 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2014) |
Indo-Burma is a biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International.
| This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2014) |
Indo-Burma is a biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International.
Indo-Burma encompasses 2,373,000 square kilometres (916,000 sq mi) of tropical Asia, east of the Ganges-Brahmaputra lowlands. Formerly including the Himalaya chain and the associated foothills in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, Indo-Burma has now been more narrowly redefined as the Indo-Chinese subregion. The area contains the Lower Mekong catchment. It begins in eastern Bangladesh and then extends across north-eastern India, south of the Brahmaputra River, to encompass nearly all of Myanmar, part of southern and western Yunnan Province in China, all of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cambodia and Vietnam, the vast majority of Thailand and a small part of Peninsular Malaysia. In addition, the hotspot covers the coastal lowlands of southern China (in southern Guangxi and Guangdong), as well as several offshore islands, such as Hainan Island (of China) in the South China Sea and the Andaman Islands (of India) in the Andaman Sea. The hotspot contains the Lower Mekong catchment.[ citation needed ]
The hotspot encompasses 33 terrestrial ecoregions, which include tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, and mangroves. [1]
The transition to the Sundaland Hotspot in the south occurs on the Thai-Malay Peninsula, the boundary between the two hotspots is represented by the Kangar-Pattani Line, which cuts across the Thailand-Malaysia border, though some analyses indicate that the phytogeographical and zoogeographical transition between the Sundaland and Indo-Burma biotas may lie just to the north of the Isthmus of Kra, associated with a gradual change from wet seasonal evergreen dipterocarp rainforest to mixed moist deciduous forest.[ citation needed ]
Much of Indo-Burma is characterized by distinct seasonal weather patterns. During the northern winter months, dry, cool winds blow from the stable continental Asian high-pressure system, resulting in a dry period under clear skies across much of the south, center, and west of the hotspot (the dry, northeast monsoon). As the continental system weakens in spring, the wind direction reverses and air masses forming the southwest monsoon picks up moisture from the seas to the southwest and bring abundant rains as they rise over the hills and mountains. [ citation needed ]
A wide diversity of ecosystems is represented in this hotspot, including mixed wet evergreen, dry evergreen, deciduous, and montane forests. There are also patches of shrublands and woodlands on karst limestone outcrops and, in some coastal areas, scattered heath forests. In addition, a wide variety of distinctive, localized vegetation formations occur in Indo-Burma, including lowland floodplain swamps, mangroves, and seasonally inundated grasslands.[ citation needed ]
The area includes portions of eastern India (including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), the eastern part of Bangladesh (Chittagong hill tracts), southernmost China, most of Myanmar (excluding the northern tip), most of Thailand (excluding the southern tip), and all of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
Six large mammal species have been discovered since the 1990s: the large-antlered muntjac, [2] the Annamite muntjac, [3] the grey-shanked douc, [4] the Annamite striped rabbit, [5] the leaf deer, [6] and the saola.[ citation needed ] [7]
Ten species of the Indo-Burma are threatened: saola, Eld's deer, Cat Ba langur, fishing cat, giant ibis, Mekong giant catfish, spoon-billed sandpiper, red-headed vulture and white-rumped vulture, sarus crane and the Irrawaddy dolphin. [8]
The Indo-Burma Hotspot is one of the environments on planet Earth under the highest threat of destruction. As the hotspot also is one of the most species rich and home to many endangered species found nowhere else, the current threat is even more alarming. [8]
Indo-Burma was one of the first places where humans developed agriculture, and has a history of using fire to clear land for agriculture and other needs. The need for agricultural products has increased in recent years, with the expansion of both human populations and markets. This has contributed to widespread forest destruction; tree plantations (teak, rubber, oil palm) have replaced large areas of lowland forest, while coffee, tea, vegetable crops and sugarcane plantations threaten montane and hill forests. Other threats to forests include logging, mining for gems and ore, firewood collection, and charcoal production. [9]
Aquatic ecosystems are also under intense development pressure in many areas. Freshwater floodplain swamps and wetlands are destroyed by draining for wet rice cultivation, particularly in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. Rivers have been dammed in order to store water to generate electricity for countries’ economic growth, or for export to neighboring countries to generate foreign exchange earnings. Damming a river section transforms that section into a large pond, reduces the temperature and oxygen content, and increases river-bed erosion and water turbidity downriver.
