The Avenue of the Baobabs, or Alley of the Baobabs, is a prominent group of Grandidier’s baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon’i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region of western Madagascar. Its striking landscape draws travelers from around the world, making it one of the most visited locations in the region.
The Avenue of the Baobabs has been a center of local conservation efforts and was granted temporary protected status in July 2007 by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forestry – a step toward making it Madagascar’s first natural monument.
Along a 260 m stretch of the road is a grove of 20–25 Adansonia grandidieri baobabs. An additional 25 or so trees of this species are found growing over nearby rice paddies and meadows within 4 ha of land. The trees, which are endemic to Madagascar, are about 30 m in height.
These giant, dry season-deciduous trees (members of the Mallow family), many of which are more than 800 years old with trunks that are over 150 feet around did not always stand alone. At one time the trees dotting the lane were part of a rich forest of trees and other plants, but the encroachment of modern civilization and increasing populations in the area led to massive deforestation leaving the remaining baobabs to stand in relative isolation. There are also a handful of the ancient trees remaining in the outlying areas but both the trees along the road otherwise are under near-constant threat of destruction.
When Arab seafarers first visited a bit over 1000 years ago, they said the devil ripped them out of the ground and put them back upside down, for their canopies resemble roots.
The area is a natural monument under conservation since July 2015, but the trees are still threatened by further deforestation, effluents from encroaching paddy fields, bushfires, and forest fires. Despite its popularity as a tourist destination, the area has no visitor center or gate fees, and local residents receive little income from tourism. Fanamby, a Malagasy non-governmental organization, has launched an ecotourism project aimed at the conservation of the area and economic improvement for the local community since 2014 and has inaugurated infrastructures to help them promote the area in 2018.
According to Wikipedia
