BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS

HOTSPOTS SCIENCE
• Life on Earth faces a crisis of historical and planetary
proportions.
• Unsustainable consumption in many northern countries and
crushing poverty in the tropics are destroying wild nature
• Extinction is the gravest aspect of the biodiversity crisis
– it is irreversible
– It is a natural process but human impacts elevate rate by at least a
thousand times
• Conservation budgets insufficient compared to number of
species threatened with extinction,
– what areas are most immediately important for conserving
biodiversity?
• Norman Myers defined the biodiversity hotspot concept in 1988
 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS: Some Features

• Especially high numbers of endemic species;

• Combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3

percent of Earth's land surface;

• Each hotspot faces extreme threats and already lost

at least 70 percent of original natural vegetation;

• Over 50 percent of world’s plant species and 42

percent of all terrestrial vertebrate species endemic
to the 34 biodiversity hotspots.
QUESTION: In which areas would a given dollar
contribute most towards slowing
current rate of extinction?

• We first need to understand species’ distributions;

• This requires that we measure endemism;
– degree to which species are found only in a given place
– as a measure of “irreplaceability”.
• Need to decide which species we should consider;
• Slow the rate of species extinction as much as
possible
• Generally, the more threatened an area is, the more
it will cost to conserve.
 OTHER SYSTEMS USED

• 12 Mega biodiversity countries;

• 218 Endemic Bird Areas (Birdlife International)
– At least 2 spp endemic
• Global 200 Ecoregions (World Wildlife Fund-U.S )
Chosen on basis of:
– Species richness
– Endemism
– taxonomic uniqueness,
– unusual ecological or evolutionary phenomena, and
– global rarity
All hotspots contain:
• at least one Global 200 Ecoregion;

• all but three contain at least one EBA;

• 60 percent of Global 200 terrestrial

Ecoregions and 78 percent of EBAs overlap
with hotspots.
HOTSPOTS DEFINED: Chronology
• 1988 – Norman Myers presented seminar paper;
– identified 10 tropical forest “hotspots”
characterized by exceptional levels of plant
endemism and by serious levels of habitat loss
• 1990 - Myers added a further eight hotspots,
• 1989 - Conservation International adopted Myers’
hotspots as its institutional blueprint
• 1996 – CI made decision to undertake a
reassessment;
• 1999 - extensive global review was undertaken.
HOTSPOTS DEFINED: Chronology
(cont)
• 1999 analysis published in the book Hotspots:
Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most
Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions;

• Nature (Myers, et al. 2000), 25 biodiversity

hotspots were identified;

• Now 34 biodiversity hotspots

TO QUALIFY AS A BIODIVERSITY
HOTSPOT: A region must

• contain at least 1,500 species of

vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the
world’s total) as endemics; and

• have lost at least 70 percent of its

original habitat.
IMPACT OF HOTSPOTS :
• Numerous scientific papers that use the word
“hotspot” to refer to biodiversity conservation;
• Investment
– CI adopted hotspots as its central strategy in
1989,
– John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
implemented the hotspots as its primary global
investment strategy.
• In 2000, the World Bank and the Global
Environment Facility joined CI in establishing
the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
IMPACT OF HOTSPOTS : (cont)
• 2001 - MacArthur Foundation became a
partner;
• 2002 - Japanese Government joined the
partnership;
• Contribution also from Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation;
• Amount devoted to hotspots in last 15 years –
USD 750 million
Green bars – no of publications using hotspots
Red line – Myers citation
HOTSPOTS REVISITED:
• 2 major ways hotspots can change:
– Threats and their impacts change
– Knowledge of biodiversity, threats, and costs
continually improving.
• Aims of the Hotspots Revisited analysis
– not to rework entire hotspots concept
– Revisit status of existing hotspots
– Refine boundaries
– Update information
– Consider potential new hotspots
HOTSPOTS REVISITED: Major Findings
• 6 previously overlooked areas qualify for
hotspot
• 2 hotspots subdivided
• Now total 34 biodiversity hotspots
• Hotspots once covered 15.7 % of the Earth’s
land surface (now only 2.3%)
• 86 percent of hotspots’ habitat already
destroyed,
HOTSPOTS REVISITED: Conclusions

• Hotspots concept is solidifying;

• Amount of biodiversity contained in the

hotspots is extremely high;
– half of the planet’s species endemic to only 16% of
its land area

• Hotspots provide us with the real measure of

the conservation challenge.
BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS: Plant Species
Hotspot Plant Endemic Plant Endemics as a
Species Species Percentage
of World Total

Indo – Burma 13500 7000 2.3

Philippines 9253 6091 2.0

Southwest 5571 2948 1.0

Australia

Mediterranean 22500 11700 3.9

Basin

Sundaland 25000 15000 5.0

BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS: Remaining Habitat

Hotspot Original Remaining Percentage

Extent Habitat Habitat
(km2) (km2) Remaining

Indo – Burma 2373057 118653 5.0

Philippines 297179 20803 7.0

Southwest 356717 107015 30.0

Australia

Mediterranean 2085292 98009 4.7

Basin

Sundaland 1501063 100571 6.7

 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS:
Endemic Vertebrate Species

Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians FW

. fish

Total worldwide 4735 9918 8199 5743 12070

Endemic to one 1573 3482 3711 3222 3418

or more
hotspots

Occurring in 3756 8232 5762 4282 -

one or more
 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS:
Human Population

HOTSPOT POPULATION PEOPLE/KM2

Indo-Burma 316900000 133.54

Philippines 81000000 272.56

Southwest Australia 1700000 4.77

Maditerranean Basin 232200000 111.35

Sundaland 229400000 152.83

Global average: 42 people/km2

HOTSPOTS BY REGION
EAST MELANESIAN ISLANDS
INDO-BURMA
PHILIPPINES
SUNDALAND
 SUNDALAND: Vital Statistics
Original extent (km2) 1,501,063
Vegetation remaining (km2) 100,571
Endemic plant species 15,000
Endemic threatened birds 43
Endemic threatened mammals 60
Endemic threatened 59
amphibians
Extinct species 4
Human population density 152.83
(people/km2)
Area protected (km2) 179,723
 SUNDALAND: Overview

• Covers small portion of southern Thailand; nearly all

of Malaysia; Singapore; all of Brunei Darussalam; all
of western half of Indonesia (including Kalimantan);
and Nicobar Islands.
• Some 17,000 equatorial islands
• Dominated by two of the largest islands in the world:
Borneo (725,000 km²) and Sumatra (427,300 km²).
• Bordered by Indo-Burma, Wallacea and Philippines
SUNDALAND: DIVERSITY AND ENDEMISM
Taxonomic Species Endemic %
Group Species Endemism
Plants 25000 15000 60.00
Mammals 380 172 45.26
Birds 769 142 18.47
Reptiles 452 253 53.76
Amphibians 244 196 80.33
Freshwater 950 350 36.84
Fish
 SUNDALAND: PLANTS

• 60% endemism
• Family Scyphostegiaceae, - represented by a
single tree species, Scyphostegia borneensis
• 117 endemic genera (59 Borneo, 17
Sumatra, 41 Peninsula Malaysia)
• Genus Rafflesia, represented by 16 species
with very large flowers
 SUNDALAND: BIRDS

• 770 bird species, 150 endemic, 40 threatened;

• Borneo – 30 endemic species;
• Bornean Mountains, with 20 species, considered one
of five Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs)
• Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi, CR),
– endemic to Bali island, and
– wild population fell to only six birds in 2001
• Javanese lapwing (Vanellus macropterus, CR), which
once inhabited river deltas and marshes in west and
east, has not been recorded since 1940
 SUNDALAND: MAMMALS

• 380 mammal species, over 170 are endemic;

• 17 of 136 genera are endemic;
• Borneo – 25 endemic species;
• Threatened species:
– orang-utans, represented by two species: the
Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus, EN), and the
Sumatran (Pongo abelii, CR),
– Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus, EN)
– Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis, CR)
 SUNDALAND: REPTILES

• Over 450 species, roughly 250 endemic, including 24

genera;
• 3 endemic reptile families (2 snakes, 1 monitor lizard)
• Most distinctive endemic reptiles - false gharial
(Tomistoma schlegelii, EN) (FW crocodile)
• 2 species of large river terrapins: the mangrove
terrapin (Batagur baska, CR) and the painted terrapin
(Callagur borneoensis, CR)
 SUNDALAND: HUMAN IMPACTS

• forest destruction (rubber production,

pulp production, illegal logging;
• Wildlife trade;
– Used to be orang utan
– Now rhino and tigers for Chinese medicine;
• Others: turtles, geckos, pangolins,
bears
 SUNDALAND: Conservation action and
protected areas

• Around 180,000 km² of land is protected

• 77,000 km² of this land (5.2 percent of the
hotspot) - in protected areas of IUCN
categories I to IV
• Parks - Kinabalu in Sabah, Gunung Gede
Pangrango in Java, and Hala-Bala in
Thailand are well protected. Others may not;
• Malaysia Marine Parks
Forest destruction is the single biggest
threat to biodiversity in the Sundaland
Hotspot, due to commercial logging and
expansion of rubber and oil palm
plantations.

Gold mining severely impacts forest and

riverine ecosystems in Sundaland thru
habitat destruction and water contamination
Researches in Batang Gadis
National Park, Sumatra, use
camera traps to measure

Tanjung Puting National Park in central

Kalimantan, is threatened due to habitat loss.
The Sumatran orang-utan (Pongo abelii, CR),
restricted to the island of Sumatra, is critically
endangered.
Similar facility in Sipolok, Sabah
GOOD LUCK IN YOUR TEST
AND FINALS