Australian tropical rainforests

[Extract] Tropical montane cloud forest is a rare environment, defined and limited by the persistent presence of clouds and mists, and accounts for only 0.26% of the Earth's land surface (Bubb et al. 2004). Despite this small area, tropical montane systems contain ~25% of all terrestrial biodiversity and therefore represent important centres of biodiversity, evolution and cultural significance. Australia's only tropical montane forest occurs in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, in North Queensland. This globally significant region is only 0.1 % of Australia's land mass, but contains ~30% of Australia's vertebrate biodiversity, of which almost 100 species occur nowhere else on Earth (Williams 2006). In conjunction with the Great Barrier Reef, these amazing natural systems bring in billions of dollars per year to the regional and national economy