2. Biodiversity Hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is
a biogeographic region with significant
levels of biodiversity that is threatened
with destruction.
Concept was first introduced by
Norman Myers, in a paper published in
the journal Nature.
The hotspots represent an opportunity to
help conserve the diversity of life on
earth.
3. Criteria
Contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants and has lost at
least 70 percent of its original habitat.
36 hotspots have been identified all over the world, most of them
are located in tropical areas.
These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal,
reptile, and amphibian species, with a very high share of those
species as endemics.
4. Importance
Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth.
Without species, there would be no air to breathe, no food to eat, no water
to drink. There would be no human society at all.
The map of hotspots overlaps extraordinarily well with the map of the
natural places that most benefit people.
By one estimate, despite comprising 2.3% of Earth’s land surface, forests,
wetlands and other ecosystems in hotspots account for 35% of the “ecosystem
services” that vulnerable human populations depend on.
5. Hotspots
North And Central America
California Floristic Province
Caribean Islands
Madrean Pine Oak Woodlands
Mesoamerica
South America
Atlantic Forest
Cerrado
Chilean Winter Rainfall Valdian Forests
Tumbes Choco Magdalena
Tropical Andes
6. Africa
Cape Floristic Region
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa
Eastern Afromontane
Guinean Forests of West Africa
Horn of Africa
Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany
Succulent Karoo
7. Central Asia and South Asia
Mountains of Central Asia
Eastern Himalaya, Nepal, India
Indo-Burma, India and Myanmar
Western Ghats, India
Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
East Asia
Japan
Mountains of Southwest China
West Asia
Caucasus
Irano-Anatolian
8. South East Asia and Asia-Pacific
East Melanesian Islands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Philippines
Polynesia-Micronesia
Eastern Australian temperate
forests
Southwest Australia
Sundaland and Nicobar islands
of India
Wallacea
New Caledonia – smallest of the hotspots
9.
10. Hotspots in Indian Sub-Continent
Indo-Burma region
Indo-Burma encompasses 2,373,000 square kilometres (916,000 sq mi) of
tropical Asia east of the Ganges-Brahmaputra lowlands.
Begins in eastern Bangladesh and then extends across north-eastern India, south
of the Brahmaputra River, to encompass nearly all of Myanmar, part of southern
and western Yunnan Province in China.
The hotspot encompasses 33 terrestrial ecoregions, which include tropical and
subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf
forests, tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed
forests, and mangroves.
11. Continued
A wide diversity of ecosystems is represented in this hotspot, including
mixed wet evergreen, dry evergreen, deciduous, and montane forests.
There are also patches of shrublands and woodlands on karst limestone
outcrops and, in some coastal areas, scattered heath forests.
In addition, a wide variety of distinctive, localized vegetation formations
occur in Indo-Burma, including lowland floodplain swamps, mangroves, and
seasonally inundated grasslands.
Ten endemic species are found in Indo-Burma, Saola, ELd's Deer, Cat Ba
langur, Fishing cat, Giant ibis, Mekong giant catfish,Spoonbilled
sandpiper,Red-headed vulture and white-rumped vulture, Sarus crane
and the Irrawaddy dolphin.
12. Western Ghats, India
Western Ghats is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of
the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site and is one of the eight "hottest hot-spots" of biological diversity in the world.
The Western Ghats are home to four tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf
forest ecoregions –
The North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests
North Western Ghats montane rain forests
South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests,and
South Western Ghats montane rain forests
13. Continued
7,402 species of flowering plants occur in the Western Ghats out of which,
5,588 species are native or indigenous and 376 are exotics naturalised and 1,438
species are cultivated or planted as ornamentals.
Among the indigenous species, 2,253 species are endemic to India and of them,
1,273 species are exclusively confined to the Western Ghats.
Apart from 593 confirmed subspecies and varieties; 66 species, 5 subspecies
and 14 varieties of doubtful occurrence are also reported and therefore
amounting 8,080 taxa of flowering plants.
14.
15. Hotspot conservation
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)
Global program that provides funding and technical assistance to
nongovernmental organizations and participation to protect the Earth's richest
regions of plant and animal diversity including: biodiversity hotspots, high-
biodiversity wilderness areas and important marine regions.
World Wide Fund for Nature
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.
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.
16. Continued
Birdlife International
Has identified 218 “Endemic Bird Areas” (EBAs) each of which hold two or
more bird species found nowhere else.
Plant life International
Coordinates several the world aiming to identify Important Plant Areas.
Alliance for Zero Extinction
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.
17. National Geographic Society
Has prepared a world map of the hotspots and ArcView shape file and
metadata for the Biodiversity Hotspots including details of the individual
endangered fauna in each hotspot, which is available from Conservation
International.
