Biodiversity of various living species of the world is the core of life’s survival. But biodiversity loss is a reality that the world is increasingly facing. Despite this threat to life there is still ignorance about what biodiversity is to humans. In attempts to spread awareness 2010 was celebrated as the "International Year of Biodiversity".

Biodiversity in ecosystems can be defined as the large variety of both plant and animal species present on Earth and the results if these life forms are threatened. Biodiversity in ecosystems would include mountains, oceans, forests, lakes, wetlands etc. It also would take into consideration the genetic variations within similar species.

Biodiversity importance lies in the variety of species and their interaction with the natural habitats to produce certain benefits for survival of all mankind. For example purification of water and air, stabilizing climate, pollination of plants, weather control, disease control, recycling of nutrients, prevention of soil erosion etc. Biodiversity needs protection for preservation of human life. Many species have already become extinct and if the present trends continue more than 34,000 species of plants face extinction.

Biodiversity hotspots are basically bio geographic regions which have a reservoir of species and have diverse genetic pool, considered threatened to extinction by human activities. The concept of hotspots was introduced by Norman Meyers in his articles "The Environmentalist" and the "Hotspots: Earth’s biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions".

To qualify as a hotspot a region should meet two criteria. First it should have at least 0.5% of vascular plants, and at least 70%of the primary vegetation of the region must be lost due to human activity. There are 25 areas around the globe that qualify as Biodiversity hotspots.

Hotspots biodiversity is important as these 25 regions have almost 60% of endemic species of the world. Poverty and inconsiderate encroachment on the forest land and natural habitat of several species is the reason for biodiversity loss. Extinction is a grave reality that will be the direct consequence of this crisis. It might be a natural process but human intervention has accelerated this process by almost thousand times.

In a present where countries are allocating insufficiently low budget for conserving the hotspots biodiversity. Meyers identified these regions so that the governments could concentrate on regions facing immediate crisis. Most developing countries in which survival of human life due to poverty and poor amenities has become a struggle, consideration of other species in not even a priority. The richer and more developed countries which have the means and capital to bring about a change are doing their bit but within the confines of their country’s boundaries, they fail to realize biodiversity is a natural requirement which remains unconfined. Ecosystem imbalances in one region can have severe effects on ecosystems of other regions too. In their endeavours to pretensions of biodiversity conservation governments throughout the world hold numerous conferences without arriving at any decisions. Citizens of the world wake up before it’s too late to act.

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