Bab 97: The Research Lab

Located between the south China and Sulu Seas, the island of Palawan contains one of the oldest, largest and most diversed rainforests in Southeast Asia.

This forest covers more than half the island and harbors remarkable concentrations of endemic and endangered species.

While many areas in the Pacific Nation have suffered extensive deforestation, the rainforests of Palawan remain impressively intact. These forests are ranked as one of the 15 most endemic ecoregions in the world.

Palawan is an archipelago that stretches from Mindoro to Borneo and is known as the Philippines' "last ecological frontier" due to its high levels of biodiversity, an abundance of natural resources, extensive flora and fauna, and vast expanses of mangroves.

It's vegetation is one of the most diverse in the Philippines and includes tropical lowland evergreen rain forest, lowland semi-deciduous (seasonal/monsoon) forest, montane forest and forest-over-limestone.