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Hotspots by Russell Mittermeier, Norman Myers and Cristina Goettsch
Mittermeier, University of Chicago Press, £45.50/$65, ISBN
9686397582

“GOTTA catch `em all,” says the Pokémon fan. Sadly, conservationists
have had to acknowledge that they just can’t save everything. So in 1998,
environmentalist Norman Myers proposed a radical solution: go for areas that
have the most endemic species and the greatest number of species, and forget the
rest for now.

Although criticised as simplistic, his idea has got some supporters.
Conservation International has adopted “hot spots” as the basis of its global
strategy. Earth, it reckons, has 25 hot spots, including some in Crete, New
Caledonia, California and central China.

Take Costa Rica, for example, home of the green basilisk. The
baseline for a hotspot is its plant community, for on that depend all other
forms of life. So, in Costa Rica, saving the heliconia on which the basilisk is
perched may be the only way to save the basilisk itself. Both are found in the
tropical rainforest, which is crucial to the survival of many endemic species.
As important, but often overlooked, is the tropical dry forest, also a rich
source of biodiversity. Together they make up the Mesoamerica hotspot.

Now you can judge for yourself. Encyclopedically informative,
Hotspots explains the theory, illustrates the wildlife and weighs up the
threats and chances of salvation for each of the globe’s biological best bits.
Its elegant and informative text wraps around absolutely superb pictures of the
world’s rarest and most beautiful animals and plants. Do your soul and
conservation a favour—buy it.