Protected Areas (Madagascar)
This layer maps the national protected-area system of Madagascar, known as the Système des Aires Protégées de Madagascar (SAPM).
Category: Transition risks · Sensitive areas · Protected areas Coverage: Country (Madagascar) Format: Boundary polygons Used in risk analysis: No (contextual layer; not used in materiality scoring)
What it shows
This layer maps the national protected-area system of Madagascar, known as the Système des Aires Protégées de Madagascar (SAPM). It includes national parks, special reserves, wildlife reserves and candidate sites. Madagascar is one of the world's highest-priority biodiversity regions, so these areas concentrate conservation, regulatory, reputational and access risk, making the layer a key screening input for sites and supply chains in the country.
How it is built
The boundaries are drawn from the SAPM, sourced through the Resilience Madagascar geographic data platform run under the relevant national environment ministry. Site categories follow the definitions set out in the interministerial order of 2013. The designated sites are assembled into a single set of national-level polygons, each representing the official extent of a protected or candidate area. No score is computed; the layer is a presence-or-absence boundary set rather than a graded index.
How to read it
This is a boundary layer, so the relevant question is intersection: a site that falls inside, or close to, one of these polygons is flagged as overlapping a protected area. Overlap indicates potential exposure to conservation restrictions, permitting requirements and heightened stakeholder scrutiny. Candidate sites signal areas under active consideration for protection. Areas outside the polygons carry no protected-area flag from this dataset.
Source
Système des Aires Protégées de Madagascar (SAPM), via the Resilience Madagascar / MEEMF geographic data platform. Site categories per the interministerial order of 2013.
Comparison with the WWF Risk Filter Suite
This layer corresponds to WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter indicator S14_1 Protected/Conserved Areas. The WWF Risk Filter Suite uses the global World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA, UNEP-WCMC, accessed via IBAT). Darwin instead uses the official national SAPM dataset for Madagascar, which can extend or localise coverage relative to the global WDPA and additionally captures candidate sites not yet formally gazetted.
Generated from darwin/layers/layer-protected-areas-madagascar.toml and risk_indicator_pairs.toml (develop).