The wildlife of Haiti is important to the country because of its biodiversity. According to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Haiti is considered to be "one of the most biologically significant countries of the West Indies". With an estimated 5,600 plant species on the island of Hispaniola, some of which only occur in Haiti, 36% are considered as endemic to the island.[1] A mountainous area country, it is situated in the western three-eighths of Hispaniola and shares a border with the Dominican Republic.[2][3] There are nine life zones, from low desert to high cloud forests, as well as four mountain ranges, and hundreds of rivers and streams and the coral reefs in the seas that surround the islands.[4][5] Issues of environmental damage, expanding population, deforesting and erosion are of concern;[6] less than 2% of the original forest remains on account of deforestation.[7] This degradation is traced from the 17th century to 19th century starting with the French colonization of the Haiti and population explosion during the 20th century and for the purpose of forestry and sugar-related industries, degraded the forests. and the environment.[8][9]