Berenty Reserve—A Gallery Forest in Decline in Dry Southern Madagascar—Towards Forest Restoration

Vanessa Winchester, Kate Hardwick, Hantanarina Rasamimanana, Sahoby M. Raharison, Anne Mertl-Millhollen, Holger Gärtner and Janet McCrae
Additional contact information
Vanessa Winchester: School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
Kate Hardwick: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, Wakehurst, Ardingly, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK
Hantanarina Rasamimanana: Ecole Normale Supérieur, University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
Sahoby M. Raharison: Lycée Ambohimalaza Miray, Cisco Antananarivo, Avaradrano, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
Anne Mertl-Millhollen: Department of Anthropology, 128 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1218, USA
Holger Gärtner: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Janet McCrae: 20 Aston Street, Oxford, OX4 1EP, UK

Land, 2018, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Berenty Reserve, a fully protected gallery forest beside the Mandrare River is renowned for its lemurs, but the continuous canopy of the main forest is shrinking, fragmenting and degrading. The aim of this study, before any restoration can be considered, is to investigate why canopy-cover is declining and define the forest’s vegetation status and composition. Our study includes analysis of tamarind age (the dominant species) and regeneration, forest extent, climate and soil. Measurement of trunk circumference and annual rings indicated a median age of 190 years, near the accepted maximum for tamarinds. There is no regeneration of tamarind seedlings under the canopy and an invasive vine, Cissus quadrangularis suffocates any regeneration on the forest margins. A vegetation survey, based on fifteen transects, broadly characterized three forest areas: continuous canopy near the river, transitional canopy with fewer tall trees, and degraded dryland; the survey also provided a list of the 18 most common tree species. Ring counts of flood-damaged roots combined with measurement to the riverbank show that erosion rates, up to 19.5 cm/year, are not an immediate threat to forest extent. The highly variable climate shows no trend and analysis of forest soil indicates compatibility with plant growth.

Keywords: degrading; tamarind age; regeneration; invasive vine; vegetation survey; erosion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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