Country

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

Kiribati's atolls belong to the Central Polynesian tropical moist forests, an Oceania-realm ecoregion of scattered low islands rather than a continuous forest. The formal biome name promises more canopy than coral atolls can deliver: the reality is a warm, humid oceanic climate on thin sandy soils a few feet above the tide, carrying coconut palms, pandanus, breadfruit, and salt-tolerant strand vegetation. The ecoregion rates Nature Imperiled, and on atolls the vegetation and the land itself are hard to separate. Growing anything here means working with salt, coral sand, and limited fresh water; the plants that succeed are the traditional atoll species, and gardens are essentially cultivated versions of the native strand forest.