The recovery of the angonoka ( Geochelone yniphora ) — an integrated approach to species conservation

No other country in the world has generated as much recent interest from conservation and development agencies as Madagascar. The island has few equals in terms of a people with a unique culture and a rich, diverse bio-resource on the one hand and extreme poverty and rapid environmental destruction on the other. Among the flora, endemism at the species level may be as high as 86%, and among the fauna, several groups rise to nearly 100%, e.g. mammals (except bats), reptiles and amphibians (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1987). But there is probably less than a fifth of the native woody plant cover remaining (Harcourt and Thorn-back, 1990), severe soil degradation is evident on three-quarters of the land surface (Le Bourdiec, 1972) and annual human population growth is higher than 3% (Kent and Haub, 1989).