|  |
GLOBAL CONSERVATION PRIORITIES
At the global scale, a major component of the Conservation Synthesis department's work is to develop science-driven global conservation priorities. Conservation International works in regions of the world that have exceptional levels of endemism, that is, of high global "irreplaceability" because they contain many species that cannot be found anywhere else. Amongst these regions, the highest priorities for conservation investment and action are those that have a high level of "vulnerability" (threat), because of the high risk that their unique biodiversity will be lost in the near future. These are the biodiversity 'hotspots' (Myers et al. 2000), which hold at least 1,500 endemic plant species, but are seriously threatened and have already lost at least 70% of their original habitat. The Biodiversity Hotspots Web site, supported by Intel's Environment, Health and Safety Division, holds full documentation and data. The Conservation Synthesis department is currently updating the hotspots analysis—a process that will see a number of new hotspots added to the list, and refinement of the existing hotspots.Hotspots must be the highest conservation priorities, but they are also the most challenging regions for conservation because of intensive human presence. By contrast, "high biodiversity wilderness areas" (Mittermeier et al. 2003) are those which also have high irreplaceability (at least 1,500 endemic plant species) but have low vulnerability (retain at least 70% of their original habitat). These are regions where conservation action is most cost-effective because conflict with human activities is still low. The Conservation Synthesis department supported the identification of wilderness areas and outreach and publication of the concept. This high biodiversity wilderness areas strategy complements the hotspots strategy as the focus of Conservation International's work on the ground.The conservation community is on the brink of a revolution in data availability. In the near future it will become possible to identify global scale conservation priorities based on primary data on species distributions, in a manner that has only been possible to date for birds. Thus, Conservation Synthesis works closely with the Red List Programme of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, in particular through collaboration with the Global Mammal and Global Amphibian Assessments and with BirdLife International to facilitate comprehensive assessments of conservation status across entire higher taxa. A strong emphasis here has been on mapping, with support from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. A key future direction is to expand this work to reptiles, fish, and other groups. This work has already allowed a global gap analysis (Rodrigues et al. 2004) of terrestrial vertebrate species in protected areas worldwide, prepared as a contribution to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas' Ecosystems, Protected Areas and People project, and presented at the Vth World Parks Congress.Related LinksBiodiversity hotspots
High biodiversity wilderness areas
IUCN Red List program
| |
| |  | | New Presentations on Hydrological Services Available Online: Sampurno Bruijnzeel, tropical hydrology expert, talks about vegetation, reforestation, and hydrological services in two CI-sponsored presentations.
Oct. 16 presentation at the World Bank (8 MB PDF)
Oct. 17 presentation at CI (7.2 MB PDF)New CABS Brochure Now Available: Click here to view the latest CABS brochure. Contact us to order a hard copy. The Environmental Systems Research Institute Awards CABS’ GIS & Mapping Lab: The Institute honored the Lab for the fifth time in six years, awarding it First Place in the Best Cartographic Design - Single Map Product category for the Coppename River AquaRAP by Mark Denil.
View the winning map Hotspots Revisited Available Online. Hotspots Revisited details the state of the earth's biodiversity hotspots. The book identifies 34 regions that cover only 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface but are home to 75 percent of the planet's most threatened species.
View Hotspots Revisited | |
|
