Country

Madagascar: 7 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Every one of Madagascar's seven ecoregions is unique to the island, a legacy of long isolation. The eastern escarpment carries the Madagascar humid forests, the central highlands the subhumid forests and, on the highest ground, the small ericoid thickets; the west holds the dry deciduous forests; and the south and southwest turn to the succulent woodlands and spiny thickets, xeric systems found nowhere else on Earth. Mangroves line the western coast. The gradient from wet east to arid southwest is the island's planting logic: rainfall drops steadily as you cross it, and the flora shifts from rainforest to drought-shaped succulents. Note that six of the seven ecoregions are ranked Nature Imperiled, so remnant native vegetation here is both extraordinary and scarce.