Location

Taiwan is the largest island off the coast of China. The Taiwan Montane Forests is a Global ecoregion comprised of 2 terrestrial ecoregions: Taiwan subtropical evergreen forests and South Taiwan Monsoon rain forests. In the map below, the yellow shaded area is the subtropical evergreen forests, while the southern tip of the island is considered to be the South Taiwan Monsoon rain forests.

Taiwan Subtropical Evergreen Forests

Historically

Taiwan's economy is based on agriculture and industry. The island is densely settle and farmed for many centuries. We can infer that this was not the case before this time period. There weren't any roads and construction before the time of agriculture. The population today is about 20 million. Many people have migrated over from China decades ago. Forest cover today is about 52% of the total land area, which mostly consists of non-native tree plantations. Trees and forests must have been cut down in order to convert land to agriculture.

From the development of nature reserves and national parks to protect the different habitats, we know that  what was once plentiful is now in danger of becoming extinct. Taiwan is an important endemic bird area. There is now currently 15 restricted range species. These bird, majority that most likely had inhabited the lowland forests are now restricted to upland mountain slopes. This implies that the environment must have changed so much that these species could not adapt to and needed to find a suitable environment. Habitats may have been destroyed as well. With such a high bird species richness (338 species), the ecoregion must have high amounts of forest cover, near tropical latitude, and diverse landscapes. Another cause for the large amount of bird species is that Taiwan is located on the western Pacific coastal migratory routes.

Taiwan Montane Forests

Human Impacts

The conservation status currently is vulnerable in this ecoregion. Due to it's biodiversity, Taiwan is exposed to a lot of tourism, uncontrolled collection of wild plants, and large construction projects. There are over 20 million people on this relatively small island. It's economy is based on industry and agriculture. Therefore habitats, such as those in the Kenting National Park, are threatened by agriculture, road construction, mining, and thermal pollution caused by a nearby nuclear power plant. If the island continues to be exposed to these threats, the habitats will be destroyed and endangered species will become extinct. The island is known for its biodiversity, but that may change in the future.

Facts

Taiwan
Biological realms	-          Located between both the  Palaearctic and Indomalayan
Precipitation	-          Varied patterns across island
Mean annual Temperature	-          22 degrees Celsius -          10 degree Celsius seasonal variation
Climate	-          Tropical monsoon -          Frequently hit by typhoons
Ecoregions	-          Taiwan Subtropical Evergreen Forests -          South Taiwan Monsoon Rainforests

Taiwan Subtropical evergreen forests	South Taiwan monsoon rainforests
8,255,998 acres	639,998 acres
Occupies most of the island incl. its mountainous interior	low elevation coastal areas
affected by the northeast "winter monsoon"	summer southwest monsoon from the south china sea
Dominated by broadleaved species	2900 mm a year of precipitation
topographic complexity - many different forest types occur at different elevations on slope of different aspect	Southern tip of the island
tend to form concentric rings around the island ( lines of a topographic map)	located within the Tropic of Cancer
as elevation increases toward the interior, evergreen broadleaved forests are gradually replaced by deciduous hardwoods and conifers	Some interior mountains at the southern end of island
-          Southern part of Taiwan, tropical Montane forests are more seasonally variable in temperature and precipitation than are the lowland forests of the coastal plain

Toroko National Park                                                    Kenting National Park

Species

Restricted range species	15	- Mikado pheasant - Collared bush-robin - White-whiskered laughingthrush   - Flamecrest
Endangered plants	24	- Tree fern
Mammal species	48 7 Endemic 2/7 First class protected	- Taiwan macaque - Taiwan serow (2 first class protected)
Bird species	338 10 endemic 9 First class; 46 2ndclass protected	Mikado pheasant & Swinhoe’s pheasant (endemic)
Amphibians	30	Taipei tree frog, Formosan salamander
Reptiles	76
Freshwater fish species	130
Butterfly species	400

 Mikado pheasant

Swinhoe’s pheasantTaiwan macaque (below)

What can be done?

