Harmonious Protected Landscape · Melaky Region · North-West Madagascar · Protected Areas of Madagascar
Mandrozo
Harmonious Protected Landscape
The Protected Areas of North-Western Madagascar. The Mandrozo Harmonious Protected Landscape, also known as the Mandrozo Wetland — a shallow freshwater lake ringed by marsh and dry forest, rich in birdlife and home to a bat species found nowhere else.
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About the protected area
A shallow lake at the heart of a dry forest wetland
The Mandrozo Harmonious Protected Landscape, also known as the Mandrozo Wetland, was created in 2015 and covers 15,145 hectares. It is managed by The Peregrine Fund, whose head office is in Antananarivo, with a base camp at Andapabe equipped with four tent shelters, a dining shelter, and solar panels.
Visit arrangements — access, stay, guiding, circuits, camping, and provisions — are to be discussed with the manager at its head office in Antananarivo, or with the camp's caretaker-cook.
To reach the protected area, take the RN6-10 from Tsiroanomandidy to Maintirano (440 km on a dirt track), then the RN6-11 north of Maintirano for about 80 km to the village of Veromanga. Cross the Manambaho river and continue to a fork, then head west towards Tambohorano. Continue to the village of Andranovao, 9 km before the Peregrine Fund camp.
Climate, Fauna and Flora
A dry-zone lake, rich in birdlife
The protected area's climate is that of the dry north-western zone: a cool season between June and August with a minimum temperature of 15.9 °C, and a hot season from December to February with peaks above 32.8 °C occurring between September and November. The rainy season runs from November to April.
The site consists of a shallow freshwater lake whose shores and islets are populated by marshland. To the north-west and the extreme south lies dense dry forest made up of Fabaceae — Albizia polyphylla and Bussea sakalava — Burseraceae such as Commiphora grandifolia, Araliaceae such as Polyscias boivinii, and various Sapotaceae. There are also marshy areas and secondary grasslands covered with palms.
Mandrozo is rich in birdlife, with 109 species recorded, as well as 36 reptile species. Thirteen bat species are present, and the protected area is the only site known to shelter the bat Pipistrellus cf. rueppellii.
Culture and Socio-Economic Practices
The teabony, opening the fishing season
Every year, the opening of the fishing season on Lake Mandrozo is marked by a traditional ceremony, the teabony, held in the village of Anasy.
Slash-and-burn shifting cultivation practised by the local population poses a threat to the protected area. Bush fires (from July to November), set to create new pastureland or to erase the tracks of stolen livestock, alongside illegal tree-felling, the gathering of forest products, and lemur hunting, are all pressures weighing on the site.
Identified threats
Location
North-Western Madagascar, Melaky Region
The Mandrozo Harmonious Protected Landscape lies north of Maintirano, reached via the RN6-10 and RN6-11 through Veromanga, Tambohorano, and Andranovao, ending at the Peregrine Fund base camp at Andapabe on the shore of Lake Mandrozo.