A survey of the occurrence of native vegetation remnants on Mauritius in 1993

Abstract

Mauritius (1865 km 2) was originally completely covered by wet or dry evergreen forest and scrub, and palm savanna. Habitat destruction following human colonization in 1638 resulted in the reduction of native vegetation cover on the mainland to 92·8 km 2, or 5·0% of the land area, by 1993. Most of this is wet evergreen forest and scrub; dry forest is rare and palm savanna is extinct. Of the native vegetation surviving in 1993, 63% was in the south-west, the rest in the centre-east, with a tiny fragment in the north. The existence of several patches, especially relicts on the central plateau, is widely ignored. The newly-established Black River Gorges National Park protects 44% of the total native vegetation area, and 70% of that in the south-west. The native vegetation outside the National Park remains protected by previous legislation.