Biodiversity hotspot

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction. Biogeography is the study of the distribution of Biodiversity over Space and Time.

1 Hotspot conservation initiatives
2 The biodiversity hotspots by region
3 Critiques of Hotspots
4 References
5 External links
6 Further reading

The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Dr. Norman Myers in two articles in “The Environmentalist” (1988 & 1990), revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in “Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions” (1999). The hotspots idea was also promoted by Russell Mittermeier in the popular book “Hotspots revisited” (2004), although this has not been subjected to scientific peer-review like the other hotspots analyses.

To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its original habitat. Vascular plants (also known as tracheophytes or higher plants) are those Plants that have lignified tissues for conducting Endemism is the Ecological state of being unique to a place Endemic species are not naturally found elsewhere A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits" is an Ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular Species. Around the world, at least 25 areas qualify under this definition, with nine others possible candidates. These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species, with a very high share of endemic species.

Hotspot conservation initiatives

Only a small percentage of the total land area within biodiversity hotspots is now protected. Several international organizations are working in many ways to conserve biodiversity hotspots.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a global program that provides funding and technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations and other private sector partners to protect biodiversity hotspots. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF is a global program that provides provides funding and technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations and other private sector partners CEPF has provided support to more than 1,000 civil society groups working locally to conserve hotspots in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CEPF is a joint initiative of The Global Environment Facility, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Agence Française de Développement, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan, Conservation International and The World Bank. The Global Environment Facility (GEF claims to unite 178 countries in partnership with international institutions non-governmental organizations (NGOs and the private sector to The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation is a major private grant -making Private foundation based in Chicago that has awarded more than US$4 billion Japan no longer officially has the traditional Federal system, and its 47 prefectures, and prefectural and municipal assembly members are popularly elected for Conservation International (CI is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Washington D The World Bank is an internationally supported Bank that provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries for development programs (e ^[1]

Conservation International applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity including: biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and important marine regions. Conservation International (CI is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Washington D CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents, with headquarters near Washington, D. C. . ^[2]

The World Wildlife Fund has derived a system called the “Global 200 Ecoregions”, the aim of which is to select priority Ecoregions for conservation within each of 14 terrestrial, 3 freshwater, and 4 marine habitat types. The Global 200 is the list of Ecoregions identified by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF as priorities for conservation They are chosen for their species richness, endemism, taxonomic uniqueness, unusual ecological or evolutionary phenomena, and global rarity. All biodiversity hotspots contain at least one Global 200 Ecoregion.

Birdlife International has identified 218 “Endemic Bird Areas” (EBAs) each of which hold two or more bird species found nowhere else. BirdLife International (formerly known as the International Council for Bird Preservation, not to be confused with Birds International) is the international conservation This article is a parent page for a series of articles providing information about Endemism among birds in the World's various zoogeographic zones Birdlife International has identified more than 11,000 Important Bird Areas all over the world.

Plantlife International coordinates several projects around the world aiming to identify Important Plant Areas. Plantlife is a wild plant conservation charity founded in 1989

Alliance for Zero Extinction is an initiative of a large number of scientific organizations and conservation groups who co-operate to focus on the most threatened endemic species of the world. They have identified 595 sites, including a large number of Birdlife’ s Important Bird Areas.

The National Geographic Society has prepared A World map of the hotspots and ArcView shapefile and metadata for the Biodiversity Hotspots including details of the individual endangered fauna in each hotspot, which is available from Conservation International. Overview The NGS's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural historical and natural ^[3].

These initiatives are all based on scientific criteria and quantitative thresholds.

