Editing Cloud forest (section)

==Distribution of tropical montane cloud forests==
[[File:Distribution of tropical cloud forests.png|thumb|Distribution of tropical montane cloud forests in 2016<ref name=":0" />.]]
Only 1% of the global woodland consists of cloud forests.{{sfn|Häger|2006|p={{pn|date=December 2017}}}} They were estimated to be 11% of all tropical forests in the 1970s. A total of around 736 cloud forest sites have been identified in 59 countries by the [[World Conservation Monitoring Centre]], with 327 of them legally [[protected area]]s as of 2002. Important areas of cloud forest are in [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]] (mainly [[Costa Rica]], [[Venezuela]], [[Honduras]], [[El Salvador]], [[Guatemala]], [[Mexico]], [[Ecuador]], and [[Colombia]]), [[East Africa|East]] and [[Central Africa]], [[India]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[Thailand]], [[Vietnam]], [[Indonesia]], [[Malaysia]], the [[Philippines]], [[Hawaii]], [[Papua New Guinea]], and in the [[Caribbean]].<ref name="Hostettler">{{cite journal |last1=Hostettler |first1=Silvia |title=Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: A Challenge for Conservation |journal=Bois et Forets des Tropiques |date=2002 |volume=274 |issue=4 |pages=19–31 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299537628}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/cloudforest/|title=Resources Data – UNEP-WCMC|work=unep-wcmc.org|access-date=12 December 2006|archive-date=11 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411205118/http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/cloudforest/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The 1997 version of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre's database of cloud forests found a total of 605 tropical montane cloud forest sites in 41 countries. 280 sites, or 46% of the total, were located in [[Latin America]], known in [[biogeography]] as the [[Neotropical realm]]. Twelve countries had tropical montane cloud forest sites, with the majority in Venezuela (64 sites), Mexico (64), Ecuador (35) and Colombia (28). Southeast Asia and [[Australasian realm|Australasia]] had 228 sites in 14 countries – 66 in Indonesia, 54 in Malaysia, 33 in Sri Lanka, 32 in the Philippines, and 28 in Papua New Guinea. 97 sites were recorded in 21 African countries, mostly scattered on isolated mountains. Of the 605 sites, 264 were in protected areas.<ref>Mark Aldrich, Clare Billington, Mary Edwards and Ruth Laidlaw (1997) "Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: An Urgent Priority for Conservation" WCMC Biodiversity Bulletin No. 2, World Conservation Monitoring Centre.</ref>