The Mountains of Southwest China biodiversity hotspot is the most botanically rich temperate forest ecosystem in the world.
The hotspot stretches across 262,400 square kilometers of temperate to alpine mountains between the easternmost edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the Central Chinese Plain. It includes parts of western Sichuan Province, northwest Yunnan Province, eastern portions of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the southeast tip of Qinghai Province and the southern tip of Gansu Province.
Though only an estimated 8 percent of its original forest cover remains, the hotspot is home to about 50 percent of the country’s birds and mammals and as much as 40 percent of its vascular plants. This includes about 12,000 species of plants, of which 3,500 or 29 percent are found nowhere else.
The hotspot also is home to several of the world's best-known and threatened mammals, including the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and snow leopard (Panthera uncia).
The natural diversity is mirrored by great cultural diversity. The region is home to 17 of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups. It is traversed by some of the most important rivers in Asia, including the Bramaputra, Irawaddy, Mekong Salween and Yangtze rivers. Combined, these rivers affect the livelihoods of more than half a billion people throughout a downstream area of some 3 million square kilometers.