Currently, forests still remain on mountain slopes. However, those that are on coastal lowland areas have been mostly converted for agriculture. Taiwan's system of national parks and nature reserves offer protection to the habitats in those areas. Unfortunately, these national parks and reserves protect a higher portion of habitats in montane areas than in the coastal lowlands.Therefore conservation measures should be increased even more in lowland and coastal areas.


The WWF, also known as the World Wildlife Fund, and the Chinese government's Academy of Science, as well as other stakeholders are working with private sector groups to try and set up a forest certification systems. The WWF are helping communities and governments compromise on the different demands that are placed on forest resources. The WWF is also trying to raise awareness through newsletters and different publications.


Raising awareness would be a good start to improving the ecosystem. However, we would also need to find a way to prevent the collection of wild plants as well as prevent the destruction of habitats. A possibility would be creating more National reserves and National parks. Also reducing the amount of Tourism or limit the amount of tourism per time period can also be helpful in restoring the habitat as well.

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National Parks and Reserves

Yushan National Park (1,055 km²)

-          Include high mountains

-          Support mammals (Taiwan Serow, blackbear, Mikado pheasant, Swinhoe’s pheasant)

Shei-Pa National Park (769 km²)

-          Relatively new

-          Set aside for ecological protection rather than mountain tourism

-          Support endemic landlocked salmon and Taiwanese salamander

Tsenwen Estuary (3km²)

-          Small reserve on southwest coast

-          Provides critical habitat for black faced spoonbills

-          Important wintering habitat for other waterbird species

        Kenting National Park (326 km²)

-          Protects natural habitat at the southern tip of Taiwan

-           Includes both marine and terrestrial habitat

-          Heavily affected by tourism

-           Provides winter habitat at Lungluan Lake for shorebirds

-          And waterfowl that migrate from breeding areas in Japan and the Russian Far East

-           Larger mammals in the park include Taiwan Silka deer and Taiwanese macaque

Tawu Shan (470 km²) is Taiwan’s largest nature reserve

-          Lies within the South Taiwan monsoon rainforest ecoregion

-          Habitat here is montane subtropical to temperate

-          Does not support tropical forest

-          Does provide habitat for several mammals and birds rare in Taiwan (Sambar deer, Taiwan black bears, Winhoe’s pheasant)

References

Esaki, Yasuharu. Toroko National Park, Taiwan. Digital image. WildWorld. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/im/im0172_full.html>.
Kenting National Park, Taiwan. Digital image. WildWorld. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/im/im0171_full.html>.
Mikado Pheasant. Digital image. Wikipedia. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Mikado_Pheasant_398.jpg/250px-Mikado_Pheasant_398.jpg>.
Montane Forest in Taiwan. Digital image. Flickr. 24 May 2001. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/filipverbelen/2154588078/in/photostream/>.
Swinhoe’s Pheasant. Digital image. Wikipedia. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Swinhoe%27s_Pheasant_0673.jpg/240px-Swinhoe%27s_Pheasant_0673.jpg>.
Taiwan Macaque, Taiwan. Digital image. BirdQuest. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.birdquest-tours.com/gallery/Taiwan%20Macaque-Pete%20Morris-1975.jpg>.
Taiwan Subtropical Evergreen Forests. Digital image. Encyclopedia of Earth. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.eoearth.org/files/186901_187000/186940/taiwan-subtropical-evergreen-forests1.png>.
"Taiwan Montane Forests." WWF - Global. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/taiwan_montane_forests.cfm>.
"Taiwan Subtropical Evergreen Forests." Encyclopedia of Earth. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Taiwan_subtropical_evergreen_forests>.
"Terrestrial Ecoregions -- South Taiwan Monsoon Rain Forests (IM0171)." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/im/im0171_full.html>.