Discovering Madagascar, the eighth continent

Madagascar is sometimes called the eighth continent, though it could almost pass for its own planet. From its landscapes to its cultures and, of course, its wildlife, there is nowhere else quite like it. It is best known for its lemurs, but the island holds far more: avenues of baobabs cutting striking silhouettes in the west, spiny forests across the arid south, and tropical rainforest spilling onto white-sand beaches in the north, where Mora Mora carries out its work.

The people of Madagascar are as distinctive as the land. Although the island sits close to the African coast, the Malagasy trace their origins to Indonesia and Borneo, with later waves of migrants arriving from East Africa, India and China. The result is an eclectic mix of some twenty ethnic groups. Most people speak Malagasy, and French remains widely used, a legacy of colonial rule that ended with independence in 1960. Life for many is hard: a large share of the population depends on subsistence farming, and poverty is widespread.

Custom runs deep here. Spiritual beliefs and taboos known as fady, handed down from ancestors, still shape daily life and can apply to people, places, animals or plants alike. It might be fady to cut a particular forest or take fish from a certain lake. Traditions such as famadihana, the ceremonial rewrapping of ancestors' remains, are still observed. Travelling by taxi-brousse, staying in villages and joining local festivals are among the best ways to encounter this living culture first-hand.

The landscapes match the wildlife for drama. Madagascar has more than forty national parks and reserves, from the sandstone formations of Isalo to the mist-shrouded rainforest of Andasibe, where the eerie call of the indri lemur echoes through the hills, and the jagged limestone pinnacles of the tsingy. Even the inhabited highlands are beautiful, with emerald rice terraces lined by red-earth dykes.

Yet this diversity is under serious threat. More than ninety per cent of the island has already been deforested to make way for livestock, rice and cash crops, triggering landslides, flooding and the loss of countless species. The wildlife at stake is extraordinary: around five per cent of all known plant and animal species on Earth are found only on this one island. There are over a hundred lemur species alone, nearly all of them threatened, among them the critically endangered silky sifaka, one of the rarest mammals on the planet.

This is where projects like Mora Mora come in. Based in Madagascar's tropical north-west, ringed by warm Indian Ocean waters and set beside the old-growth rainforest of Lokobe National Park, the project works to protect the island's remaining intact habitats and the endangered creatures that shelter in them. Getting involved through The Impact Network is a genuine way to help ensure that Madagascar's remarkable biodiversity endures. Every visit to this island carries a certain weight, and a real sense of purpose.