This category is about the mountain ranges of the Philippines. This category has only the following subcategory. The following 11 pages are in this category, out of 11 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.
Several different types of forests can be recognized in the Philippines, including the lowland evergreen rainforest, which is rich in dipterocarps; it grows best on good soils and, therefore, prevails (or was) common in well-watered plains and on the lower slopes of hills up to c. 400 m, occasionally higher, giving way to a more open mountain rainforest, dominated by dipterocarps, at an altitude of between 650 and 1000 m. The mossy forest, where the trees are dwarf, covered with moss and full of ferns, orchids and liverworts, is found in the cloud belt, where there is a lot of constant humidity, usually over 1200 m, but also on the peaks and crests exposed at lower elevations, and up to 700 m in the eastern Sierra Madre, where it is more humid. In the western Central Cordillera and in the Zambales Mountains, between 450 and 2450 m, where it is driest, there are extensive stands of Benguet pine (Pinus kesiya) (Dickinson et al.
In some parts of Luzon there are large areas of dense “cogon” type grasslands; these areas are maintained by fire during the dry season and it is believed that all of them replaced the original forests (Dickinson et al. The distribution of most species in this EBA seems to be irregular, but this is largely due to the fragmentation of forests and it is likely that the areas of distribution were once more widespread and contiguous, even in historic times. In addition, the recorded distributions depend on observer coverage (which is still incomplete), and the current ranges of some species may actually be greater than they currently seem. As it has been difficult to determine which species actually meet the requirements for areas of distribution smaller than 50,000 km2, all species that are endemic to Luzon (except Zosterops meyeni, a generalist of widespread habitats) have been included as areas of restricted distribution, despite the large size of the island.
The mossy forests of the highlands, although safer than those in the lowlands, are exposed to threats, especially in the Cordillera Central, where the local population has recently accepted modern technology and grows vegetables from temperate and semi-temperate areas on terraces after the felling of native mountain habitats (Penafiel, 199. Several species of this EBA are hunted for food or for the trade of caged birds), but the main threat to birds inevitably comes from the continuous loss and fragmentation of forests. For example, Oriolus isabellae, which may be close to extinction. This species was only known in the Bataan Peninsula and the province of Isabela, and one of the last records was recorded at a site in the Sierra Madre in 1961, where there is now practically no forest (Danielsen et al. In general, no other Asian island has as many threatened bird species as Luzon, since, in addition to the 18 threatened restricted area species that breed there and the four threatened restricted area species (from other EBA and secondary areas) found as winter visitors (all classified as vulnerable; see “Restricted Area Species”, above), in the forests of Luzon, there are nine more threatened and widespread species found in the forests of Luzon, there are nine more threatened and widespread species found in the forests of Luzon.
This EBA includes the lowlands and mountains of Luzon, with more than 100,000 km2, the largest of the Philippine Islands, and the associated islands of Polillo, Marinduque and Catanduanes. Most species with restricted ranges are found in forests, and three are (or are likely to be) grassland birds. Fortunately, this 1.4 million hectare mountain range, which represents 40% of the country's forest cover, protects us from any typhoon. Because of these distributional similarities and a certain altitudinal overlap between birds classified as “lowlands” and “mountains”, all restricted area species found in Luzon have been included in this single EBA (against ICBP 199); a similar treatment has been applied to Mindanao (EBA 15), the second largest island in the Philippines.
Because of the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madre, the force of a typhoon naturally decreases when it hits the mountain range. At 500 kilometers in length, this mountain range is the best hope of surviving the numerous natural calamities in the Philippines. The Sierra Madre is the longest mountain range in the Philippines and crosses the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Écija, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Aurora, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Quezon. Another reason for the biological importance of this great mountain range is not only its intact forest, but also its megadiversity.
Do you see how important the Sierra Madre mountain range is? We may not know it, but it has protected us countless times from the destructive effects of typhoons. . .
