Cattle can alter forest conditions in Madagascar locally, both through direct use of wooded areas and through fire associated with pasture management. At Bezà-Mahafaly, park information reports zebu wandering and cattle using forest as refuge, with associated understory damage; a site manager also identifies fire used to renew pasture and claim land as a pressure. These accounts show plausible, place-specific pathways—not proof that cattle alone are driving island-wide forest loss or wildlife declines.
How can cattle grazing change a forest?
The effect depends on where cattle go and how they are managed. In the evidence available for Madagascar, two pathways are especially relevant: cattle entering forest directly, and fire associated with renewing pasture. Both can change the vegetation that wildlife uses, but the documented examples are local accounts rather than measurements of a national trend.
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Direct cattle use can disturb the understory—the lower layer of plants beneath the forest canopy. At Bezà-Mahafaly, a protected-area profile says forest is used as refuge by cattle escaping cattle rustlers and that the animals damage the understory. Madagascar National Parks separately lists “Zebu wandering” among pressures at the site. These reports establish that cattle presence and understory damage are recognized local concerns; they do not quantify how much forest is affected or how often cattle enter it.
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Understory damage is distinct from clearing the canopy. The reported account identifies harm to the lower vegetation, but does not specify the plants affected, the severity or duration of damage, or whether forest cover changed as a result. Keeping those details separate helps avoid turning a site-level observation into a broader claim about deforestation.
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Fire is a different pathway. A site manager’s account in the protected-area profile associates fire with renewing zebu pasture and claiming new land. That connects cattle management with a potential change to forest cover, but it should not be read as evidence that every fire, or every instance of forest loss in Madagascar, is caused by livestock. Fire can have different origins and purposes, and the account describes a pressure at a particular place.
What is documented at Bezà-Mahafaly?
Bezà-Mahafaly is a useful example because park information describes both habitat and pressures. Madagascar National Parks identifies gallery forest and xerophilous thicket at the site. It also lists lemurs, a radiated tortoise, birds and other fauna among the wildlife found there. This is a site-level picture, not an exhaustive inventory of Madagascar’s habitats or species.
Those habitat descriptions help explain why disturbance to vegetation matters: wildlife depends on functioning habitat, and changes to the forest’s lower layers or to the extent and condition of wooded areas can affect the environment animals use. That is an ecological concern, not a measured result for the species named at Bezà-Mahafaly. The park accounts do not report a cattle-attributable population decline, a before-and-after wildlife count, or a controlled comparison between grazed and ungrazed forest.
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These are different kinds of evidence: a park pressure listing, a protected-area profile describing refuge use and understory damage, and a manager’s account associating fire with pasture renewal and new land. Each helps identify a possible pathway, but none gives a comparable rate of cattle use or a measured change in forest condition. Readers should treat them as complementary local observations, not as a controlled comparison of grazing practices.
How might vegetation disturbance affect wildlife?
Forest vegetation is habitat as well as plant cover. If cattle use damages understory plants, it can change the structure of the lower forest layer. If fire alters vegetation or converts wooded areas, the habitat itself may change. Those pathways make effects on wildlife ecologically plausible, but the sources cited here do not measure the resulting change in animal abundance, reproduction, or survival.
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It is important to keep the distinction clear. A report of cattle in forest and understory damage is evidence of a local pressure. A claim that a particular lemur, tortoise, or bird population has declined because of cattle would require additional evidence linking the pressure to a measured population change. The Bezà-Mahafaly information supports the former, not the latter.
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It also does not establish that every species responds in the same way. The site’s gallery forest and xerophilous thicket are different habitat types, and wildlife use of them can differ. Without specific species-level and habitat-level findings, it would be misleading to turn the site’s fauna list into a claim that grazing has affected every listed animal or every forest type.
A useful way to assess a wildlife claim is to ask what was measured, where, and when: was the evidence about cattle presence, vegetation damage, habitat extent, or animal numbers? Was it collected in one forest type or across several? Here, the park material identifies local pressures and species, but does not provide population trends that connect cattle activity to changes in wildlife abundance. That missing link is why habitat concern and demonstrated population decline should not be treated as interchangeable conclusions.
What do the national figures tell us—and what do they not tell us?
Madagascar’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock reported 9,124,000 cattle in a sector overview dated 24 January 2025. This is a national livestock figure reported by the ministry, not a new 2026 census, a count of animals grazing in forests, or an estimate of cattle pressure at Bezà-Mahafaly. It gives context for the importance of cattle in the country, but cannot by itself show what grazing is doing ecologically.
A 2023 review in Science reported that protected areas cover 10.4% of Madagascar’s land area. The review also found that the protected-area network includes at least part of the known range of 97.1% of terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates and 67.7% of plant species. These are coverage statistics: they describe the relationship between protected areas and known species ranges, not the condition of habitats inside those areas, the strength of enforcement, or the amount of grazing pressure.
The same review discusses threats beyond livestock, including unsustainable agriculture and overexploitation. Forest and biodiversity change therefore cannot be assigned to cattle alone on the basis of these national statistics. Protected-area coverage is important context, but neither broad coverage nor a local cattle-pressure listing settles whether a particular site’s ecosystems are effectively protected.
