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HOTSPOT/A GLOBAL CHALLENGE
source: www.biodiversityhotspots.org
www.zeroextinction.org/faqs.htm#6
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Hotspots provide us with the real measure of the conservation challenge.
Unless we succeed in conserving this small fraction of the planet’s land area, we will lose more than half of our natural heritage. How much might it cost to complete the protected area system in order to conserve biodiversity across the hotspots?
- Recent estimates have suggested that investment of as much as US$160 million per hotspot per year may be necessary to cover management of unprotected key biodiversity areas and to close shortfalls in existing protected area budgets;
- however, variation among the funding needs for hotspots is considerable, as much as 100 times greater in higher than in lower income countries.
Is this really a cost-effective way to conserve biodiversity, by targeting individual species and sites?
- While some species have proved very costly to preserve and restore, most have not. Cost is also relative. For example, the successful effort to restore the Seychelles Magpie-Robin has cost approximately $70,000 per year for a decade, enhancing conservation of the island's ecosystems and building NGO capacity in the process. This is a small fraction of the amount regularly paid to restore and preserve human artifacts.
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