Caribbean
Map 1 shows the distribution of forests in the Caribbean, for countries for which data were available to us. Countries in the Caribbean not covered by our data are listed in Appendix xxx. Fifteen forest types are represented on the map, including disturbed natural forest and some plantations. Data on plantations and disturbed forests give an indication of the value of forests for conservation and so are are important, but are not widely available. This region supports the whole range of tropical forest types used in this study (15). Considering that the Caribbean is the smallest of the 12 world regions used in this study, the implications for diversity of forest systems is significant. An interesting contrast is the number of ecological zones: there are only five in this region (Map 2.), the lowest number for any of the regions.
Predictably the countries registering the highest forest cover in the region were the Greater Antilles. The difference between the cover in the Dominican Republic and that in Haiti was very large, even though their ecological zone patterns are not that different (Map 2, Fig. 2, Table 1). Of the Greater Antilles Jamaica had the highest percentage forest protected, with the Dominican Republic a close second (Fig.2). Puerto Rico and Haiti both had less than 10% protected. Of the Lesser Antilles Martinique showed the highest percent protected figure (70%), which was also the highest overall figure. St Kitts and Nevis and Barbados had none protected; all the other Lesser Antilles had more than 10% protected.
Exotic species plantations were recorded in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and St. Lucia, and 6.2% of these were in protected areas (Table 2, Fig. 1). Needleleaf forests were only recorded in Dominican Republic and Cuba (note that this refers to native needleleaf forests, not plantations). Thorn forest was only recorded in Cuba and Jamaica, although the related deciduous/semi-deciduous forests were recorded from seven countries. Mangroves covered the greatest area of any forest type (Fig. 1) and were 11% protected. The deciduous/semi-deciduous broadleaf forests had the second greatest cover figure, with 15% protected. These occurred in seven of the 12 countries in the study. The montane forests had the highest proportion under protection of any forest type (82% and 40%, Fig. 1). This was due to a good level of protection in all of the countries which supported them (Table 2). The upper montane type was present in four countries, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and Saint Lucia. The only forest type that showed no protection was mixed needleleaf/broadleaf forest, which was only recorded from the Dominican Republic. However the sparse trees and parkland category was only 1.2% protected and only occurred in Puerto Rico and in Saint Lucia. Freshwater swamp forests were 7.4% protected. By far the most of this forest type occurred in Cuba.
There were five ecological zones with forest in the region (Fig. 3). The excluded forest category was created through mis-matches between the ecological zone coverage and the forest and national boundary coverages in the GIS system, and was confined to forests near the coast. It consisted mainly of mangrove (Table 3). Forests were most abundant in the ecological zone lowland moist with long dry season (Fig. 3). This was the only zone in which all forest types were represented (Table 3). Two forest types were represented in all zones: semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest and thorn forest. This indicates that there may have been quite a number of different ecological variants of each forest type, which should be examined individually for their uniqueness and protection status. Most of the freshwater swamp forest was in the lowland moist with long dry season ecological zone, but was only 4.8% protected there. Most of this was in Cuba. Three of the zones that had semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest had an inadequate amount under protection: the lowland sub-dry, premontane moist and premontane dry zones. Of these three variants the premontane moist zone forest had by far the greatest cover, but had negligible protection (0.2%, from Table 3). These occur mainly in Puerto Rico and Cuba (Map 1, Map 2). The zone with the greatest cover of deciduous/semi-deciduous broadleaf forest, lowland moist with long dry season, had only a small percentage under protection (2.8%, from Table 3). Much of this variant occurred in the north of Cuba in the region of the Archipelago de Camaguey, both on the cays and on the mainland, as well as on the Isla de la Juventud. Two of the possible variants of thorn forest were unprotected, in the lowland sub-dry and premontane dry zones. These forests only occurred in Cuba and Jamaica (Table 2). The mixed needleleaf/broadleaf forest had three possible variants and was unprotected in all three. These only occur in the Dominican Republic, and the greatest cover is in the premontane moist zone. The sclerophyllous dry forests occurred in four of the five zones in the region, with most concentrated in the lowland moist with long dry season and premontane moist zones (Table 3). The forests in the premontane dry zone had no protection, those in the lowland very moist zone had minimal protection and the premontane moist variant had only 5.8% protected (from Table 3). There is some sclerophyllous dry forest in Cuba but it is in the lowland moist with long dry season zone and so the type already has more protection than the other types which only occur in the Dominican Republic (Table 2, Table 3, Map 1, Map 2).
In an attempt to impartially indicate natural, undisturbed forest variants which may be under the most immediate threat of destruction, a list was drawn up that pinpointed those under 100 km2 in extent with none protected. These are variants of relatively limited extent and which do not even have any legal protection; possibly much less actual protection. Some of these forest variants may indeed be truly rare and unprotected types, others are clearly fragments of forest at the end of their ranges, as for example certain types of dry forest should not normally occur in moist ecological zones, or vice versa. An in-depth analysis of these forest variants is outside the scope of this study. There were 9 of the 48 variants in the Caribbean that met these criteria, and these are listed below (T=tropical forest type, N=non-tropical forest type):
Apparent incongruities between the forest types and the zones they occur in were caused by the coarse nature of the ecological zones classifications and differences in definitions of forest types in the source map data for different countries. However, the fact that the forest type extent within the zone was limited in addition to the incongruity could mean that in this area the forest type had reached its ecological limit. In certain zones where the sparse trees and parkland forest type would seem to be anomalous (moist areas that are not too cold for forest growth) this forest type may indicate human disturbance that was not documented in the source maps for forest type.
Of the five ecological zones in the region, all had more than 20% of their area covered with forest (Table 4). The premontane dry zone had the highest percent of its area forested (47%). The zone with the highest percentage of its land covered with protected forest was the lowland very moist zone (7%). The lowland sub-dry zone, which was 40% forested, had no protected forests.
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