Only 15 percent of world’s biodiversity hotspots left intact

This article on mongabay.com discusses the threat many regions of the world face in regard to loss of biodiversity:

Many of the world's biodiversity hotspots are imperiled due to human activity.  (Image credit)

Many of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are imperiled due to human activity.
(Image credit)

The world’s 35 biodiversity hotspots—which harbor 75 percent of the planet’s endangered land vertebrates—are in more trouble than expected, according to a sobering new analysis of remaining primary vegetation. In all less than 15 percent of natural intact vegetation is left in the these hotspots, which include well-known wildlife jewels such as Madagascar, the tropical Andes, and Sundaland (Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula). Worse yet, nearly half of the biodiversity hotspots have less than 10 percent primary vegetation left with five of these containing less than five percent.

“If we lose the hotspots we’ll say goodbye to over half of all species on Earth. It would be comparable to the mass-extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs,” said William Laurance, a co-author of the study in Biological Conservation with James Cook University.

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.