Biodiversity_hotspot Biodiversity_hotspot

Biodiversity hotspot - Definition and Overview

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction. The Biodiversity hotspots are identified by Conservation International (CI), and refer to 25 biologically rich areas around the world that are the focus of Conservation International's conservation activities. According to CI, the remaining natural habitat in these biodiversity hotspots amounts to just 1.4 percent of the land surface of the planet, yet supports nearly 60 percent of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species. In a recent press release, based on some new work, CI updated the list with 9 new hotspots. Included in this new list is the great range of Himalayas and the island nation of Japan.

The biodiversity hotspots initiative is similar to World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Global 200 initiative, which identifies over 200 ecoregions as priorities for conservation of biodiversity. Both are scientific initiatives that try to quantify species diversity, and the WWF and CI schemes both target many of the same regions. The main differences are in the scale of the regions—the biodiversity hotspots tend to be larger regions, and generally include multiple WWF ecoregions—and CI's focus on terrestrial ecoregions, while the WWF scheme includes freshwater and marine ecoregions as well.

A detailed map prepared by National Geographic of the hotspots and individual endangered fauna details is provided in the webiste of CI.

The 25 Biodiversity hotspots by region

North and Central America

South America

Europe and Central Asia

Africa

Asia-Pacific

External link

Example Usage of Biodiversity
environation: USP and NZ institute cooperate on Biodiversity: Radio New Zealand International The University of the South Pacific... http://bit.ly/8Z7xx2
White_Thornbush: RT @live_for_future: I Like this fact: South African grasslands have 30 species per square kilometre, greater than the Biodiversity of r ...
live_for_future: I Like this fact: South African grasslands have 30 species per square kilometre, greater than the Biodiversity of rainforests.
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