Madagascar’s environmental past is more complex and regionally diverse than the tired narrative of a once-forested island devastated by people would have us believe. In a just-published opinion piece led by one of my academic heroines, Alison Richard, we unpack this oversimplified story, showing how diverse landscapes—from ancient grasslands to dynamic forest mosaics—shifted over millennia, shaped by both natural forces and human action. Yet traces of that older narrative linger stubbornly in scientific debates and conservation strategies. Escaping this narrative trap requires paying closer attention to the deep-time environmental record and to the heterogeneity of human histories across the island.
A key takeaway: not all landscape change in Madagascar stems from human action. Grassy ecosystems are not necessarily degraded forests but may have ancient evolutionary roots, as evidenced by endemic plant and animal species adapted to open environments. Gully erosion, long blamed on deforestation, appears more related to seismic activity. Regional climates and vegetation shifted both long before and during the settlement of the island, as shown by extinct megafauna diets and ancient pollen.
Human impacts varied across space and time. The simple idea that “humans arrived and things went downhill” limits the scope for useful investigation. Instead, we should ask who arrived, how many, what did they do, what did they live on, how did they organize themselves, when, for how long, and – crucially – in which geographical and ecological regions of the island, and what was the scale of change. What landscapes were altered, what landscapes were built, what was lost, what was gained?
Significant knowledge gaps remain. Much of Madagascar is still under-sampled, archaeologically and ecologically. Understanding regionally-specific past fire regimes, early subsistence strategies, human histories, and evolving biogeographies demands interdisciplinary collaboration and more investment—especially in Malagasy-led research. The article ends with a call for a new conceptual framework: one that acknowledges the dynamism of Madagascar’s landscapes, dispenses with oversimplified stories, and supports conservation grounded in both scientific evidence and the lived knowledge of local communities.
The paper is published in the journal Environmental Conservation (Cambridge Press), an open access preprint pdf is archived here. For more investigations along these lines, see Alison’s excellent book The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present (Chicago, 2022).
Reference: Richard, AF, J-A Rakotoarisoa, C Radimilahy, CA Kull & JA Silander (2025) Madagascar’s environmental and human histories are dynamic, complex and deeply intertwined. Environmental Conservation: 1-4 (early view, to be updated when inserted into a volume). dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0376892925000098.
Christian Kull 