Nepal

Nepal compresses one of the most extreme altitudinal gradients on the planet into less than two hundred kilometres of width: from the subtropical plains of the Terai, little more than sixty metres above sea level, to Everest, at almost eight thousand nine hundred. That sequence strings together sal forests and elephant grass plains in the south, rhododendron and oak woods in the middle belt, conifers and birch in the high mountains, and finally rock, glaciers and permanent snow. In the Terai, Chitwan and Bardia hold Indian rhinoceroses, tigers, elephants and gharials; in the heights live the snow leopard, the red panda and the blue sheep. The country has committed to a model of community forests that has reversed deforestation across wide areas.