THE Sacha Llanganates mountains in eastern Ecuador are permanently shrouded in fog. They have never been mapped from the ground, or seen from the air. Beneath the mountains’ forest canopy live undiscovered species of orchids and other plants. They are typical of one of the planet’s least explored ecosystems: the cloud forests of the tropics.
These pristine forests are now under threat. The first global survey to map cloud forests in any detail has revealed they cover 380,000 square kilometres – an area smaller than California – which is 20 per cent less than previous estimates.
And this figure may itself…
