Conservation International, The New York Botanical Garden, The Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory, the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation and the Ministry of the Environment will host an ecological conference to address urgent biodiversity issues in the Caribbean. The conference will be held 26-29 July in Punta Cana. It will focus on the fact that only 11.3% of the Caribbean’s primary vegetation remains. The Caribbean is home to 2.3% of the world’s endemic plant species and 2.9% of endemic vertebrate species— enormously significant numbers considering that the Caribbean makes up only .15% of the Earth’s surface. These findings have prompted Conservation International to designate the Caribbean as one of 25 “hotspots”—relatively small regions containing high percentages of endemic species—around the globe. In fact, the Caribbean ranks among the top eight of those “hotspots,” requiring the highest priority for conservation. “The Caribbean Biodiversity conference will afford an extraordinary opportunity for policymakers and scientists with interests in the West Indies to meet, exchange ideas and perspectives, and work toward innovative solutions to their shared concerns about the endangerment of the flora and fauna of the region,” says Dr. Brian Boom, Vice President of Science, The New York Botanical Garden. For more information, see http://www.nybg.org/pr/caribbean.html
