FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

The archipelago of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory, comprises five main islands: Grande Terre, the three Loyauté Islands (Maré, Lifou and Ouvéa) and Île des Pins. Grande Terre is a long mountainous chain, reaching 1 640 m with Mount Panié, while the other islands are flat calcareous plateaux.

The climate is subtropical, with two dry seasons, and the southeasterly trade winds play a major role in the distribution of rain. Thus the east coast and the central chain of Grande Terre have a humid tropical climate with heavy rainfall (2 000-4 000 mm/year), while the west coast and the north enjoy a dry tropical climate (rainfall of about 1 500 mm/year). The great variety in relief, exposure and rainfall, as well as variations in soil, explains the complexity and the fragmentation of the various types of vegetation.

The variety of forest formations in New Caledonia reflects the wide range of natural conditions, which vary considerably over short distances, so that it is rare to find a formation with a homogeneous structure and composition covering a large area. This partly explains the fragmentation of areas of distribution, as well as the differentiation and distinctiveness of New Caledonian flora (3 500 species recorded, of which 600 are arborescent). There is a very high rate of endemism, nearly 80%, because of the early isolation of the archipelago. Five families are endemic: Amborellaceae, Oncothecaceae, Paracryphiaceae, Phellinaceae and Straburgeriaceae.

Frequent outcrops of ultrabasic eruptive rock result in extremely poor soils, associated with a specific type of flora. Forests are found mainly on sedimentary or metamorphic rock, although open forests are found only on ultrabasic soil. Few low-altitude forests are left, and most of the remaining forests are found in mountainous regions. Human activities have caused serious degradation of the forest cover, resulting in vast expanses of niaouli savannah and brushland, degraded forms of natural forests. This is due mainly to the use of fire and to mining (often causing irreversible damage in the latter case). Agricultural clearing and logging are thus not the main causes of the degradation of natural forests. These degraded formations cover the largest areas on the various islands, although closed forest is still common. However, only small areas of open forest are now left on ultrabasic land at low and medium altitudes, as a result of strong human pressure and frequent bushfires.