ABSTRACT
Three large regions of rainforest occur in the Amazon Basin, Equatorial Africa, and south and south-east Asia (Figure 2.1). Away from these areas, where rainfall decreases and becomes seasonal, the rainforest is replaced by tropical monsoon forest, tropical grassland with trees, a poorer type of tropical grassland and finally by semidesert scrubland. The vegetation outside the rainforest has been greatly destroyed, and survives only in protected or relatively inaccessible areas. In the mountains, the tropical rainforests are replaced altitudinally by mountain rainforests, subalpine forests, alpine forests, and finally, on ranges that rise beyond 3,500 m, a treeless vegetation community. Mangroves in suitable places protect the coastal environment.
