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Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean, lying south of Cuba and west of Hispaniola. The Jamaican moist forests ecoregion covers an area of 8,192 km 2, and covers 85% of the island of Jamaica. It includes the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains in eastern Jamaica, and Cockpit Country further to the west. [1]
The Jamaican dry forests are dominated by plants in the Rubiaceae, the Euphorbiaceae and the Myrtaceae. In this regard they are similar to Puerto Rican dry forests , but differ sharply from dry forests on the mainland of South and Central America which are dominated by the Fabaceae and the Bignoniaceae . [ 5 ]
Habitat loss is a major concern due to rapid changes that have occurred in the Jamaican landscape. While the deforestation rate is at 0.1%, presents as an imminent threat as the Jamaican government has planted monocrops of fast growing pines while uprooting native, pre-existing rainforests to meet the fuel demands of the region. [4]
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A 1970 survey of the forest noted 271 species of plants in the forest of which 53 are only found in Jamaica. [ 3 ] The forest is home to threatened Jamaican endemic animals, including the Jamaican iguana and the blue-tailed galliwasp .
The Cockpit Country is Jamaica's largest remaining contiguous rainforest. Cockpit Country Forest Reserve was designated in 1950, and covers an area of 221.75 km 2 . [ 9 ] In 1979 an unpublished paper proposed preserving the area as a National Park. [ 10 ]
Dry forests tend to exist in the drier areas north and south of the tropical rainforest belt, south or north of the subtropical deserts, generally in two bands: one between 10° and 20°N latitude and the other between 10° and 20°S latitude. The most diverse dry forests in the world occur in western and southern Mexico and in the Bolivian ...
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