Descriptions
The Tropical Rainforest of Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, located in the Xishuangbanna 3 counties of Jinghong, Mengla, and Menghai in southern Yunnan province, is China’s most preserved tropical rainforest at high latitudes and high altitudes. The Xishuangbanna Rainforest is one of Asia’s biggest jungles. The Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest comprises around 2,402 square kilometers (927 square miles). In 1993, UNESCO designated it as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve.
Environment
The primitive forest park in Xishuangbanna offers a unique primeval forest natural environment as well as attractive ethnic customs. There are more than 50 scenic area attractions in the park, including the best-preserved tropical rainforest valleys of the south of the tropic of cancer, the peacock breeding base, the monkey domestication base, large ethnic customs performance field, Aini ethnic stockaded village, Jiulong waterfall, Manshuanglong pagoda, hundreds of meters of granite relief, golden lake legend, ethnic flavor barbecue field, and so on. It was named one of China’s top ten most beautiful forests by the Chinese National Geography magazine.
Plants and Animals
- Xishuangbanna is one of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots, with over 5,000 vascular plant species, accounting for 16% of China’s total plant diversity.
- Its huge breadth is so diversified that it has been subdivided into several subcategories and encompasses at least eight different types of biological zones.
- The forest region here comprises more than 3,500 varieties of flora, including more than 50 unique plant species, as well as animals, including numerous endangered animal species such as Asian elephants, Indo-Chinese tigers, and gibbons.
- This rainforest also has a varied species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, which account for 36 percent, 21%, and 14% of China’s biodiversity, respectively.
- Asian elephants, Indo-Chinese tigers, and green peacocks are among the animals that call the area home.
- The tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna is classified into two vegetation subtypes: tropical seasonal rainforest and tropical montane rainforest.
- The tropical montane rainforest is found on mountains over 3,300 feet in elevation.
- Cloud forest, often known as montane rainforest, is a kind of cloud forest.
- Gujjar shephards are the main users of these woodlands.
Ecosystem
Xishuangbanna’s tropical seasonal rain forest is one of China’s most diverse forest ecosystems. This region is also a biodiversity hotspot for global conservation objectives. In 2007, a 20-hectare patch in a Parashorea Chinensis-dominated forest was developed with the goal of monitoring the long-term ecological dynamics of the forest. In the 20 ha plot, a total of 95498 free-standing stems with DBH 3 1 cm were observed, with 468 species belonging to 213 genera and 70 families, with 336 individuals remaining unidentified.
In terms of phytocoenological characteristics such as vertical stratification, life form spectrum, species richness, and so on, the tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna is very similar to the typical tropical rainforest in the equatorial region, but it is distinguished by a distinct change in physiognomy between seasons. As it occurs near the tropical rainforest’s latitudinal and altitudinal borders, the flora of the tropical rainforest is endowed with the nature of the northern boundary of SE Asia’s tropical zone and is transitional toward the flora of China’s subtropical forest. The region has lately been opened up to large-scale exploitation, and primary forests, particularly rainforests, have suffered significant degradation.
