Eastern Shan semi-evergreen forest

Description

This ecosystem is likely to be similar to Western Shan semi-evergreen forest. It occurs at higher elevations on the eastern and southern regions of the Shan plateau, with lower mean annual temperatures and lower precipitation. It is a semi- evergreen forest with both evergreen and deciduous canopy species and a closed canopy around 20-25 m tall, possibly up to 40 m.

Assessment summary

Although we were able to develop a distribution map from remote sensing data trained from field data acquired in western Shan, it was not possible to confirm the distribution or change of this ecosystem type. Nevertheless, our map data suggests this ecosystem is widespread throughout eastern Shan. Primary forest cover data suggest that >50% of the ecosystem is degraded with a relative severity of >90%, and the ecosystem meets category thresholds for Vulnerable under Criterion D3. Vulnerable.