The Western Java rain forests blanket the lowlands of western and central Java, Indonesia, generally below about 1,000 meters, where they wrap around the island's volcanic interior and reach the Ujung Kulon peninsula at Java's western tip. Most of the ecoregion is evergreen rainforest, grading into semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, and dry deciduous forest in drier northern areas, with patches of freshwater swamp; characteristic trees include genera such as Artocarpus, Dysoxylum, Lansium, and Planchonia, alongside Borassus and Corypha palms in the deciduous stands. The climate is tropical with two seasons, a wet season roughly from October to April and a drier spell from May to September, and relatively even temperatures through the year. The forests support more than a hundred mammal species, several of them endemic, and serve as the last refuge of the critically endangered Javan rhinoceros, yet only a small fraction of the ecoregion is formally protected amid heavy conversion to farmland and logging. For gardeners, the region is the native home of cultivated fruit trees in genera like Lansium (langsat) and Artocarpus.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 6.3°S, 106.2°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-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
16,082 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
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: