Keywords
Latin America
Neotropical Region
Deforestation
Climate change
Threatened species
Ecosystem services
Categories
How to Cite
Abstract
Written by researchers from Mexican institutions, this article presents an overview of biodiversity in the Neotropical biogeographic region, documenting that it is home to 33% of the world's mammal species and 41% of bird species. The authors describe the main challenges facing this biodiversity, including the planet's highest deforestation rate, global warming, the loss of aquatic and coastal habitats, and the overexploitation of natural resources, citing IUCN estimates that 50,000 species currently go extinct each year. The text presents economic, ethical, and cultural reasons for conserving biodiversity, with examples from nature tourism and payment for ecosystem services.
References
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2010 Minerva García; F Hidalgo