THE Earth’s cloud forests, vital and unique habitats for thousands of rare and endangered species, and suppliers of year-round water supplies for farmers, rural communities and many rapidly growing cities, are under increasing threat from factors including agriculture, road-building and climate change.

New figures, the result of the first comprehensive survey of these rare, romantic and fragile worlds, indicate that cloud forests cover an area of just under 400,000 square kilometres, or less than 2.5 per cent of the globe’s tropical rain forests.

One surprising finding is that, contrary to previous estimates, the majority of these moist humid forests are found in Asia rather than Latin America. The report, Cloud Forest Agenda, estimates that 60 per cent of cloud forests are found in Asia with around 25 per cent in Latin America and 15 per cent in Africa.

The findings underline the vital need for improved monitoring and conservation measures in Asia, including regeneration of damaged and degraded cloud forests, if these precious habitats are to survive the 21st century. Priority countries may include Indonesia and Papua New Guinea which have been found to hold considerable amounts of cloud forest.

The report makes it clear that conserving and restoring cloud forests is not only a matter of aesthetics or a love of nature, but one of crucial economic importance for millions of people in the developing world.

The ability of cloud forests to strip and retain moisture from cloud and fogs is key to abundant, clean and predictable water supplies in many areas, especially during dry seasons. The cloud forests of La Tigra National Park in Honduras provide over 40 per cent of the water for the 850,000 people living in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Other cities where cloud forests supply significant amounts of water include Quito, Ecuador, Mexico City and Dar Es Salaam.

A unique feature of these forests is that they can capture moisture through condensation from the clouds, which also makes these habitats very sensitive to climate change. If temperatures rise one degree in the lowland this equates to two degrees in the mountain and can result in the clouds lifting and the cloud forest drying out. As a result of several weeks of dry weather in the Monteverde cloud forest of Costa Rica in 1987, 25 of the 50 frog and toad species disappeared and only five have returned. In Peru, over 30 per cent of the 272 species of endemic mammals, birds and frogs are found in cloud forests. Road and tourists developments, including golf courses, are threatening forests in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia’s Genting and Cameron Highlands and Sabah’s Mount Kinabalu. — Samina Iqbal