Hellshire Hills is a region of dry limestone hills in
Saint Catherine Parish
Saint Catherine () is a parish in the south east of Jamaica. It is located in the county of Middlesex, and is one of the island's largest and most economically valued parishes because of its many resources. It includes the first capital of Ja ...
, Jamaica, which forms part of the
Portland Bight Protected Area.
Environment
The region supports one of the largest remaining areas of dry limestone forest in the Caribbean. A 1970 survey of the forest noted 271 species of plants in the forest of which 53 are only found in Jamaica.
The forest is home to threatened Jamaican
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
animals, including the
Jamaican iguana and the
blue-tailed galliwasp.
The area has also been designated an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(IBA) by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
because it supports significant populations of many Jamaican bird species.
See also
*
Jamaican dry forests
References
Landforms of Jamaica
Important Bird Areas of Jamaica
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