestation have varied widely. Analysis of aerial photographs ( c. 1953) and Landsat images ( c. 1973, c. 1990 and c. 2000) indicates that forest cover decreased by almost 40% from the 1950s to c. 2000, with a reduction in ‘core forest’ > 1 km from a non-forest edge of almost 80%. This forest destruction and degradation threaten thousands of species with extinction. Country-wide coverage of high-resolution validated forest cover and deforestation data enables the precise monitoring of trends in habitat extent and fragmentation critical for assessment of species' conservation status.