Biodiversity hotspots are those places on Earth that are biologically rich and highly threatened at the same time. Norman defined the concept of “Hot Spots” in 1988.

1. Jayanta Kumar Pathak
Eco Educator | Conservationist | Freelancer | Science Communicator
Manager, EECB Division, Aaranyak | Email: jayantakp13@gmail.com
BIODIVERSITY
HOTSPOT
Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |

2. Which areas are
most important
to conserve?
Biodiversity hotspot
 Which areas are called
biodiversity hotspots?
Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |
Norman Myers, 1988

3.  Biodiversity hotspot are those places on Earth that
are
 Biologically rich, and
 Highly threatened.
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 Norman had identified 10 such places.

4. Criteria for a Hotspot
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To qualify as a Hotspot these two criteria must be met:
 It must have at least 1,500 vascular plants as
endemics
 It must have 30% or less of its original natural
vegetation. In other words, it must be threatened.
Currently 34 biodiversity hotspots are there around
the globe.

5. Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |

6. Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |
South America
 Atlantic Forest (1)
 Cerrado (6)
 Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests (7)
 Tropical Andes (31)
 Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena (32)
North and Central America
 California Floristic Province (2)
 Caribbean Islands (4)
 Madrean pine-oak woodlands (18)
 Mesoamerica (21)
Europe and Central Asia
 Caucasus (5)
 Irano-Anatolian (15)
 Mediterranean Basin (20)
 Mountains of Central Asia (22)
South Asia
 Eastern Himalaya, India (12)
 Indo-Burma, India and Myanmar (14)
 Western Ghats & Sri Lanka (34)
East Asia
 Japan (16)
 Mountains of Southwest China (23)
South East Asia and Asia-Pacific
 East Melanesian Islands (9)
 New Caledonia (24)
 New Zealand (25)
 Philippines (26)
 Polynesia-Micronesia (27)
 Southwest Australia (28)
 Sundaland (30)
 Wallacea (33)
Africa
 Cape Floristic Region (3)
 Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa (8)
 Eastern Afromontane (10)
 Guinean Forests of West Africa (11)
 Horn of Africa (13)
 Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands (17)
 Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (19)
 Succulent Karoo (29)

7.  Currently covered 2.3% of Earth’s land surface.
Overall, the 34 hotspots once covered 15.7% of
Earth’s land surface.
 86% of the hotspots’ habitat has already been
destroyed
 Support more than half of the world’s plant species
as endemics and nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile
and amphibian species as endemics.
 Hold at least 150,000 endemic plant species
 Contain 11,980 endemic terrestrial vertebrate
species
Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |

8. Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |
Nature does not need people.
People need nature and its
recourses in order to
survive.

9. Thank You
Environment Education & Capacity Building Division |
Email: jayantakp13@gmail.com