What is the primary reason for targeting 'biodiversity hotspots' for conservation?
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They are the only areas where species are seriously threatened in the world.
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The number of species threatened far exceeds our capacity to protect them and we can, therefore, only concentrate on areas of highest species diversity.
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Protecting all areas of threatened species would not allow for new species to develop.
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They are areas where people do not live and conservation would, therefore, not be affecting the economic development of the area.
Primary reason for targeting 'biodiversity hotspots' for conservation is the number of species threatened far exceeds our capacity to protect them and we can, therefore, only concentrate on areas of highest species diversity. The biodiversity hotspots hold especially high numbers of endemic species, yet their combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation. Over 50 percent of the world's plant species and 42 percent of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to the 34 biodiversity hotspots.