Related Research Articles
The Republic of Madagascar, or Madagascar, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa across the Mozambique Channel. At 592,800 square kilometres (228,900 sq mi) Madagascar is the world's second-largest country that consists primarily of islands, after Indonesia. The nation consists of the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 88 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is endemic.
Madagascar has diplomatic relations with many countries, both individual bilateral relations and by virtue of its membership of African and other regional blocs. International aid has been received from the IMF and the World Bank, and a national environmental plan supported by the World Bank and USAID began in 1990.
Madagascar is a large island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique. It has a total area of 587,040 square kilometres (226,660 sq mi) with 581,540 square kilometres (224,530 sq mi) of land and 5,500 square kilometres (2,100 sq mi) of water. Madagascar is the fourth largest island and the 2nd largest island country in the world. The highest point is Maromokotro, in the Tsaratanana Massif region in the north of the island, at 2,876 metres (9,436 ft). The capital Antananarivo is in the Central Highlands near the centre of the island. It has the 25th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,225,259 km2 (473,075 sq mi). Madagascar is 400 kilometres east of mainland Africa.
The history of Madagascar is distinguished clearly by the early isolation of the landmass from the ancient supercontinent containing Africa and India, and by the island's late colonization by human settlers from the Sunda islands and from East Africa. These two factors facilitated the evolution and survival of thousands of endemic plant and animal species, some of which have gone extinct or are currently threatened with extinction. Trade in the Indian Ocean at the time of first colonization of Madagascar was dominated by large ships, called Djong, coming from Java and Sumatra.
Paved and unpaved roadways, as well as railways, provide the main forms of transport in Madagascar. Madagascar has approximately 31,640 km (19,660 mi) of paved roads and 836 km of rail lines. In 2010, Madagascar had 432 km (270 mi) of navigable waterways.
Antananarivo, also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra, is the capital of Analamanga region. The city sits at 1,280 m (4,199 ft) above sea level in the center of the island, the highest national capital by elevation among the island countries. It has been the country's largest population center since at least the 18th century. The presidency, National Assembly, Senate and Supreme Court are located there, as are 21 diplomatic missions and the headquarters of many national and international businesses and NGOs. It has more universities, nightclubs, art venues, and medical services than any city on the island. Several national and local sports teams, including the championship-winning national rugby team, the Makis are based here.
Dame Alison Fettes Richard, is an English anthropologist, conservationist and university administrator. She was the 344th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the third Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge since the post became full-time, and the second woman. Before arriving at Cambridge, she served as the provost of Yale University from 1994 to 2002.
The Malagasy Football Federation is the governing body of football in Madagascar. It was founded in 1961, affiliated to FIFA in 1964 and to CAF in 1963. It organizes the national football league and the national team.
This list of national parks of Madagascar includes all officially recognized protected areas as of 2015. The protected areas network of Madagascar is managed by the Madagascar National Parks Association (PNM-ANGAP). The network includes three types of protected areas: Strict Nature Reserves, National Parks and Wildlife Reserves. At the 2003 IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, the Malagasy President, Marc Ravalomanana, announced an initiative to more than triple the area under protection from approximately 4,200,791 acres (17,000.00 km2) to over 14,826,322 acres (60,000.00 km2). This "Durban Vision", as it has been dubbed, involved broadening the definition of protected areas in the country and legislation has been passed to allow the creation of four new categories of protected area: Natural Parks, Natural Monuments, Protected Landscapes, and Natural Resource Reserves. As well as allowing these new objectives for protected areas management, the new legislation also provided for entities other than PNM-ANGAP to manage protected areas, such as government ministries, community associations, NGOs and other civil society organizations, and the private sector.
The Madagascar national rugby union team represents Madagascar in the sport of rugby union. Although rugby is popular in Madagascar, the country has not yet qualified for a Rugby World Cup. It does compete annually in the Africa Cup, and was runner-up to Uganda in 2007. The national team's nickname is the Malagasy name for the ring-tailed lemur.
Madagascar – United States relations are bilateral relations between Madagascar and the United States.
The current Constitution of Madagascar was, according to the national electoral commission, endorsed by a majority of voters in the constitutional referendum held on 14 November 2010. The new constitution launched the Fourth Republic of Madagascar and was widely seen as an attempt to consolidate and legitimise the rule of Andry Rajoelina and his High Transitional Authority government which was installed after a military-backed coup d'état against President Marc Ravalomanana at the beginning of the ongoing national political crisis. One substantive change from the constitution of the Third Republic was to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 40 to 35. This made Rajoelina, aged 36 at the time, eligible to stand in presidential elections.
The Penguins of Madagascar is an American computer-animated television series co-produced by DreamWorks Animation and Nickelodeon. It stars nine characters from DreamWorks' animated film Madagascar: the penguins Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private ; the lemurs King Julien, Maurice, and Mort ; and Mason and Phil the chimpanzees. Characters new to the series include Marlene the otter and a zookeeper named Alice. It is the first Nicktoon co-produced with DreamWorks Animation. The series was executive-produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who were the creators of the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Disney Channel's Kim Possible.
Andry Nirina Rajoelina is a Malagasy politician and businessman who has been the president of Madagascar since 2019. He was previously president of a provisional government from 2009 to 2014 following a political crisis and military-backed coup, having held the office of Mayor of Antananarivo for one year prior.
Rugby union in Madagascar is a popular team sport. As of September 2018, Madagascar is ranked 50th worldwide by World Rugby (WR), and boasts over 22,540 registered players and more than 410 rugby clubs. Although Madagascar lacks a professional competition, as it is one of the poorest countries in the world, it does possess a national club competition that is extensively covered in the national print media, as well as having matches televised. Rugby is considered the national sport of Madagascar.
François Mocquard was a French herpetologist born in Leffond, Haute-Saône.
The National Library of Madagascar is the national library of Madagascar. It was established in 1961 and it is located in Antananarivo.
The Military ranks of Madagascar are the military insignia used by the Military of Madagascar. Being a former colony of France, Madagascar shares a rank structure alike to that of France.
Madagascar–Turkey relations are the foreign relations between Madagascar and Turkey. Turkey has an embassy in Antananarivo since April 21, 2010. Madagascar is accredited to Turkey from its embassy in Rome, Italy. Madagascar also has an honorary consulate in Istanbul.