Description: CEPF focuses on biodiversity hotspots, Earth’s most biologically rich and threatened areas.
The 36 biodiversity hotspots hold especially high numbers of unique species, yet their combined area now covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Many encompass priority areas in multiple countries. Each one faces extreme threats and has lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.
The degradation of critical ecosystems is no less a threat for the estimated 2 billion people who live in these fragile places. Healthy ecosystems provide important services for human well-being, such as clean air and water, flood and climate control, and soil regeneration, as well as food, medicines and raw materials.
To date, CEPF grants have supported civil society in 24 of the 36 biodiversity hotspots.
Copyright Text: Conservation International. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.