Yet the hotspots remain important in our work for two important reasons: We recognize that it is not enough to protect species and places for humanity to survive and thrive, the protection of nature must be a fundamental part of every human society.
Today, our mission has expanded beyond the protection of hotspots. For nearly two decades thereafter, hotspots were the blueprint for our work. In 1989, just one year after scientist Norman Myers wrote the paper that introduced the hotspots concept, Conservation International adopted the idea of protecting these incredible places as the guiding principle of our investments. But you’d be hard-pressed to find another 2.5% of the planet that’s more important.Ĭonservation International was a pioneer in defining and promoting the concept of hotspots. The forests and other remnant habitats in hotspots represent just 2.5% of Earth’s land surface. These areas are the biodiversity hotspots, 36 regions where success in conserving species can have an enormous impact in securing our global biodiversity. Many of these are heavily threatenedīy habitat loss and other human activities.
Certain areas have large numbers of endemic species - those found nowhere else. But species aren’t evenly distributed around the planet. To stem this crisis, we must protect the places where biodiversity lives. Going extinct at the fastest rate since the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Development, urbanization, pollution, disease - they’re all wreaking havoc on the tree of life. We all depend on them.īut our planet’s “biodiversity,” the vast array of life on Earth, faces a crisis of historic proportions. Species are the building blocks of Earth's life-support systems. For our own sake, we must work to protect them. Why are biodiversity hotspots important? There are places on Earth that are both biologically rich - and deeply threatened.
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