Global 200 Ecoregions

Where Snow Leopards still prowl and Tigers Still Roar
Himalayn highlands & jungles

Map of Himalayan region
 
Major Habitat Type
Temperate Conifer & Broad Leaf Forests
Indo-Malagan

Biogeographic Region
Paleotropical

Location
Nepal, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, China



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Biological Diversity

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Summary


The Himalayas encompass an incredible range of habitat types with some of the most diverse and distinctive assemblages of temperate and subtropical biological communities in the world. The Himalayan ecoregions found in Nepal provide an excellent example of the globally outstanding biodiversity of the region. Rising to some 8,850 metres, Nepal's Himalayan Mountains are the highest and certainly one of the most spectacular ranges in the world. Nepal's formidable terrain and its landlocked location between India to the south and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China to the north, combined with its long history of self-imposed isolation, have made this one of the world's least developed regions.

Nepal's diverse ecosystems include subtropical forest and grasslands, protected in the Royal Chitwan National Park near the Indian border; lush rhododendron forests that fringe the southern slopes of the Annapurna Himal; permanent snow fields and glaciers on the Himalayan ridges; and wind-swept alpine desert on the Tibetan plateau.

WWF's efforts to help protect Nepal's ecological and cultural riches have focused on the Annapurna Himal region in the centre of the country, west of Mount Everest. This rugged mountain region, 16 kilometres long and eight kilometres wide, boasts 40 peaks higher than 7,000 metres. Although much of the Annapurna Himal is still pristine, the forests are being increasingly logged to provide fuel for tourists. WWF helped to create the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal's largest protected area encompassing some 7,000 square kilometres, and is working with the people of some 300 villages to protect better the remaining forest.

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