10 GREAT PLACES TO BE AWED BY A RAINFOREST

By Kelly DiNardo

USA Today

After almost 20 years of photographing rainforests, Thomas Marent, whose work appears in the coffee-table book Rainforest, remains fascinated by their "incredibly high biodiversity, all the bright colors and extraordinary weird shapes." In honor of World Rainforest Week, Marent shares his choices of the world's best rainforests with Kelly DiNardo for USA TODAY.

01. Fiordland National Park New Zealand

"This is the most beautiful landscape of rainforests because everything is covered by moss, lichen and ferns," Marent says of this temperate rainforest in the south of New Zealand's South Island. "But it is poor in biodiversity because of its cold climate."

02. Danum Valley Sabah, Malaysia

"Scientists say that the Danum Valley in Sabah (on Borneo) is the hot spot of the rainforest in Asia," Marent says. "There are lots of carnivorous pitcher plants and the largest flower in the world, rafflesia," which can weigh 15 pounds or more. Danum Valley also is home to more than 275 bird species and more than 100 species of mammal, including giant flying squirrels, gibbons, bearded wild boars, flying frogs, the Asian elephant and the Sumatran rhinoceros. "Unfortunately, (the area) is highly dangerous because of ruthless logging."

03. The Southern New Guinea Lowland Rainforests New Guinea

"The rainforests in New Guinea have the paradise birds, the largest butterflies in the world and some other weird insects," Marent says. "It is hard to get there, and there are almost no tourists ?just scientists and missionaries."

04. Gondwana Rainforests Australia

In this region on Australia's east coast, "there are some interesting endemic species, like the bower birds and cassowary," Marent says. "And it has good access for visiting the forests."

05. East Coast of Madagascar Madagascar

The rainforests on this island off the east coast of Africa are disappearing because of farming and timber harvesting, Marent says. What remains, he says, is a "paradise for chameleons, weird geckos and, of course, the lemurs, which are very threatened."

06. The Congo Rainforest Congo

In this African rainforest, one of the most threatened in the world, "you can find some of the most fascinating animals, like the gorillas and the chimps," Marent says. "But political problems make it difficult to access."

07. The Atlantic Rainforest Brazil

See it before it's gone. "This is probably the rainforest that has suffered the most destruction," Marent says. High population growth has obliterated all but about 4% of the original rainforest. "There are amazing species like the golden lion tamarin (monkey), which are in danger."

08. The Amazon Brazil

"What I like about the Amazon is the high diversity," Marent says. The world's largest rainforest covers about 3.4 million square miles; the bulk of it is in Brazil, but it also encompasses parts of nine South American countries. The rainforest "starts along the east of the Andes, where you find cloud forests with different species; then in the lowland forest, you can see lots of animals and plants closer because the trees are not as tall." Thousands of species of trees and plants coexist with a like number of insects and birds. Among critters encountered: jaguars, tapirs, vampire bats, anaconda snakes and leafcutter ants.

09. The Choc, Rainforest Ecuador and Colombia

The Choc? which runs along the Pacific Coast of Ecuador and Colombia, "is even wetter than the Amazon and not well researched yet," Marent says. One reason for its largely undiscovered status: drug smugglers and Colombian guerrillas, which make the area dangerous. Some species, such as the Colombian black spider monkey, live nowhere else.

10. Corcovado National Park Costa Rica

"The rainforests in Costa Rica are probably the best-visited rainforests by tourists and scientists in the world," Marent says. "You can visit different kinds, like cloud forests and lowland forests on the Pacific Coast." Look for scarlet macaws, red-eyed tree frogs and squirrel monkeys among hundreds of species of birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals that inhabit Corcovado.