Context: A recent global analysis by Norwegian University of Science and Technology said, top biodiversity hotspots of the world lost 148 million hectares (mha) of land to agriculture and urbanisation between 1992 and 2015.

• Under this a global analysis on 34 biodiversity hotspots are considered.

Key Findings

• Most of the land lost — nearly 40 per cent, or 54 mha — was in the form of forests. 
• The three largest losses in forest area occurred in the biodiversity hotspots of Sundaland (Indonesia), Indo-Burma (mainland southeast Asia) and Mesoamerica.
• The three hotspots accounted for forest losses of 11 mha, 6 mha, and 5 mha respectively. 
• This corresponds to a relative loss of 13 per cent, six per cent and seven per cent, respectively, of the forest area originally present in 1992, the study showed.
• However, some hotspots did gain forest cover including the mountains of Central Asia, the Irano-Anatolian area and the Atlantic forest in North America due to reforestation of agricultural land.

About Biodiversity hotspot

• A ‘biodiversity hotspot’ was defined as an area that contained “exceptional concentrations of endemic species that were undergoing exceptional loss of habitat”.
• Biodiversity hotspots cover 2.3 per cent of the Earth’s surface but have more than half of the world’s endemic plant species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Why are we losing biodiversity hotspots?

• Sundaland, Indo-Burma and Mesoamerica lie in the tropical region of earth.

As per the study report, they lost forests due to three important factors

• The need to grow more food to feed an ever-growing population and the need to increase income
• The high fertility of soil in these areas
• Weak environmental protection laws and regulations

Status of Protected Areas

• The protected areas lost an equivalent of 5% of their forest cover during past 24 years.
• However, protected areas within hotspots lost less forest cover than the land outside protected areas, especially during the last five years of the study (2010-2015).

Key Suggestion

• The report found that saving our forests and its endemic species would go a long way in preventing pandemics in the future such as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Road Ahead

• The Norwegian University of Science and Technology report suggests immediate measures to control and reverse the biodiversity hotspot losses. The steps, the report says, included efficiency in agricultural production, food value chain and distribution, less food wastage and changes in diet.
• Saving our forests and its endemic species would also prevent more pandemics in the future such as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as outlined by a recent report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.