Kenting National Park, Taiwan Photograph by Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China   Southern Asia, on Taiwan Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   1,000 square miles (2,600 square kilometers) -- about the size of Rhode Island Critical/Endangered

· Just About Tropical
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Just About Tropical

Taiwan, the largest island off the coast of China, is located at the edge of the tropics between Japan and the Philippines. The southern part of Taiwan lies just inside the Tropic of Cancer, the tropical region of the world north of the equator. The South Taiwan Monsoon Rain Forests ecoregion is found in coastal areas and some interior mountains at the southern tip of the island.

Special Features

Both evergreen tree species and deciduous species grow on low mountain slopes within the ecoregion. Nutmeg trees and wild jackfruit trees mix with conifers such as yew and pine trees. Wet mangrove forests along the coastline contain several unique tree species, including Asian, Kandelia, and Burma mangroves.

	Sika deer were once abundant on Taiwan, but excessive hunting and loss of habitat reduced their numbers so severely that an intensive captive breeding and reintroduction project was started. Today, released sika deer again roam Kenting National Park, wearing special radio transmitters so scientists can monitor their progress.

Wild Side

This ecoregion provides valuable habitat for shore birds and migratory waterfowl from Japan and the Russian Far East. Kenting National Park protects land and marine habitat at the southern tip of Taiwan and harbors birds such as Japanese night herons, Nordmann’s greenshanks, and spoon-billed sandpipers. Mammals found here include Taiwan sika deer and Taiwanese macaques, but the park is heavily affected by tourism. The Tawu Shan Nature Reserve is also home to rare mammals and birds, including sambar deer, Taiwan black bears, and Swinhoe’s pheasants.

Cause for Concern

With 20 million people and an economy based on agriculture and industry, Taiwan’s natural environments have been severely affected by human activity. Most of the natural habitat occurs in mountain areas where nature reserves and national parks have been established. Today, forest cover is estimated to be about 52 percent, but a majority is made up of monoculture plantations (plantations of a single tree species), and the trees tend to be non-native. Mangrove forests are threatened by conversion of coastal habitat, and habitat in Kenting National Park is threatened by agriculture, mining, road construction, and thermal pollution from a nearby nuclear power plant.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.