Madagascar The fourth largest island in the world after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo, Madagascar is located approximately 250 miles off the coast of south-east Africa. The island features three very different ecosystem types. The eastern coast is covered in fragmented tropical rainforest. The central highlands of Madagascar are heavily cultivated, and the landscape there is defined by extensive stepped rice fields. Much of the western coast and south of Madagascar are covered in a unique “spiny forest” or “spiny desert” of drought-tolerant endemic plants and baobab trees. A fringe of coral reef extends along the west coast–great for diving!