Madagascar has set aside 2.65 million acres (over 1 million hectares) of protected areas, including tropical rainforest, dry deciduous forest, wetlands, limestone caves, and other threatened ecosystems on the East African island.

More than 90 percent of Madagascar's original forests have disappeared, largely due to so-called slash-and-burn agriculture.

Conservationists say the newly established parks will help protect the nation island's unique wildlife, including its famous lemurs, from extinction. An estimated 80 percent of Madagascar's plants and animals are found nowhere else on Earth.

Long viewed as a conservation disaster among many environmentalists, Madagascar has historically had a relatively small portion of its land -- about three percent -- protected.

In 2003, the government pledged to triple the protected areas. It set aside 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of new protected areas in late 2005. The latest addition increases Madagascar's protected territory to more than 9 million acres (3.7 million hectares).

The island's unique biodiversity is due to its separation from Africa 150 million years ago and from India 88 million years ago, as well as a huge diversity of habitats, from squashy rainforest in the east to the surrealist semi-desert spiny forest in the south.