Country

East Timor: one ecoregion. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

East Timor sits within a single ecoregion, the Timor and Wetar deciduous forests, a tropical dry broadleaf system covering Timor and its neighboring islands in the Australasian realm. That placement is the key fact about growing here: unlike the ever-wet islands to the west, Timor has a strongly seasonal monsoon climate, and its natural forest is largely deciduous, dropping leaves through a long dry season. The mountains catch more moisture and stay greener than the lowlands. Planting revolves around the wet season: rain-fed crops and establishment happen then, while dry-season survival favors deciduous trees, deep-rooted natives, and drought-tolerant species, with irrigation reserved for the months the monsoon withholds. Warmth, at least, is never in question at these latitudes.