The Myanmar coastal rain forests‘Rain forest’ or ‘rainforest’?
/ref> is a tropical moist broadleaf forest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. The ecoregion occupies Myanmar's coastal lowlands along the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...

and the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

Geography

The Myanmar coastal rain forests occupies the coastal lowlands of Myanmar. It extends from the

Naf River The Naf River ( ''Naf Nodi'' ; ; ) is an international river marking part of the Bangladesh–Myanmar border, border of southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar. Geography The Naf's average depth is , and maximum depth is . Its width ...

, which forms the border between

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, along the Rakhine coast. It also occupies the lower basins of the Irrawaddy and Sittaung rivers, and the coastal lowlands of

Mon State Mon State (, ; ) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to the north and Tanintharyi Region to the south, also having a short border with Thailand's Kanchanabu ...

and

Tanintharyi Region Tanintharyi Region (, ; Mon: or ; formerly Tenasserim Division and Tanintharyi Division) is a region of Myanmar, covering the long narrow southern part of the country on the northern Malay Peninsula, reaching to the Kra Isthmus. It borders ...

along the Andaman Sea. In Rakhine it is bounded on the east by the

Mizoram–Manipur–Kachin rain forests The Mizoram–Manipur–Kachin rain forests is a subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion which occupies the lower hillsides of the mountainous border region joining Bangladesh, China's Yunnan Province, India, and Myanmar. The ecoregion c ...

, which occupy the lower slopes of the

Arakan Mountains The Arakan Mountains, natively referred as Rakhine Yoma () and technically known as the Southern Indo-Burman Range, are a mountain range in western Myanmar, between the coast of Rakhine State and the Central Myanmar Basin, in which flows the Irra ...

. In the Irrawaddy and Sittaung basins, the

Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests The Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in central Myanmar. The ecoregion occupies the central basin of the Irrawaddy River and the lower basin of the Salween River. The ecoregion is characterized by ...

lie inland to the north, while the Irrawaddy freshwater swamp forests occupy the wide Irrawaddy Delta to the south. Further east, the Kayah–Karen montane rain forests and Tenasserim–South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests cover the eastern mountains, and another enclave of the Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests lies in the lower Salween basin. The

Myanmar Coast mangroves The Burmese or Myanmar Coast mangroves are an ecoregion in Burma, Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh where there were once thick forests of mangroves but today most has been cleared, resulting in loss of habitat for wildlife. Location and descript ...

fringe the coast and river estuaries.Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment.'' Washington, DC: Island Press.

Climate

The climate is humid and tropical. Rainfall is highest during the summer, when

Southwest monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

brings moisture-laden air from the

Flora

The forests are mostly made up of evergreen trees, or semi-evergreen trees which drop some of their leaves during the dry season.

Dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

s are the predominant trees, and common dipterocarps include ''

Dipterocarpus alatus ''Dipterocarpus alatus'', the resin tree, is a tropical forest tree, of dense evergreen or mixed dense forests, in tropical Asia. It is considered vulnerable. Description ''Dipterocarpus alatus'' is a large tree, growing tall. It is insect poll ...

, D. turbinatus, D. obtusifolius, Anisoptera glabra,

Hopea odorata ''Hopea odorata'' is a species of tree in the plant family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Description ''H. odorata'' is a large tree reaching up to in hei ...

'', and '' Parashorea stellata''. Other trees include '' Swintonia floribunda, Pentace burmanica,

Lagerstroemia calyculata ''Lagerstroemia calyculata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Lythraceae''. It is known as the "Guava Crape Myrtle" (; ''tabaek''; Cambodian name: ); the name is derived from its very characteristic mottled flaky bark. It is found ...

, L. floribunda'', and '' L. speciosa''. Understory plants include ''Calamus'' palms and the creeping bamboo '' Neohouzeaua helferi''.

Fauna

Large mammals in the ecoregion include

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

(''Panthera tigris''),

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...

(''Elephas maximus''),

Malayan tapir The Malayan tapir (''Tapirus indicus''), also called Asian tapir, Asiatic tapir, oriental tapir, Indian tapir, piebald tapir, or black-and-white tapir, is the only living tapir species outside of the Americas. It is native to Southeast Asia from ...

(''Tapirus indicus''),

dhole The dhole ( ; ''Cuon alpinus'') is a canid native to South, East and Southeast Asia. It is anatomically distinguished from members of the genus ''Canis'' in several aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third ...

(''Cuon alpinus''),

sun bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a bear species in the Family (biology), family Ursidae found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'' and the smallest bear species, standing nearly ...

(''Ursus malayanus''),

clouded leopard The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through Northeast India and Bhutan to mainland Southeast Asia into South China. It w ...

(''Pardofelis nebulosa''),

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

(''Panthera pardus''),

Asian golden cat The Asian golden cat (''Catopuma temminckii'') is a medium-sized wild cat native to the northeastern Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and China. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2025, and is threatened by poaching ...

(''Catopuma temmincki''), and

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...

(''Bos gaurus''). Habitat loss and poaching have made large mammals scarce. The

Sumatran rhinoceros The Sumatran rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis''), also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of rhinoceros; it is the o ...

(''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis'') was once native to the ecoregion, but Myanmar's last rhinoceros was killed in 1984. The Burma pipistrelle (''Hypsugo lophurus'') is an endemic bat, and the disc-footed bat (''Eudiscopus denticulus'') is a near-endemic. Over 350 species of birds live in the ecoregion.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 3,534 km², or 6%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. About half the unprotected area is still forested.

External links

References

{{reflist Ecoregions of Myanmar * Indomalayan ecoregions Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests