The Garden of Eden was green, lush, and rich in wildlife, and a sanctuary where humankind and nature lived in harmony. Sadly, this image is no longer a reality for those unique places which harbor the majority of life on Earth. We share our world with at least five million species of animals and plants, and perhaps as many as 30 million. This biodiversity is our most precious resource – our living heritage. All cultures revere this diversity in one way or another, through music, art, literature or tourism. All religions charge humanity with caring for life on Earth. Biodiversity is what distinguishes our planet from the rest of the universe; indeed, it defines us. Biodiversity is unique and irreplaceable.

Around the world, however, greed and poverty conspire to extinguish this variety of life. Overconsumption is the most grievous of these insults. Our world's forests and other natural habitats are being decimated to feed the lust of the so-called “developed” world for timber, minerals, exotic pets, luxury foods. Meanwhile, unjust distribution of wealth forces billions of people in the “developing” world to depend on exploiting the remaining scraps of nature. They hunt the last wildlife and clear the last habitats for marginal agriculture. As the world becomes more tightly interconnected, the threat of invasive species becomes ever more potent. Such exotics are the death knell for those species that have evolved without such predators or competitors. Cataclysmic global warming looms on the horizon.

Neither the places where species live nor the threats that we impose on them are uniform around the planet. Those places holding the greatest concentrations of biodiversity also face some of the most intense pressures. More than half of the world's plant species and more than a third of Earth's mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians are found in just 2.3% of its land surface. Most of these areas are tropical, like the Atlantic Forest, the Caribbean, Madagascar, Sundaland, the Philippines, and the Tropical Andes. They are called the biodiversity hotspots. No matter how successful conservation activities are elsewhere on the planet, unless threats are reduced in these soon, we will lose at least half of Earth's diversity of life.

These biodiversity hotspots hold some of the highest human population densities on the planet and some of its poorest people. Their poverty is a direct result of the destruction of forests, erosion of soils, pollution of rivers, and overharvesting of wildlife. Some environmental destruction is fatal. For example, deforestation often causes disastrous flooding, but also the emergence of infectious diseases. Most of the world's bloodiest wars are unleashed in the hotspots, too, often driven by resource conflicts. Somalia, Afghanistan, Palestine, northern Iraq, Timor, Haiti: all lie in hotspots harboring exceptional numbers of plant species found nowhere else.

Thoughtless exploitation of the Earth's plenty has destroyed the Garden of Eden. Human actions have exterminated the harmony of nature and depleted the gifts of clean water, productive soils, clean air, and the abundance of life-forms required for people to lead healthy lives.

The challenge which Conservation International has accepted is to work in these hotspots to prevent irreversible loss of biodiversity and to eradicate absolute poverty. Fortunately, many of the solutions to these two problems coincide. The highest priority is maintenance of the remaining natural vegetation cover in the hotspots. This provides habitat for biodiversity and ecosystem services like clean water for people. In the longer term, it will be necessary to restore the natural habitats across much of the hotspots. Meanwhile, reduction to sustainable levels of the harvesting of natural food, fiber, and fuel will be essential if these resources are to persist.

Of course, these solutions will not come for free. Protection, restoration, and sustainable use of the natural ecosystems of the hotspots will impose short-term costs on those least able to afford them. They will only be possible, therefore, with a dramatic increase of resources flowing from the “developed” countries to the hotspots of the “developing” world. But these resources are far from unaffordable for the former. Over the next 10 years, an investment of $100 billion is needed in these priority hotspots. By comparison, the war in Iraq 2003–2004 has so far cost the United States $168 billion in military spending alone.

Among the most important ways to meet this challenge is through partnerships at many different levels, including the private sector. In this regard, we are particularly pleased with our long-term relationship with CEMEX. Their efforts to reduce their industry's environmental footprint and their support for biodiversity conservation in Mexico have demonstrated their commitment and leadership, and their support for this outstanding series of books, now in its twelfth year, has had a major impact around the world.

The hotspots concept was first developed in 1988 by the ecologist Norman Myers. Now, 16 years later, and after several revisions and updated analyses, it has emerged as the dominant paradigm for global conservation strategy. As we enter this new millennium, the time has come for the world to recognize that the geography and solutions of global poverty align closely with those of the biodiversity hotspots. Only by tackling these two agendas together will we truly be able to end poverty and conserve life on Earth.

Peter A. Seligmann
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Conservation International

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