Loss of Biodiversity Hotspots

Context

Biodiversity hotspots across the world have lost 148 million hectares of land to agriculture and urbanization in 24 years.

Background

A study was conducted by the researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, on the subject and corresponding study was published in the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The report studied global trends in biodiversity loss by analyzing high-resolution land-cover maps by the European Space Agency, between 1992 and 2015.

In Detail

A biodiversity hotspot refers to a biologically diverse, yet threatened region that is in a conservation crisis, having lost at least 70% of its original natural vegetation, usually due to human activity. At present, there are more than 30 recognized biodiversity hotspots in the world, including regions of the Himalayas.

Experts believe that the need to grow food to feed a growing population, besides the need to increase income, could be responsible for a biodiversity loss of this scale, especially given that soils in these areas are very fertile, and agricultural yields can be very high. In addition, they believe that weak environmental protection laws and regulations exacerbate the problem, the researchers found major deforestation even in areas that were supposed to be protected.

The researchers noted that 40% of the area lost was forested, and the largest losses were sustained by biodiversity hotspots in developing countries or impoverished regions, in Sundaland (Indonesia), Indo-Burma (mainland southeast Asia), and Mesoamerica (extending across North America).

Increasing efficiency in agricultural production and the food value chain and distribution, cutting food waste and a change in diets to eat less meat can all help decrease pressure on land, which will make more space for conservation efforts and climate change mitigation.

Major Reasons

The hotspot areas compose 2.3 per cent of the Earth’s surface but have more than half of the world’s endemic plant species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Thirty-four biodiversity hotspots were covered under the study.

Sundaland, Indo-Burma and Mesoamerica are all in the tropics. They lost forests due to three major reasons:

• To grow food and feed a growing population as well as the need to increase income
• The high fertility of soil in these areas
• Weak environmental protection laws and regulations
• Not even protected areas inside the hotspots were spared from deforestation, according to the study.

The formally protected areas lost an equivalent of five per cent of their forest cover during the 24 years the researchers looked at. About 4.5 mha of forests were lost between 2000 and 2015.

The only saving grace was that protected areas within hotspots generally lost less forest cover than the land outside protected areas, especially during the last five years of the study (2010-2015). Around 1 mha of land was lost during this period.

Potential Impacts

At least 148 million hectares in the hotspots, which means 3.2 times the size of Sweden were converted from the vegetation that was there in 1992 to some other use, the researchers found. Those losses over 24 years equated to a loss of 6 percent of the total area of hotspots.

Most of these losses cover nearly 40 percent, or 54 million hectares were in forests. Agriculture expansion gobbled up 38 million hectares of the areas that were once forests.

The three top hotspots that lost the most forested area were in Sundaland (all of Indonesia), Indo-Burma and Mesoamerica.

The characteristic that links these three hotspots and makes them most susceptible to losing forests is that they are all in the tropics.

Productivity of the soil attracts the farmers and local authorities to exploit the land, which leads to cutting down the existing biodiversity of that land.

Another issue is that the Earth's rapidly growing population is boosting demand for agriculture products and tropical areas are more at risk of being converted to fields and pastures because of socio-economic and political factors.

Although the planet's booming population does put pressure on regions to increase food production, the reality is that most of the land is used to produce palm oil or soybeans for cattle feed, not feeding people directly. And growing crops to feed beef cattle doesn't really benefit local populations in the long-term.

Importance of Biodiversity Hotspot

Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth. Without species, there would be no air to breathe, no food to eat, no water to drink. There would be no human society at all. And as the places on Earth where the most biodiversity is under the most threat, hotspots are critical to human survival.

The map of hotspots overlaps extraordinarily well with the map of the natural places that most benefit people. That’s because hotspots are among the richest and most important ecosystems in the world — and they are home to many vulnerable populations who are directly dependent on nature to survive. By one estimate, despite comprising 2.4% of Earth’s land surface, forests, wetlands and other ecosystems in hotspots account for 35% of the “ecosystem services” that vulnerable human populations depend on.

list of 36 Hotspots classified according to Continents

 North and Central America

• California Floristic Province
• Madrean Pine-oak woodlands
• Caribbean Island
• Mesoamerica
• North American Coastal Plain

 South America

• Cerrado
• Tropical Andes
• Atlantic Forest
• Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests
• Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena

 Asia-Pacific

• Eastern Himalaya
• Western Ghats, India: Srilanka
• Indo-Burma, India, and Myanmar
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Polynesia-Micronesia
• Japan
• East Melanesian Islands
• Philippines
• Sundaland
• Southwest Australia
• Eastern Australia
• Wallacea
• Aucasus
• Irano-Anatolian
• Mountains of Southwest China
• Central Asia
• Mountains of Central Asia

 Europe

• Mediterranean Basin

 Africa

• Coastal Forests of Africa
• Eastern Afromontane
• Guinean Forests of West Africa
• Horn of Africa
• Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands
• Succulent Karoo
• Cape Floral region
• Maputal and-Pondoland-Albany

Conclusion

The study puts light on serious issue of environment and called for actions to control and reverse the biodiversity hotspot losses. These included efficiency in agricultural production, food value chain and distribution, less food wastage and changes in diet. Controlling the loss of forest cover in such hotspots would also prevent more pandemics in the future such as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as outlined by a recent report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims

Consider the following statements, in relation to the biodiversity hotspots:

1. All the hotspots lie within tropics.
2. All hotspots in India are in Most Threatened list.

Which of the statements given above is/ are correct ?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains

Discuss the significance of biodiversity hotspots and what measures can be taken to preserve them?