With MadiNati, Martinique's natural heritage is listed and protected

Whether you are a native or a visitor, a fan of outings in the great outdoors on land or at sea, it is important to know the areas open to the public and those prohibited due to the preservation of species.

It is in this sense that the 43 structures, institutions and associations that make up the Martinican Observatory of Biodiversity have undertaken to create a tool that centralizes all this information, and makes it accessible to as many people as possible.

Her name: MadiNati.

“The information collected is checked and updated in the INPN format – national inventory of natural heritage – and is therefore standardized”, explains Nadine Vénumière, acting director of the Protected Areas - Biodiversity and Management Service. sustainable development of the territory in the Martinique Regional Natural Park (PNRM).

“When it comes to flora, we know that there are more than 3,000 species.

Inventories are still in progress.

And as for mushrooms, fungus, this family is little known and we can say that everything is to be done.

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Intended for everyone, the tool constitutes the Natural Heritage Inventory Information System (SINP) which is also used by scientists.

The territory has a wide variety of endemic species (which only live in the region and nowhere else) and indigenous (native to the region).

In a report dedicated to fauna, Christelle Béranger, biodiversity mission officer for the PNRM, indicates that it “is distinguished in the territory by its level of endemism and by the rarity of certain species”.

For example, “of the 11 native species of the bat family, only the bat (Myon's martiniquensis) is endemic”.

However, the specimens that live in the forest areas of Mount Pelée and the Pitons du Carbet are less in danger than those that live in habitats threatened by pollution and urbanization.

To date, all species of bats in Martinique are protected.

“A biodiversity atlas project for 8 municipalities in the north of the island”

Nadine Vénumière, Acting Director of the Protected Areas Service - Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Management at the Martinique Regional Nature Park (PNRM)

"The same is true for "the Matoutou cliff" (Caribena versicolor), the strict endemic tarantula, from the invertebrate family and whose blue, green and red reflections attract nature lovers but also contribute to its fragility due to the poaching,” adds the Project Manager.

Ditto for the white-throated mockingbird (Ramphocinclus brachyurus), an endemic bird of the Caravelle Peninsula.

These species therefore present very important protection and conservation issues when we learn that "Martinique was home to other animal species, now extinct, such as the piloti rat or muskrat (Megalolomys desmarestii), the Martinique macaw (Amazona martinicana) and the manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) disappeared from the island but observed in the Caribbean", specifies the Project Manager.

Only ancient written traces attest to their existence.

Contain the invaders

So, to consolidate its preservation actions, the Martinique Regional Nature Park has launched "a biodiversity atlas project for 8 municipalities in the north of the island with the aim of popularizing scientific data".

Similarly, continues Nadine Vénumière, “a brigade of agents has just taken up their duties to deal exclusively with invasive species, both animal and plant, through eradication operations”.

We can cite among others: the common striped iguana, the mongoose, the rat, the raccoon, the cracked gecko;

and for the flora, the Gabon tulip tree, the small lemongrass, or the Miconia calvescens or green cancer.

“Real threats to our island biodiversity, to which we pay real attention on the three nature reserves we manage, La Caravelle,