Download Conservationists Name Nine New "Biodiversity Hotspots"

Bio Warm-Up
Conservationists Name Nine New "Biodiversity
Hotspots"
John Roach
National Geographic News
February 2, 2005
Today conservationists named nine new "biodiversity hotspots"—areas
of mind-boggling species richness that are under constant assault from
human activity. The label highlights the regions as priorities for the
world's conservation efforts.
One hotspot is a crucial stopover for migrating monarch butterflies. Another has the highest tree richness
of any temperate region on the planet. And yet another is a mountain refuge for vultures, tigers, and wild
water buffalo. All the newly named hotspots have lost at least 70 percent of their original natural habitat.
The announcement was made by the Washington, D.C.-based Conservation International. The nonprofit
also launched Hotspots Revisited, a book detailing a four-year analysis of its global hotspot strategy for
biodiversity conservation.
"The hotspots strategy really intends to pick out regions across the globe where we need to go first to be
effective in saving species," said Michael Hoffmann, a biodiversity analyst with Conservation International
and contributing author to Hotspots Revisited.
The organization now recognizes a total of 34 biodiversity hotspots. About half of all plant and animal
species on Earth are found in the hotspots, which originally covered 15.7 percent of Earth's surface area.
Only about a tenth of that original habitat remains.
The hotspots range from the African island nation of Madagascar to the Indian Ocean islands, which are
home to 24 families of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. The Madrean pine-oak
woodlands, a rugged mountainous area stretching from Mexico to the southwestern United States, was
also highlighted.
By focusing attention on these regions, conservationists hope to maximize their efforts at saving as many
species as possible from extinction.
Stuart Pimm—a conservation biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and a member of
the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration—said the hotspot strategy is
effective at channeling conservation efforts.
"We need to have a guideline of where to go, and it does help us focus our attention on areas that are
important and disappearing quickly," he said.
Biodiversity Hotspots
The concept of biodiversity hotspots was penned by British ecologist Norman Myers in 1988 as a means
to address the dilemma of identifying the areas most important for preserving species.
Myers recognized that—despite their relatively small sizes—certain ecosystems account for a high
percentage of global biodiversity. Many of these same areas face tremendous pressure from logging,
agriculture, hunting, and climate change, scientists say.
Myers reasoned that a prudent conservation strategy would be to target dollars and research at those
regions where these threats are greatest to the greatest number of species.
In the mid-1990s, together with partners at Conservation International, Myers ironed out a formula for
hotspot designation: The region must support at least 1,500 plant species found nowhere else in the
world, and it must have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.
"Quite frankly, all biodiversity is important, that's the bottom line … but we have limited resources and
limited time, so we have to become strategic in how we go about things," Hoffmann said.
According to Duke University's Pimm, the areas Conservation International has identified as biodiversity
hotspots come as little surprise to conservation biologists. They've been working in them for years.
"In these places the vast majority of species that are teetering on the brink of extinction are found," he
said. "If you care about species not going extinct, that almost immediately means you are working in
hotspots."
Successful Implementation
According to Hotspots Revisited, about 750 million U.S. dollars has gone into biodiversity hotspot
conservation over the last 15 years. That funding includes significant grants from the MacArthur
Foundation, which is widely regarded as a pioneer in hotspot conservation.
"The concept has been remarkably successful in catalyzing some really significant funding from donors
that has allowed us to channel resources into these places," Hoffmann said.
Madagascar, for example, is on a roll. At the 2003 World Parks Congress in South Africa, Madagascar's
President Marc Ravalomanana pledged to triple the size of the nation's protected-area network and
asked the conservation community for help. To date, more than 35 million U.S. dollars has been raised.
But not all hotspots are experiencing such success. According to Conservation International, Southeast
Asia's Sundaland hotspot—which includes the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo—is deteriorating
rapidly in the face of unabated commercial logging and agriculture expansion.
Also, the conservation community has yet to fully embrace the biodiversity hotspot strategy.
Peter Karveiva, a scientist with the Nature Conservancy in Seattle, Washington, said the hotspot
approach to conservation is effective at protecting long lists of species. But, he said, it fails to maintain
important ecosystem services that all humans need to survive. "Biodiversity hotspots should always be a
factor in deciding where we work and should always be a major part of conservation planning," he said.
"But we need to supplement our maps of species richness with maps of carbon storage, of fisheries
production, of clean water, of agricultural systems, and so forth."
Hoffman said that failure to protect the hotspots would result in the loss of nearly 50 percent of Earth's
plants and terrestrial vertebrates.
Reflection Questions:
1) Why is it important to identify Biodiversity Hotspots?
2) What pressures are humans placing on Biodiversity Hotspots that are causing their sizes
to decrease?
3) How does the British ecologist Norman Myers define a biodiversity hotspot (what criteria
does it have to meet)?