MBG Conservation

The permanent monitoring plot is a multi-purpose tool used to describe vegetation in terms of structure and flora and to track its change over time. Missouri Botanical Garden has installed permanent plots in diverse woody vegetation types throughout Madagascar since the 1990s. More recently, permanent plots have been installed in several conservation sites where MBG supports community-based conservation, and the data collected from these plots used as an indicator of the impact of our conservation work. Permanent plots can also be used to estimate floristic diversity and measure wood / carbon stocks in various vegetation types within a climate change mitigation framework.

Below is the raw data from plots installed by the Missouri Botanical Garden team in Madagascar. The quality and comprehensiveness of the data collected from these plots is variable, and in many cases the plot were merely monitored once only. Sometimes monitoring was abandoned since the site hosting the plot was subjected to exploitation of timber or converted to agriculture.

Anyone is free to use this data as they see fit, but, as a courtesy, please at least acknowledge the leader of the survey team and also the institution in any publications making use of this information.

A booklet describing best practice for the installation and monitoring of permanent forest plots can be downloaded here. This publication was produced with the support of the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund.