Gerson Grijalva

Biology

11/29/16 Hotspot

In this essay that we had to do is that we had to find three counties that had a lot of

hopstop and also that could affect the environment. The three countries that I chose was New

Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan. The first one that I want to talk about would be Japan. In

Japan they have 3,000 islands and they have 13 hotspots. In these island the coverage of them are

about 370,000 km and they have rare fauna and flora.The animals that live there are Woodpecker

and the Pteropus pselaphinae, Bonin Flying Fox . The speculation for the Woodpecker are less

than 600 birds. The reason that they are losing populations of animals is due to human building

structures which are affecting the habitats of these animals. There is another animal that is being

threatened which is a the Bonin Flying Fox. They are being threatened because of the loss of

habitat. There is low vegetation that is still intact, which is only 20%. There are forests that are

being taken down so they can make resorts and golf courses and the more they do this, the more

they will lose animals. In Japan there are 28 state parks that are protecting these animals so they

can be conserved.

In New Zealand, islands cover 270,197 km which include, North Island, South Island,

and Stewart Island. The threats of these islands are human impacts which are hunting, and

fishing. There’s been animal extinctions with birds, one bat species, one fish species, and dozens

of invertebrates, and plants. A way that New Zealand is trying to help these plants and animals is

by making a national park. They already have one which protects about 74,000 km (27.5%) of

the land area.

 The Philippines are one of the top 10 hotspots in the world. It has 7,107 islands and

almost all of the mountains are covered with rainforest and rocks of volcanic origin. The threat

includes frequent earthquakes and landslides that affect the mountains. There is now only 7%

percent of rainforest left, and on low land there is only 3% . Another threat affecting this place is

pollution and water pollution. Fifty five out of the 70 birds are threatened and they want to

protect them by not allowing them to migrate to places that could negatively impact populations.

They have places that are protected, but this only includes 11% of the land area.

A way that we can fix the problems that are impacting the hotspots is to protect them

from future impacts. Creating protected areas where human activity is limited can prevent

deforestation, protect animal resources, and stop the exploitation of organisms. Another solution

that we can do would be to educate people. If we educate people more about the problems that

we are facing today about the biodiversity hotspots, people can get involved by finding ways to

help the ecosystem.