Highland Rainforest

The rainforest on our highest mountain tops in the Wet Tropics is rarely visited – but it’s super important and it needs our help. ‘Highland rainforest’ is one of the most ancient, biologically complex and evolutionarily important forest systems on Earth. It’s a refuge for species escaping our changing climate’s higher temperatures. But it’s also under threat.

Highland Rainforest grows above 800 metres in the Wet Tropics, on mountaintop plateaus and ridgelines where there’s more rainfall, cloud and mist, and lower temperatures. It’s home to threatened animal species and more than 100 threatened plant species, as well as plants like the purple kauri pine which has ancient evolutionary lineages and is only found on Wet Tropics mountain tops.

The highland rainforest ecological community is under pressure from the changing climate’s heat stress and rainfall extremes, and the creep of heat-adapted species up mountains including feral pigs and cats. Other threats include a frog disease, Chytrid fungus, and the plant diseases myrtle rust fungus and dieback.

Terrain NRM has been working, through the Australian Government’s Saving Native Species Program, to improve the resilience of highland rainforest. Actions include revegetation, weed management, feral pig and cat management and wildlife friendly fencing projects. We are also supporting the creation and protection of wildlife corridors connecting highland rainforest areas.

“Highland rainforests are home to species ranging from endangered frogs to colourful crayfish and rare plants, and they all rely on the cool wet conditions which are steadily changing as human actions warm the globe,’’ Terrain’s Dr Andrew Dennis says.

“Terrain NRM and partners are working on way to manage impacts. And all of us can act to stabilise our climate by doing things like switching to renewable energy, adopting a more circular economy and reducing consumption and waste.”

Download this new, free booklet on where to see highland rainforest in the Wet Tropics region, the amazing plants and animals living in it, key threats, and actions to save it.