The Guianan Highlands moist forests cover a rugged upland "island" of the ancient Guiana Shield, centered on southeastern Venezuela and reaching into northern Brazil and western Guyana, with smaller portions in Suriname and neighboring areas. The terrain is dramatic, rising from around 500 to 1,500 meters and punctuated by tepuis, the sheer sandstone table mountains that lift to roughly 3,000 meters above the surrounding lowlands. Tall primary rainforest clothes much of the region over sandy, nutrient-poor soils, with a canopy drawn from genera such as Calophyllum, Manilkara, Protium, Inga, Parkia, Copaifera, and Dipteryx, alongside the palm Euterpe precatoria. The climate is warm and equatorial, with year-round temperatures averaging about 23 degrees Celsius and abundant rainfall. Long isolated and still largely intact, the ecoregion shelters more than 200 mammal and 600 bird species and is increasingly pressured by mining, logging roads, and planned hydroelectric dams.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 4.4°N, 63.8°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.5°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 9 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
56,616 sq mi
Conservation tier
Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: