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Pakistan's native flora reflects its varied climatic zones, which range from arid and semi-arid to temperate and tropical.
For further details of habitats, see Ecoregions of Pakistan, Forestry in Pakistan and Wildlife of Pakistan.
Pakistan has conifer forests in most of the northern and north-western highlands. These occur from 1,000 to 4,000 m altitudes. Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand, Mansehra and Abbottabad districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) are the main areas covered with coniferous forests. Pindrow fir ( Abies pindrow ) and Morinda spruce ( Picea smithiana ) occupy the highest altitudes, deodar ( Cedrus deodara ) and blue pine ( Pinus wallichiana ), the intermediate heights, and chir pine ( Pinus roxburghii ), occupy the lower areas.
In most of Punjab and Sindh, the Indus plains have many fluvial landforms that support various natural biomes including tropical and subtropical dry and moist broadleaf forestry as well as tropical and xeric shrublands (deserts of Thal in Punjab, Tharparkar in Sindh) and kair ( Capparis aphylla ) which provide firewood. The riparian woodlands grow in narrow belts along the banks of River Indus and its tributaries. Main tree varieties are of sheesham and babul and main shrub varieties are reed beds and tamarisk ( Tamarax dioica ) bushes.
In the south of Sindh are Indus River Delta in west and Great Rann of Kutch in east. The largest saltwater wetland in Pakistan is the Indus River Delta. Unlike many other river deltas, it consists of clay soil and is very swampy. The Great Rann of Kutch below the Thar Desert is not as swampy and exhibits shrubland vegetation of rather dry thorny shrubs as well as marsh grasses of Apluda and Cenchrus . Other saltwater wetlands are located on the coast of Balochistan such as at Sonmiani and Jiwani. These and Indus River Delta support mangrove forestry, mainly of species Avicennia marina .
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The Indus is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The 3,180 km (1,980 mi) river rises in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Kashmir, bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before it empties into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi.
The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-largest hot subtropical desert.
The Great Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. It is about 7500 km2 in area and is reputed to be one of the largest salt deserts in the world. This area has been inhabited by the Kutchi people.
The Sutlej or Satluj River is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as Satadree. It is the easternmost tributary of the Indus River.The Bhakra Dam is built around the river Sutlej to provide irrigation and other facilities to the states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.
The Northwestern thorn scrub forests is a xeric shrubland ecoregion of Pakistan and Northern India, stretching along the border lowlands and hills between the two countries. Once covered in deciduous forest, this ecoregion has been degraded through agriculture and the extraction of timber so that it currently has a scanty covering of thorny scrub dominated by such trees as Acacia senegal, Acacia leucophloea and Prosopis cineraria. Where the soils are particularly saline, there are patches of semi-desert. A number of mammals are found in this habitat and about four hundred species of bird. Some small areas are protected but the collection of firewood and the conversion of the land to subsistence farming continues.
The Indus River Delta, forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea, mostly in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of the western tip of India. The delta covers an area of about 41,440 km2, and is approximately 210 km (130 mi) across where it meets the sea. The active part of the delta is 6,000 km2 in area (2,300 sq mi). The climate is arid, the region only receives between 25 and 50 centimetres of rainfall in a normal year. The delta is home to the largest arid mangrove forests in the world, as well as many birds, fish and the Indus dolphin.
Rann of Kutch Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Badin District, Sindh, Pakistan.
The Kori Creek is a tidal creek in the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat. It lies just to the west of the Great Rann of Kutch area of India. This region belonging to India is a part of the Indus River Delta which lies across Gujarat state in India and Sindh in Pakistan.
The wildlife of Pakistan comprises a diverse flora and fauna in a wide range of habitats from sea level to high elevation areas in the mountains, including 177 mammal and 660 bird species. This diverse composition of the country's fauna is associated with its location in the transitional zone between two major zoogeographical regions, the Palearctic, and the Oriental.
Pakistan's native fauna reflect its varied climatic zones.
The Rann of Kutch is a large area of salt marshes that span the border between India and Pakistan. It is located mostly in Gujarat, India, and in some parts of Sindh, Pakistan. It is divided into the Great Rann and Little Rann.
The Indus River Delta-Arabian Sea mangroves are a large mangrove ecoregion on the Arabian Sea coast of Sindh Province, Pakistan, and the Gulfs of Kutch and Khambhat in Gujarat, India. The mangroves are the seventh largest mangrove forest in the world.
The forestry sector of Pakistan is a main source of lumber, paper, fuelwood, latex, medicine as well as food and provide ecotourism and wildlife conservation purposes. 1.91% of Pakistan's land is covered in forest.
The ecology of the Himalayas varies with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice and snow at the highest elevations. The amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of climate, altitude, rainfall and soil conditions supports a variety of distinct plant and animal species, such as the Nepal gray langur
Biogeographic classification of India is the division of India according to biogeographic characteristics. Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species (biology), organisms, and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. India has a rich heritage of natural diversity. India ranks fourth in Asia and tenth in the world amongst the top 17 mega-diverse countries in the world. India harbours nearly 11% of the world's floral diversity comprising over 17500 documented flowering plants, 6200 endemic species, 7500 medicinal plants and 246 globally threatened species in only 2.4% of world's land area. India is also home to four biodiversity hotspots—Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Eastern Himalaya, Indo-Burma region, and the Western Ghats. Hence the importance of biogeographical study of India's natural heritage.
The Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the interior valleys and plateaus of the Iberian Peninsula. The ecoregion lies mostly in Spain, and includes some portions of eastern Portugal.
The Northeastern Spain and Southern France Mediterranean forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the Mediterranean coastal region of northeastern Spain and Southern France, and the Balearic Islands.
