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.
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Christian Kull 