Country

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

Like its French neighbor, Sint Maarten falls entirely within the Caribbean shrublands, the xeric scrub ecoregion of the drier Lesser Antilles. The island is low and steep-hilled rather than high and volcanic, so it lacks a wet windward forest zone; the native vegetation is seasonal dry scrub, small thorny trees, cacti, and salt-tough coastal plants. That sets the gardening terms plainly. Drought is the recurring condition, and the plants that hold up without irrigation are the ones the ecoregion already grows - together with the classic dry-tropical garden standbys such as bougainvillea and frangipani that share the same tolerances. The ecoregion rates Nature Could Recover, and keeping remnant hillside scrub is the cheapest erosion control and habitat the island has.