The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of about 7,640 islands. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest, and shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and mainland China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi.) The Philippines' position as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the country prone to earthquakes and typhoons.
The Philippines is a biodiverse region. Around 1,100 land vertebrate species can be found in the Philippines including over 100 mammal species and 243 bird species not thought to exist elsewhere. Parts of its marine waters contain the highest diversity of shorefish species in the world. The region has the third highest number of endemic birds in the world (behind Indonesia and Australia) with 243 endemics. Its maritime waters possess a total number of corals and marine fish species was estimated at 500 and 2,400 respectively. An estimated 13,500 plant species in the country, 3,200 of which are unique to the islands.
All items (5)
