0198566123.pdf

Map of the CI-2005 hotspots.

48 THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF ISLAND LIFE

Fernández and Las Desventuradas islands,

grouped with the Chilean Winter

Rainfall–Valdivian Forests; Revillagigedo, Cocos

and Las Tres Marías islands, included in the

Mesoamerica hotspot; and the Macaronesian

islands, which form an intriguingly shaped

intrusion of the Mediterranean region into the

Atlantic ocean. Biogeographically, this final

example is not as peculiar as it might first seem

(e.g. Blondel and Aronson 1999), although the

islands—especially the Cape Verde islands—also

have African affinities (see text).

CI claim that the CI 2005 hotspots scheme

covers just 2.3% of the Earth’s surface, but

incorporates as endemics over 50% of the world’s

plant species, and 42% of terrestrial vertebrates.

The fashion in which the hotspots have been

delimited in both the 2000 and 2005 versions of

the scheme may be rather arbitrary, but long-

recognized biogeographical patterns are

nonetheless detectable in their map products,

which now serve to guide their conservation

investment strategy. The world’s islands not only

represent disproportionate amounts of diversity,

but they also account for a high proportion of

recorded global extinctions over the last few

hundred years, and a high proportion of globally

threatened species. A stress on islands is thus an

appropriate part of any global conservation

assessment based on the currency of species and

indeed is common to schemes promoted by all

the major international conservation NGOs at the

present time (e.g. the WWF, Conservation

International, BirdLife International).

Polynesia -

Micronesia

Polynesia-

Micronesia

Polynesia-

Micronesia

CaliforniaFloristic

Province

MadreanPine-Oak

Woodlands

MadreanPine-Oak

Woodlands

MesoamericaMesoamerica

CaribbeanIslandsCaribbeanIslands

Tumbes-Chocó-

Magdalena

Tumbes-Chocó-

Magdalena

Tropical Andes

ChileanWinter

ValdivianRainfall-

Forests

ChileanWinter

ValdivianRainfall-

Forests

Cerrado

Atlantic Forest

FloristicCape

Region

SucculentKaroo

Guinean Forests of West Africa

Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany

Madagascarand the

Indian OceanIslands

Madagascarand the

Indian Ocean Islands

ne

nat

mo

rfo

A

nre

ts

aE

Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa

Horn ofAfricaHorn of Africa

MediterraneanMediterraneanBasinBasin

CaucasusCaucasus

Irano-Anatolian HimalayaHimalaya

Mountains ofCentral AsiaMountains of Central Asia

Mountains ofSouthwest

China

Mountains of Southwest

China

Western Ghats

and Sri Lanka

WallaceaWallacea

SundalandSundaland

PhilippinesPhilippines

JapanJapan

NewCaledoniaNewCaledonia

New ZealandNew Zealand

EastMelanesian

Islands

EastMelanesian

Islands

SouthwestAustralia

NewNew ZealandZealand

Indo-BurmaIndo-Burma

HOTSPOTS

Wilderness Areas

Conservation International

February 2005

subfield of conservation biogeography(Whittaker
et al. 2005). We illustrate some of the issues for con-
servation biogeographers involved in assigning
island systems within faunal and floral regions by
considering the affinities of the Macaronesian
islands. Of course, in practice, political and eco-
nomic frameworks and affinities may be as or more
important in developing and realizing strategic

conservation planning, but here we lay these prag-

matic concerns to one side.

Not only do islands have many threatened

species today, but they have also contributed dis-

proportionately to species extinction in historic and

prehistoric times, such that in places much of the

underlying biogeographical structure may already

have been lost or distorted. This is problematic for