Rainforests of the Atsinanana

The Rainforests of the Atsinanana are the quintessential Malagasy WHS, as they comprise the last remaining patches of rainforest in Madagascar and are home to the iconic lemurs (of which 108 species have been discovered). Like the other reviewers before me, I choose to visit Ranomafana NP out of the 13 WH locations, as it is the easiest to reach. After 2 days of driving from the capital via Antsirabe along bare red soil and agricultural terraces, suddenly there they were: forests! Even in the dry season, it often rains here at night. More water is present at the river with a large waterfall next to the access road.

I stayed in Ranomafana village for one night; this way you can do the night walk after arrival and visit the diurnal creatures the next morning. You can allocate more time when you’re interested in a specialized subject like birds – the park has three sections, of which the main one holds most lemurs and the other two have their own qualities.

The night walk nowadays is executed along the road parallel to the park entrance - it is forbidden to enter the park borders after dark due to people getting lost / poaching (I heard both stories). I went with a local guide, for whom this side job was a welcome addition to his income as a banana farmer. He had sharp eyes, especially for chameleons, which became the stars of the walk. We saw many species, some …

In August 2016, I decided to stop in Madagascar while traveling from Seychelles to Mayotte so that I could visit one of the national parks in the Rainforests of the Atsinanana WHS, which was inscribed in 2007, two years after my first visit to Madagascar. I began my trip in Antananarivo, where I stayed at Palissandre Hotel (http://www.hotel-restaurant-palissandre.com/), which overlooks Analakely Market, the city's largest. The only WHS national park that is within driving distance of Antananarivo is Ranomafana National Park, around nine hours from the capital. On the way, I visited Antsirabe, the country's third largest city, which still has several buildings from French colonial rule, including Hôtel des Thermes (1922) and the railway station (1923). From Antsirabe, it was around six hours to Ranomafana National Park, one of the national parks in the Rainforests of the Atsinanana WHS. During a very muddy morning hike, I saw several lemurs, including Milne-Edwards' sifaka, red-fronted brown lemur, greater bamboo lemur (which was thought extinct until rediscovered in 1986), eastern lesser bamboo lemur and golden bamboo lemur (which was discovered in 1986). During an evening hike, I saw several chameleons, including two-banded chameleon (♂ and ♀ (photo)), O'Shaugnessy's chameleon (♂ and ♀), short-nosed chameleon and side-striped chameleon, and brown mouse lemur.

Madagascan forests provide a wonderful opportunity to see creatures you can see no where else in the world. Not just Lemurs but also other endemics such as the nocturnal “Fossa” or Malagasy Civet (photo). Amazingly, these animals are not so difficult to see!

But I was very concerned when I saw that this inscription consisted only of a number of widely dispersed “representative” areas. For us “WHS Collectors” this approach for defining WHS can lead to problems as to whether one has actually been into the inscribed site even if one has visited the whole area quite comprehensively. In 2000 we had a very successful visit to Madagscar in terms of seeing its endemics. One of our best memories was of wonderful views of the Indri Lemur in the reserve of Perinet (now called Analamazaotra Special Reserve or Andasibe). This is situated within the Atsinanana forest area which runs (or at least used to before Mankind destroyed much of it) along the eastern side of Madagascar. It is a “Special Reserve” adjacent to the Mantadia National Park which was part of the areas nominated in 2007. This reserve is without doubt one of the highlights of a visit to Madagsacar and will be visited by most tourists. You might think that all this would ensure that it would be included! If so you do not understand the ways of UNESCO and its evaluating agent IUCN!!!

IUCN was concerned that the nominated area might not actually be the “best …