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 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.