University of Helsinki - Research news

A conservation model for Madagascar

Zonation program developed at the University of Helsinki has been used in plans to increase the coverage of the nature conservation network in Madagascar.

Located off the coast of Africa, the island of Madagascar is perhaps the last place in the world that one would connect with a Finnish computer program. What the present and future visitors stunned by the nature of the island may not know is that they are also admiring how a modelling application devised in the north works in practice.

Here we are speaking of the Zonation program developed by Academy Researcher Atte Moilanen, Docent at the University of Helsinki, which has been used in plans to increase the coverage of the nature conservation network in Madagascar. The project is featured in an article illustrated on the cover page of the latest Science magazine.

Data on 2,300 species populations living on the island were entered in the Zonation program, and 10 per cent of the island was determined to deserve conservation. Based on the data, Zonation calculated an optimum way of locating the conservation areas in a way that ensures the preservation of as many of the island’s species as possible.

Attention was paid to environments typical for the species as well as their different degrees of mobility. “An ant, for instance, needs a much smaller territory than a lemur does,” Dr. Moilanen says.

Although all the analysed species could be included in the conservation areas, the 10 per cent coverage is not sufficient to protect all species. “Madagascar was still completely covered by forest 50 years ago. It is evident that the shrinking of forest areas to one tenth will destroy some of the original populations.” For Madagascar, the largest damage has already occurred. The conservation programme now being implemented protects the remaining species as effectively as possible.

In addition to Madagascar, the Zonation program developed in 2003 has been used to calculate conservation plans for marine reserves in New Zealand and for meadows required for butterflies in England. In a future project, the intention is to use Zonation to calculate ways in which the conservation, care and economic use of forests in Finland should be targeted.

Text : Juha Merimaa
Picture: NASA Visible Earth
Translation: Valtasana Oy