The biodiversity hotspots by region

North and Central America

South America

Europe and Central Asia

Africa

Asia-Pacific

Critiques of Hotspots

The high profile of the biodiversity hotspots approach has resulted in considerable criticism. The California Floristic Province (CFP is a Floristic province with Mediterranean climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting The Madrean pine-oak woodlands are Subtropical Woodlands found in the mountains of Mexico and the southwestern United States. Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Mesoamérica is a Region extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, defined South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a The Atlantic Forest ( Mata Atlântica in Portuguese) is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical The Cerrado ( English: "closed" or "inaccessible" is a vast Tropical savanna Ecoregion of Brazil. The Valdivian temperate rain forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion located on the west coast of southern South America, lying mostly Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena is a Biodiversity hotspot, which includes the tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests of the Pacific coast of Tropical Andes is a hotspot named the “global epicenter of biodiversity” according to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East The Irano-Anatolian region is a Biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International, extending across portions of Armenia, Azerbaijan The Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. The Mountains of Central Asia is a Biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International which covers several Montane and alpine Fynbos (ˈfəinbɒs or anglicised as /ˈfeɪnbɒs/ meaning "fine bush" in Afrikaans) is the natural Shrubland or heathland vegetation occurring The Coastal forests of eastern Africa is a tropical moist forest region along the east coast of Africa Afromontane is a term used to describe the plant and animal species common to the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Guinean forests of West Africa is a Biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International, which includes the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests The Horn of Africa (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula; shortened to HOA) is a Peninsula in East Africa The Coastal forests of eastern Africa is a tropical moist forest region along the east coast of Africa Madagascar island, located in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, is the fourth largest island in the world The Succulent Karoo is a desert ecoregion of South Africa and Namibia. Asia-Pacific or APAC is the area generally regarded as encompassing Littoral East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia near the The East Melanesian Islands, also known as the Solomons-Vanuatu-Bismarck moist forests, is a biogeographic region notable for its unique flora and fauna and species richness Eastern Himalaya is situated between Central Nepal in the west to Myanmar in the east occupying Sikkim, North Bengal, Bhutan and Indo-Burma is a Biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International, which extends from eastern India and southern China across Japan is home to a nine forest Ecoregions which reflect its climate and geography The Mountains of Southwest China is a Biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International which includes several Temperate coniferous forests The Biodiversity of New Caledonia, a large Pacific island group is considered to be one of the most important in the world The biodiversity of New Zealand, a large Pacific Archipelago, is one of the most unusual on Earth, due to its long isolation from other Continental The Philippine Archipelago is one of the world's great reservoirs of Biodiversity and endemism. Oceania is the smallest of the world's terrestrial Ecozones and unique in not including any Continental land mass This article is about an ecoregion for other uses see Southwest Western Australia. Sundaland is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia that comprises the Malay Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago islands of Sumatra Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of Indonesian islands separated by deep water Straits from the Asian and Australian The Western Ghats ( Kannada ಸಹ್ಯಾದ್ರಿ Marathi / Konkani - सह्याद्री Sahyadri Malayalam സഹ്യപര്‍വ്വതം Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Papers such as Kareiva & Marvier (2003) ^[4] have argued that the biodiversity hotspots:

Do not adequately represent other forms of species richness (e. g. total species richness or threatened species richness).
Do not adequately represent taxa other than vascular plants (e. g vertebrates, or fungi).
Do not protect smaller scale richness hotspots.
Do not make allowances for changing land use patterns. Hotspots represent regions that have experienced considerable habitat loss, but this does not mean they are experiencing ongoing habitat loss. On the other hand, regions that are relatively intact (e. g. the Amazon Basin) have experienced relatively little land loss, but are currently losing habitat at tremendous rates.
Do not protect ecosystem services
Do not consider phylogenetic diversity. Phylogenetic diversity is a measure of biodiversity which incorporates taxonomic difference between species

A recent series of papers has pointed out that biodiversity hotspots (and many other priority region sets) do not address the concept of cost ^[5]. The purpose of biodiversity hotspots is not simply to identify regions that are of high biodiversity value, but to prioritize conservation spending. The regions identified include regions in the developed world (e. g. the California Floristic Province), alongside regions in the developing world (e. The California Floristic Province (CFP is a Floristic province with Mediterranean climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with g. Madagascar). Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic) is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern The cost of land is likely to vary between these regions by an order of magnitude or more, but the biodiversity hotspots do not consider the conservation importance of this difference.

References

^ The Critical Ecosystem Partnership FundOfficial website
^ About Conservation International, retrieved 10/1/2007CI's Mission
^ Conservation International (2007) BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS Resources
^ Kareiva, P. and M. Marvier (2003) Conserving Biodiversity Coldspots, American Scientist, 91, 344-351.
^ Possingham, H. and K. Wilson (2005) Turning up the heat on hotspots, Nature, 436, 919-920.

General references

Myers, N. , R. A. Mittermeier, C. G. Mittermeier, G. A. B. da Fonseca, and J. Kent. 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403:853-858

Contents

Hotspot conservation initiatives

The biodiversity hotspots by region

Critiques of Hotspots

References

External links

Further reading