The Sulu Archipelago rain forests cover a chain of islands in the southwestern Philippines strung between Borneo and Mindanao, with Jolo and Tawi-Tawi the two largest. The lowland rainforests are classic Southeast Asian dipterocarp forest dominated by Anisoptera, Dipterocarpus, Hopea, and Shorea, fringed by beach forest of Barringtonia, Caesalpinia, and Terminalia and by mangroves of Rhizophora, Ceriops, Sonneratia, and Avicennia along with Nypa palm. The climate is tropical and humid year-round, yet receives only about 2,000 mm of rain annually, relatively little for tropical islands, and the archipelago lies south of the main Philippine typhoon track. The forests are notably rich in endemic birds, with five species found nowhere else, including the Sulu hornbill and the Sulu bleeding-heart, and the Tawitawi Island rat as the sole endemic mammal. Conservation is difficult here: there are no significant protected areas beyond a small ecotourism site on Mount Bongao, and habitat loss leaves many endemics under threat.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 6.0°N, 121.1°E.
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: +2.8°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Indomalayan
Approximate area
902 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
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: