Conservation International (CI) targets high-biodiversity areas where the needs are greatest and where each conservation dollar spent can save the most species. Working across vast regions, we conserve entire ecosystems by establishing networks of terrestrial and marine protected areas with multiple sustainable uses.
Our priority areas fall into three categories:
The Earth’s 34 biologically richest and most threatened places, hotspots are areas with high endemism—harboring many species found nowhere else—that have lost at least 70 percent of their original natural habitat. Although the hotspots’ remaining intact areas cover only 2.3 percent of Earth’s land surface, they support a disproportionate number of the world’s terrestrial vertebrate species. CI currently works in 20 hotspots.
These five vast, species-rich regions have low human population densities and remain relatively undisturbed, with at least 70 percent of their original vegetation still intact. They are nature’s savings accounts: major storehouses of biodiversity, as well as significant providers of natural services such as watershed protection and carbon sequestration. CI works in all five of these areas.
These are some of the world’s most biologically rich and productive ocean regions. The seven in which CI works—including Asia’s Coral Triangle, Mexico’s Gulf of California, and Brazil’s Abrolhos Bank—are imperiled by such threats as unsustainable coastal development, overfishing, and pollution.
These 20 locations are a selection of examples, drawn from the expert opinion of our top climate change scientists, that illustrate the various impacts climate change is already having on life, both wild and human, across the planet.
CI Wide
Biodiversity Hotspots: www.biodiversityhotspots.org
Marine Portal: portals.conservation.org/marine
Downloads
Factsheet: CI Overview (44kb PDF)
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