- Tropical forests are forested landscapes in Tropical regions: i.e. land areas approximately bounded by the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds
- Tropical Forests are extensive, making up just under half the world’s forests
- While forests in temperate areas are readily categorised on the basis of tree canopy density, such schemes do not work well in tropical forests
- There is no single scheme that defines what a forest is, in tropical regions or elsewhere
- The Global 200 scheme, promoted by the World Wildlife Fund, classifies three main tropical forest habitat types (biomes), grouping together tropical and sub-tropical areas:
- Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests,
- Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests,
- Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests