Biodiversity Hotspots

• A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a high level of endemic species that are threatened by human habitation. Biodiversity hotspots are regions with high species richness and a high degree of endemism.
• The term ‘hot spot’ was introduced by N. Myers in 1988 for those geographical regions particularly rich in ‘endemic’, ‘rare’ and ‘threatened’ species found in relatively small areas but facing significant threats to habitat loss.
• Conservation International (CI) adopted Myers’ hotspots and in 1996 the organization made the decision to undertake a reassessment of the hotspots concept.
• According to Conservation International, a region must fulfill the following two criteria to qualify as a hotspot:

i)The area must contain at least 1,500 species of endemic vascular plants.

ii)The area must have lost at least 70 per cent of its primary native vegetation its original habitat due to human interventions.

• Presently, there are 36 areas across the world that qualify as hotspots. They represent 2.4% of the Earth’s land surface but support more than half of the world’s plant species as endemics — and nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species as endemics. The 36 hotspots now cover about 15.7% of the land.

• In 1999, Conservation International (CI) identified 25 biodiversity hotspots in the book “Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions”.
• In 2011, the Forests of East Australia region was identified as the 35th biodiversity hotspot.
• In 2015, The North American Coastal Plain was identified as the 36^th biodiversity hotspot.

Hottest hot spots:

Among 36 hot spots of the world, some have relatively more endemism and are more threatened. To address this, 8 have been declared the hottest hot spots. These are:

1.Madagascar

2.Philippines

3.Sunderland

4.Brazil’s Atlantic

5.Caribbean

6.Indo Burma

7.Western Ghat & Srilanka

8.Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa

Biodiversity Hotspot Protection Methods:

Here are some of the ways we can protect these biological hotspots:

• Building significant awareness within the society to work on biodiversity, communities, and livelihoods. You can do that by practicing Social Forestry.

• Mainstreaming of biodiversity, communities, and livelihood into development, planning and prioritizing of these hotspots.

• Innovative and strong responses to illegal wildlife trade

• Empowering and creating awareness amongst the community to engage in conservation management efforts

• Safeguard the endemic and priority species by mitigating threats to wildlife endangerment

BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS IN INDIA 

• India is home to almost 7.5% of the world’s plant and animal species. Almost 11% of the world’s flora is found in India. The fauna includes amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals
• There are 4 out of 36 biodiversity hotspots of the world located in India

 The four biodiversity hot spots in India are:

• The Eastern Himalayas [Arunachal Pradesh, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar]
• Indo-Burma [entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China, Arakan Yoma, Eastern Bangladesh]
• The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka
• Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines).

List of Biodiversity Hotspots across world

Location Map of Biodiversity Hotspots:

For Download: Biodiversity Hotspots

Please visit for more material: www.currentaffairssadda.com

For Environment & Ecology Books : CLICK HERE