Andringitra

Andringitra National Park was created in 1999 in southern Madagascar, in the Haute Matsiatra region, and protects some 311 km². The area had been protected as a strict nature reserve since 1927, which makes it one of the oldest in the country.

It is a granite massif of spectacular relief, with vertical walls, spires and high plateaux, culminating in Pic Boby, or Imarivolanitra, at 2,658 metres, Madagascar's second-highest summit and the highest reachable without climbing. The gradient runs from rainforest on the eastern slope to the grassland and high-altitude scrub of the plateaux, where the temperature can drop below zero and snowfalls have been recorded, which is exceptional on the island.

That altitudinal range produces a notable floristic richness, with more than a thousand plant species and numerous local endemics adapted to granite and to cold. The fauna includes a population of ring-tailed lemur that lives at unusually high altitudes and has developed a denser coat, as well as Milne-Edwards's sifaka and a community of montane amphibians and reptiles. The massif also has cultural significance for the Betsileo and Bara communities, with sacred places and traditional prohibitions that have contributed to its conservation.