Description
This is a static historical dataset capturing areas designated as biodiversity hotspots by Conservation International. The dataset is intended to be used to identify locations which are both rich in endemic species and are also experiencing high levels of habitat loss.
Technical Description
There are currently 36 recognized biodiversity hotspots. These are Earth’s most biologically rich—yet threatened—terrestrial regions.
To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, an area must meet two strict criteria:
- Contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else on Earth (known as "endemic" species).
- Have lost at least 70 percent of its primary native vegetation.
Many of the biodiversity hotspots exceed the two criteria. For example, both the Sundaland Hotspot in Southeast Asia and the Tropical Andes Hotspot in South America have about 15,000 endemic plant species. The loss of vegetation in some hotspots has reached a startling 95 percent.
This dataset contains the following fields:
- is_hotspot: A binary value indicating whether the location falls within a Conservation International designated biodiversity hotspot. If the location is within a hotspot, it is assigned a value of 1.0.