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cover feature - Fall 2006 Conservation Connection
FEATURE ARTICLE
TEMPERATE RAINFORESTS: PLACES OF ECOLOGICAL BOUNTY
by Dominick DellaSala, Executive Science and Policy Director
Coastal temperate rainforests are biogeographically unique. Found in only seven regions of the world and making up less than 1% of the total global forest cover, these remarkable forests are rarer than their tropical counterparts. Temperate rainforests (with the exception of inland rainforests of the Rockies) are restricted to coastal areas within a narrow latitudinal band, between 38-56° in the south and 38-61° in the north, as 
opposed to tropical rainforests that are found around the equatorial belt from 23° south to north.
About 70% of the world's temperate rainforests occur within just three regions: British Columbia and southeast Alaska, the "Amazonia" of temperate rainforests (total coverate 50%), and Chile, the southern hemispheric counterpart (20%) The rest of these rainforests occur in the Pacific Northwest (USA), Western Europe remnants, and along the Australian and New Zealand coastlines.
The most definitive features and conditions of coastal temperate rainforests are their prolific annual precipitation, large woody biomass accumulation, cool overcast summers, snow free winters, and infrequent fires (with the exception of the California Coastal Redwoods). Because of their proximity to the coast, temperate rainforests are highly productive transitional zones where the mixing of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial systems results in the exchange of nutrients, species, and energy flows. Collectively, these forests perform many vital ecosystem services related to the health and integrity of the planet, including sequestration of carbon important in global warming, provision of habitat for rare and endemic species found nowhere else on Earth, and production of prodigious anadromous fish runs (e.g., the "Great Bear-Salmon Rainforests" of British Columbia).
In spite of their global significance, however, temperate rainforests are at least as in jeopardy as tropical rainforests. In North America alone, nearly one-half of the original temperate rainforests have been logged and in Chile over 60% have been degraded by logging and agricultural development. Around the globe, protection levels for temperate rainforests are far too inadequate (17% globally) to maintain these rich forests and ensure they will be around for future generations. Climate change, invasive species, road building and logging, and mining threaten temperate rainforests globally. Such threats often are coupled with social dislocations of indigenous people, unravelling the historic bond between human and ecological communities.
