Madagascar and its neighboring island groups have an astounding total of eight plant families, four bird families, and five primate families that live nowhere else on Earth

Hotspot Original Extent (km 2) 2,085,292 Hotspot Vegetation Remaining (km 2) 98,009 Endemic Plant Species 11,700 Endemic Threatened Birds 9 Endemic Threatened Mammals 11 Endemic Threatened Amphibians 14 Extinct Species† 5 Human Population Density (people/km 2) 111 Area Protected (km 2) 90,242 Area Protected (km 2) in Categories I-IV* 28,751 †Recorded extinctions since 1500. *Categories I-IV afford higher levels of protection. overview The largest of the world's five Mediterranean-climate regions, the Mediterranean Basin stretches west to east from Portugal to Jordan and north to south from northern Italy to Morocco. Surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the hotspot's 2,085,292 km² also include parts of Spain, France, the Balkan states, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, as well as around five thousand islands scattered around the Mediterranean Sea. West of the mainland, the hotspot includes the Macaronesian Islands of the Canaries, Madeira, the Selvages (Selvagens), the Azores, and Cape Verde. The basin's location at the intersection of two major landmasses, Eurasia and Africa, has contributed to its high diversity and spectacular scenery. The region boasts mountains as high as 4,500 meters, peninsulas, and one of the largest archipelagos in the world. The climate of the Mediterranean Basin is dominated by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers, and rainfall ranges from as little as 100 millimeters to as much as 3,000 millimeters. Although much of the hotspot was once covered in evergreen oak forests, deciduous and conifer forests, eight thousand years of human settlement and habitat modification have distinctly altered the characteristic vegetation. Today, the most widespread vegetation type is hard-leafed or sclerophyllus shrublands called maquis or matorral, which include representatives from the plant genera Juniperus, Myrtus, Olea, Phillyrea, Pistacia, and Quercus. This vegetation is similar in appearance to the chaparral vegetation of California and the matorral of Chile. Some important components of Mediterranean vegetation (species of the genera Arbutus, Calluna, Ceratonia, Chamaerops, and Larus) are relicts from the ancient forests that dominated the Basin two million years ago. Frequent burning of maquis results in depauperate vegetation dominated by Kermes oak ( Quercus coccifera), Cistus spp. or Sarcopoterium spinosum, all of which regenerate rapidly after fire by sprouting or mass germination. Shrublands, including maquis and the aromatic, soft-leaved and drought phrygana of Rosmarinus, Salvia, and Thymus, persist in the semi-arid, lowland, and coastal regions of the Basin.

Taxonomic Group Species Endemic Species Percent Endemism Plants 22,500 11,700 52.0 Mammals 226 25 11.1 Birds 489 25 5.1 Reptiles 230 77 33.5 Amphibians 79 27 34.2 Freshwater Fishes 216 63 29.2

The Mediterranean Basin has experienced intensive human development and impact on its ecosystems for thousands of years, significantly longer than any other hotspot. Human settlements of various forms have existed in the area for at least 8,000 years. The greatest impacts of human civilization have been deforestation, intensive grazing and fires, and infrastructure development, especially on the coast. Historically, Mediterranean forests were burned to create agricultural lands and intensification has especially affected European countries. The agricultural lands, evergreen woodlands and maquis habitats that dominate the hotspot today are the result of these anthropogenic disturbances over several millennia. Paradoxically, grazing and fire can maintain species richness, while in their absence, closed forests are often less diverse.

Habitat fragmentation is a serious problem in the hotspot; what original vegetation does remain exists in small scattered patches. Furthermore, many of the endemic plant species in the basin are narrow endemics: they are confined to very small areas, in some cases individual rock outcrops, and thus are extremely vulnerable to habitat loss, overgrazing, and urban expansion. Indeed, it is likely that more plant species have gone extinct here than in any other hotspot.

Today, a mere five percent of the original extent of the hotspot contains relatively intact vegetation, placing the Mediterranean Basin among the four most significantly altered hotspots on Earth.

The Mediterranean Basin has a long history of land conservation. As early as 2,000 years ago, the Romans and Greeks set aside areas for the protection of natural resources. Nonetheless, today, protected areas still only cover

In recognition of the valuable, but extremely threatened, natural heritage of the Mediterranean Basin, most countries within the region are planning significant expansion of their protected area systems, especially in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. However, widespread development and human land-use means that many of the new protected areas will be too small to adequately support animal populations. Many existing and proposed protected areas suffer from pollution and water shortages, problems that will only intensify as the human population increases in the Basin.

Regional cooperative programs are also an important factor for conservation in the Mediterranean Basin. One process that has established mechanisms for regional action on pollution control and conservation of the shared marine environment is the Mediterranean Action Plan, a cooperative effort established under the aegis of the United Nations in the mid-1970s, in response to the pollution-driven death of the Mediterranean Sea.

Encompassing more than 2 million km² of tropical Asia, Indo-Burma is still revealing its biological treasures. Six large mammal species have been discovered in the last 12 years: the large-antlered muntjac, the Annamite muntjac, the grey-shanked douc, the Annamite striped rabbit, the leaf deer, and the saola. This hotspot also holds remarkable endemism in freshwater turtle species, most of which are threatened with extinction, due to over-harvesting and extensive habitat loss. Bird life in Indo-Burma is also incredibly diverse, holding almost 1,300 different bird species, including the threatened white-eared night-heron, the grey-crowned crocias, and the orange-necked partridge.