The British biologist Norman Myers coined the term 'biodiversi | Dr. B R AMBEDKAR IAS ACADEMY
The British biologist Norman Myers coined the term "biodiversity hotspot" in 1988 as a biogeographic region characterized both by exceptional levels of plant endemism and by serious levels of habitat loss. In 1990 Myers added a further eight hotspots, including four Mediterranean-type ecosystems. Conservation International (CI) adopted Myers’ hotspots as its institutional blueprint in 1989, and in 1996, the organization made the decision to undertake a reassessment of the hotspots concept. Three years later an extensive global review was undertaken, which introduced quantitative thresholds for the designation of biodiversity hotspots.
According to CI, to qualify as a hotspot a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5% of the world’s total) as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its original habitat. In 1999, CI identified 25 biodiversity hotspots in the book “Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions”.
Collectively, these areas held as endemics about 44% of the world’s plants and 35% of terrestrial vertebrates in an area that formerly covered only 11.8% of the planet’s land surface. The habitat extent of this land area had been reduced by 87.8% of its original extent, such that this wealth of biodiversity was restricted to only 1.4% of Earth’s land surface. In 2005 CI published an updated titled “Hotspots Revisited: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions
