Cloud Forests Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Cloud Forests Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Cloud forests (also known as tropical montane cloud forests) are a rare and highly threatened type of evergreen forest found in the mountains of the tropics. Their name is derived from the fact that they are frequently enveloped by clouds and mist and are persistently wet. Cloud forests are mountain rain forests. The vegetation is characterized by dense canopies, reduced tree stature, and a high proportion of biomass as epiphytes, including an abundance of ferns, mosses, and bromeliads. Cloud forests cover less than 1 percent of the earth’s land area, and just 2.5 percent of all tropical forests. They are found at elevations of 2,000-3,500 meters (6,500-11,500 feet) in large inland mountain systems, and as low as 500 meters (1,600 feet) in coastal mountains and tropical islands (such as Hawaii and Fiji). Sixty percent of cloud forests are in Asia (primarily in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia). Twentyfive percent are in Latin America (Mexico, Central America, and Andean South America), and 15 percent are located in Africa (notably in the uplands of the Congo and east Africa).

Despite their scarcity, cloud forests are of great ecological and economic importance. The varied topographic and climatic conditions of mountain regions provide for a multiplicity of microhabitats. Cloud forests have high rates of biodiversity (total number of species) and endemism (species found nowhere else), reflecting their immense biological wealth, and yet most species are still unknown to science. Cloud forests cover only 1 percent of Mexico, but contain 12 percent of its plant species. Andean cloud forests make up 3.2 percent of the South American land area, but harbor 65 percent of the continent’s endemic mammals. There are more than 1,000 species of orchids in the cloud forests of Peru. Cloud forests provide habitat for some of the earth’s rarest and most threatened species, including mountain gorillas in Africa and the quetzal bird of Central America.

Nature’s Water Towers

Cloud forests have an important watershed function. Because they are frequently covered in clouds, they intercept and capture water that condenses on the vegetation. This cloud stripping ability can enhance net precipitation 20-60 percent beyond normal rainfall amounts. Feeding the headwaters of streams, they provide a year-round source of unpolluted freshwater for irrigation, urban water supplies, and hydroelectric power. Because cloud forests are located on steep slopes, they also protect the soil from erosion. Cloud forests are an important source of timber and fuelwood for local peoples, as well as food in the form of fruit and game. They also contain many medicinal and ornamental plants. Cloud forests draw tourists because of their beauty, unique mountain environments, and rare birds. They may also play a role in monitoring climate change because they are very sensitive to atmospheric variation.

Ninety percent of cloud forests are gone, making those that remain among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Yet, they have received much less attention than lowland tropical rainforests. As economies grow, human migrations to frontiers increase, land values rise, and demands for marginal land intensify, people increasingly encroach on this important, fragile, and unique resource. The biggest threat is land use conversion for subsistence and commercial agriculture.

Cattle grazing in Latin America and Africa, vegetable production in parts of Asia, and drug cultivation in the Andes and in southeast Asia are problematic. Timber harvest, especially in Asia, is a grave threat. In Africa, hunting, mining, and fires are concerns. Road building is another serious threat to cloud forests because roads provide access and permit deforestation and resource extraction. Roads also contribute to habitat fragmentation, which breaks up large areas of forest into smaller, biologically less productive patches, as well as accentuating the edge effect. Forest edges are subject to drying and are vulnerable to predators and invasive species. Cloud forests increasingly exist as islands in a sea of human-impacted areas.

Immediate action is required to protect cloud forests. The Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative was launched in 1999 under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Protected areas such as national parks are the main means of conserving cloud forests. More parks, as well as better management of existing areas, are needed. Many private reserves are being created, such as Monteverde in Costa Rica. Because local people frequently live in and around cloud forests and depend on them for their livelihoods, they need to be included in the management of cloud forests. Promoting sustainable farming systems can also help. Some landowners even receive payments for so-called environmental services that cloud forests provide. Finally, ecotourism can be a benefit because people will pay to see protected forests and the wildlife they support.

Bibliography:

Steven Churchill, Henrik Balslev, Enrique Forero, and James Luteyn, , Biodiversity and Conservation of Neotropical Montane Forests (New York Botanical Garden, 1993);
Lawrence Hamilton, James Juvik, and F. Scatena, eds., Tropical Montane Cloud Forests (Springer-Verlag, 1995);
John Roach, Cloud Forests Fading in the Mist, Their Little Known Treasures (National Geographic News, 2001).