The island of Bali is just one of the thousands of island in the Indonesian Archipelago. Yet, unlike the others islands, Bali has captured the world hearts, minds, and imagination for most of this century. Bali’s allure and fascination are clear and immediate. The island is physically beautiful and the people are lithe, graceful and full of friendliness – exuding a quiet confidence. The Bali flora ranges from the humble weed flower to an extensive variety of unique orchids.
Bali is one of the most popular islands in the world to visit with roughly 4 million tourists every year. As Indonesia’s most popular place to visit, Bali offers travellers so much to see from trekking volcanoes to surfing on spacious beaches with breathtaking sunsets. It is easy to see why millions flock to the island annually to enjoy its natural beauty.
Bali is located in the Indian Ocean with a tropical warm average climate.
With an area of 5,780 km² and a population of over 4.22 million people, Bali is one of the most densely populated areas of the world. Of course, this also brings many environmental problems.
Once large parts of the island were covered by monsoon forest (also called tropical wet forest). Through the cultivation of the landscape, the forests were strongly pushed back. Since 1950, more than 30% of the original tropical forests have been cleared.
In Bali, up to six vegetation zones can be found in confined spaces:
- Tropical dry forest: In the past, it mainly covered the dry north and west, where the dry season can take up to eight months
- Tropical Rainforest: The tropical mountain forest was formerly on all mountain peaks above 800 to 1500 m available. Today, there are little leftovers left over. These forests are very important water catchment areas for the underlying, partly densely populated areas and provide effective protection against erosion.
- Wet Savannah: The wet savanna of Bali is similar to the wet savanna in East Africa. In Bali there are wet savannahs mainly on the southern and dry peninsula, where the soil consists mainly of lime and therefore can store little water.
- Mangrove forests: They grow in the tidal area of rivers and sea shores. The only mangrove forests are in the southeast and west of Bali.
- Lava Landscape: These vegetation-less lava landscapes can be found near the volcano craters.
- Cultural landscape: Today it occupies most of the island.
Due to the large number of climate zones, an incredible variety of different plants and trees can thrive in Bali.
With our Trees4Bali project, we want to make a small contribution to reforestation and return the climate change.
By planting tropical trees such as mango, avocado, jack-fruit, star-fruit, pamelo and lemon trees, local poorer farmers can also generate additional income.