Suffolk Reporter

A newly discovered tropical rainforest in Madagascar is gaining attention in the scientific community. Patricia Wright, a distinguished service professor in the Department of Anthropology and an expert in conservation biology, found the 14-square-kilometer rainforest named Ivohiboro in 2019. This discovery is now featured in a documentary titled "Ivohiboro: The Lost Forest," which premiered on October 3 in Paris and was broadcast worldwide on October 7.

The Ivohiboro rainforest is located southeast of Madagascar on the Ivohibe massif, standing at 1,500 meters above sea level. Despite being surrounded by arid terrain, this green sanctuary hosts diverse life forms, including insects, rare birds, and ring-tailed lemurs. The forest's preservation offers significant opportunities for scientific exploration.

Wright leads an international team of over thirty researchers from various countries on a month-long expedition to study this unique ecosystem. Their goal is to catalog new species and understand how the forest has survived harsh conditions while providing insights into global conservation efforts.

“To discover a rainforest in the middle of that arid, burned landscape stretching as far as the eye could see was shocking, exhilarating, like a mirage in a desert,” said Wright. “The realization that a rainforest could thrive in central Madagascar gives me hope that we can conserve this relict forest and restore forests filled with biodiversity across Madagascar.”

Among those joining Wright are biologist Mai Fahmy and herpetologist Edmund W. Basham. Together they aim to uncover more about this rainforest's dynamics and devise strategies to protect similar ecosystems from climate change threats.