Evaluating the biodiversity hotspots approach as a tool for global conservation planning

Given the alarming loss of biodiversity and considering that the location and threats to this biodiversity are distributed unevenly across the globe, a systematic strategy of international conservation planning must complement national conservation actions by directing inadequate flexible funding to places where the greatest biological distinctiveness coincides with the greatest threat, thus safeguarding the protection of the most species for the money invested. One such approach is Conservation Internationalʼs Biodiversity Hotspots, regions where extraordinary biological diversity coincides with exceptional threat. Drawing from discussions in the scientific literature, conservation planning theory and ecological theory, this study is an attempt to evaluate the hotspots approach as a tool for global conservation planning. Based on an assessment of the strategyʼs objectives and methods, its congruence with other approaches and the theoretical, financial and practical impact it has had so far, the biodiversity hotspots are found to be of great utility in identifying and targeting global conservation priorities until more sufficient data regarding species knowledge and threat make the use of surrogates such as endemism or habitat loss futile