Reservoir operation procedures result in occasional or regular flooding of sandbars, sandbanks, stretches of channel mosaic, and other habitats that would normally be exposed during the dry season, with impacts on nesting bird and turtle species.[ citation needed ]
Mangroves have been converted to small shrimp aqua-cultural ponds, while intertidal mudflats have been afforested with mangrove or intensely fished by lines of stack nets, which severely impacts their value as feeding habitat for migratory waterbirds and other species. Moreover, sand dune ecosystems are severely threatened by afforestation, for instance, with the Australian exotic Casuarina equisetifolia. Overfishing and the increasing use of destructive fishing techniques diminishes the fish population in both coastal and offshore marine ecosystems.[ citation needed ]
The area also holds endemism in freshwater turtle species, most of which are threatened with extinction, due to over-harvesting and extensive habitat loss. Bird life in Indo-Burma is diverse, holding almost 1,300 different bird species, including the threatened white-eared night-heron, the grey-crowned crocias, and the orange-necked partridge.[ citation needed ]
Cambodia is a country in mainland Southeast Asia. It borders Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, the Gulf of Thailand and covers a total area of approximately 181,035 km2 (69,898 sq mi). The country is situated in its entirety inside the tropical Indomalayan realm and the Indochina Time zone (ICT).
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". For example, based on their levels of endemism, Madagascar gets multiple listings, ancient Lake Baikal gets one, and the North American Great Lakes get none.
The saola, also called spindlehorn, Asian unicorn, or infrequently, Vu Quang bovid, is one of the world's rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine native to the Annamite Range in Vietnam and Laos. It was described in 1993 following a discovery of remains in Vũ Quang National Park by a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, although only for short periods as they died within a matter of weeks to months. The species was first reported in 1992 by Do Tuoc, a forest ecologist, and his associates. The first photograph of a living saola was taken in captivity in 1993. The most recent one was taken in 2013 by a movement-triggered camera in the forest of central Vietnam. It is the only species in the genus Pseudoryx.
The Northern Indochina subtropical forests are a subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of northern Indochina, covering portions of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and China's Yunnan Province.
The wildlife of Vietnam is rich in flora and fauna as reflected by its unique biodiversity. Saola, rare and antelope-like animal categorized under the bovine subfamily, was found in 1992 in Vũ Quang National Park. In the 1990s, three other muntjac species, the deer-like Truong Son muntjac, giant muntjac and Pu Hoat muntjac, were also discovered. Conservation protection and scientific studies of the ecology of Vietnam, particularly in the protected forest areas, have been given priority attention by the Government of Vietnam. Laws were enacted to set up Xuân Thủy Wetland National Park, four UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, and Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Parks; the last two are also designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The wildlife of Laos encompasses the animals and plants found in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a landlocked country in southeastern Asia. Part of the country is mountainous and much of it is still clad in tropical broadleaf forest. It has a great variety of animal and plant species.
Pù Mát National Park is a national park in Nghệ An Province, in Vietnam's North Central Coast region. It is part of the Western Nghệ An Biosphere Reserve.
The Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests are a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of Indochina.
Nakai-Nam Theun National Park in Nakai District, Khammouane Province, Laos, is one of the last remaining wildernesses in Southeast Asia. Nakai-Nam Theun covers approximately 4,270 km2 of the Annamite Range and the adjacent Nakai Plateau in Khammouane and Bolikhamsai Provinces. It was designated a national park on 15 February 2019 by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 36, 15 February 2019. It is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). It is adjacent to the Vu Quang National Park of Vietnam.
Núi Chúa National Park, formerly Núi Chúa Nature Reserve is a national park in the province of Ninh Thuận Province, on the border with Khánh Hòa Province, South Central Coast, Vietnam.
The Cardamom Mountains rain forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in Southeast Asia, as identified by the WWF. The ecoregion covers the Cardamom Mountains and Elephant Mountains and the adjacent coastal lowlands in eastern Thailand and southwestern Cambodia, as well as the Vietnamese island of Dao Phu Quoc.
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.
Bolikhamsai is a province of Laos. Pakxan, Thaphabat, Pakkading, Borikhane, Viengthong, and Khamkeut are its districts and Pakxan is its capital city. The province is the site of the Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country's largest hydroelectric project.
Many areas of Vietnam are under protection. While the national reserves cover small areas of scientific significance with restricted access, the national parks also cover wetlands of Ramsar designated areas and BirdLife International inscribed bird areas. The largest of the national parks initially covered were the Cúc Phương National Park, the Cát Tiên National Park, and the Côn Đảo National Park which to start with were forest areas cum reserves or prohibited areas. The objective for creating national parks was to allow access to the reserved areas as a part of ecotourism and cultural needs with full attention to the basic approach of conservation of natural environmental resources.
The Northern Annamites rain forests ecoregion covers the rugged and relatively unexplored northern Annamite Mountains of central Laos and Vietnam. There are high numbers of endemic plant species, and the relative remoteness and isolation of the area supports many rare and endangered animals. Rainfall is somewhat less than the lowland rainforest of the lower elevations in Vietnam, and the temperatures slightly cooler due to the higher elevation.
The Southern Annamites montane rain forests ecoregion covers a region of high biodiversity in the central and southern mountains of the Annamite Range in Vietnam. Terrain ranges from wet lowland forest to evergreen hardwood and conifer montane rain forest. There is a short dry season centered on January–February, but fog and dew are common throughout the year and support a lush forest character.