Country

Bhutan: 6 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Bhutan compresses six ecoregions into a single Himalayan slope. From the Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests and Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests in the hot southern duars, the sequence climbs through Himalayan subtropical pine forests and Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests to Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests and finally the alpine shrub and meadows along the high frontier. Climate and planting logic are set almost entirely by altitude: subtropical warmth and monsoon rain at the bottom, cool temperate broadleaf conditions mid-slope, and short alpine seasons at the top, all within a small country. Gardeners can match plants to elevation bands with unusual precision here. The Brahmaputra Valley forests at the southern edge carry a Nature Imperiled rating, the most converted of the six.