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Coverage of part of a species’ known range also does not mean that every population or habitat is protected, or that protection is equally effective everywhere. The 10.4% land figure and species-range figures answer different questions, and neither measures cattle access. They should be read as conservation context alongside, not as a substitute for, site-level information about pressure and ecological condition.
Why do region and cattle system matter?
Madagascar does not have one uniform forest or cattle-production system. A 2022 paper by Randrianasolo and colleagues focuses on cattle production systems in the dry forests of northwest Madagascar and cautions about forest landscape restoration approaches in drylands. The available account of that paper does not establish its detailed methods or results, so it cannot support a specific claim about the scale of grazing impacts or which restoration approach works best.
A separate 2007 chapter concerns cattle-system dynamics in a forest area of the highlands. Its subject and region differ from the northwest dry-forest study. Taken together, these references show why it is risky to generalize one local account to the whole island: a highland forest, a dry forest, gallery forest and xerophilous thicket are not interchangeable settings, and cattle use can vary between them.
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Any comparison between cases should keep four dimensions in view: the region and forest type; whether cattle are wandering, taking refuge, or being managed through pasture renewal; whether the pathway is direct vegetation disturbance or fire; and what sort of evidence is being reported. These distinctions prevent a highland cattle-system account, for example, from being treated as a direct measure of pasture-fire effects in a northwest dry forest or at Bezà-Mahafaly.
How strong is the evidence for cattle-driven forest or wildlife change?
The evidence supports concern, but not a simple island-wide causal verdict. The Bezà-Mahafaly park profile gives a site-level account of refuge use and understory damage, and Madagascar National Parks lists zebu wandering as a pressure. A manager’s account links fire to pasture renewal and claiming land. These are useful observations about mechanisms and local pressures; they are not a controlled study isolating cattle from other causes.
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To quantify an effect, evidence would need to connect cattle activity to a defined ecological outcome at a defined place. For example, a study might compare vegetation or wildlife observations across areas with different cattle access, while also accounting for fire and other pressures. The sources described here do not provide that kind of quantified cattle-attributable estimate, so no percentage of national forest loss or wildlife decline can responsibly be assigned to grazing from them.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does this mean for conservation and cattle livelihoods?
Cattle are part of Madagascar’s livestock context, and discussion of forest pressures should not flatten herders into a single group or assume conservation and livelihoods are inherently opposed. The site account itself describes one reason cattle may use forest—as refuge from cattle rustlers—while also identifying understory damage and fire-related pressure. That complexity matters when considering responses: restricting access without understanding why animals enter an area may fail to address the underlying practice or need.
The evidence here does not establish a particular intervention, its costs, or its effectiveness. It does point to the practical questions that matter locally: where cattle enter, why they use forest, whether fire is being used to renew pasture or claim land, and what habitats and wildlife are present. Answers will differ by landscape and production system. The northwest dry-forest research and the highlands chapter are reminders that measures suited to one region should not be assumed to fit another.
Those questions also help distinguish what a site manager or conservation team would need to understand before judging a response: the location and pattern of cattle use, the reason for refuge use, the role of pasture-renewal fire, and the habitat affected. The cited material does not offer a costed management plan or establish that a particular restriction, restoration technique, or alternative practice will work. It supports a locally informed approach rather than a one-size-fits-all prescription.
The defensible conclusion is that cattle can change forest conditions in some places through direct use and fire connected with pasture management. Bezà-Mahafaly provides documented examples of those pressures, but the available accounts do not establish their extent across Madagascar or quantify cattle-caused wildlife declines. National herd size and protected-area coverage supply context, not proof of ecological cause or outcome.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is cattle grazing causing forest loss across Madagascar?
The documented accounts support local cattle-related pressures, including zebu wandering, forest refuge use with understory damage, and fire associated at one site with pasture renewal and claiming land. They do not establish that cattle alone cause island-wide forest loss or quantify the national effect.
Does the cattle figure of 9,124,000 mean that many animals graze in forests?
No. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock reported 9,124,000 cattle in a sector overview dated 24 January 2025. It is a national livestock figure, not a count of forest-grazing cattle, a site-level estimate, or a 2026 census.
Do the Bezà-Mahafaly accounts show that cattle have reduced lemur or tortoise populations?
No population decline attributable to cattle is reported in the park information described here. The accounts identify cattle-related pressures and list local habitats and fauna, but do not provide before-and-after wildlife counts or a controlled comparison.
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Are cattle impacts the same in every Malagasy forest?
The evidence does not support that assumption. The cited materials address different settings, including Bezà-Mahafaly, northwest Madagascar’s dry forests, and a highland forest area. Forest type, cattle use, disturbance pathway, and evidence type all matter.
The Bottom Line
Cattle can affect forest conditions locally in Madagascar through direct use and fire associated with pasture management. Bezà-Mahafaly provides specific examples, but they do not prove island-wide forest loss or cattle-driven wildlife declines. The national herd and protected-area figures give context, not a measure of grazing impact.
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