Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
The site is located about 70 km north-east of Besalampy. The relief is low and soils are sandy. Habitats include forest, lakes and mangrove. The forest area is composed of dense, dry deciduous forest with a high, closed canopy, dominated by
Dalbergia and bordered, in the east, by savanna. The savanna is wooded with palms
Bismarckia, screw-pine
Pandanus,
Albizia and tamarind
Tamarindus. Lake-margin vegetation includes water-lilies (Nymphaeaceae), legumes (Leguminosae), sedges (Cyperaceae), screw-pines (Pandanaceae) and grasses (Gramineae). The mangrove is dominated by trees of
Rhizophora,
Avicennia,
Sonneratia and
Ceriops.
See Box and Tables 2 and 3 for key species. Seventy-eight species are known from the site, of which 27 are endemic to Madagascar. The avifauna is a mixture of forest birds and waterbirds.
Non-bird biodiversity: Lemur: Hapalemur griseus occidentalis (VU). Reptile: Boa madagascariensis (VU).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Threats include deforestation (5% of the forest has already been cut), conversion to rice-fields of wetlands or their margins, collection of edible tubers and wild honey, and hunting.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Cap Saint André forest and wetlands (Madagascar). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/cap-saint-andré-forest-and-wetlands-iba-madagascar on 23/12/2024.
