A rash of projects probing everything from life under the Arctic ice to the global movements of marine mammals is providing the information that conservationists badly need. It is now clear that hotspots do exist even out in the open ocean. However, these are not quite like their counterparts on land. For a start, they do not necessarily stay in the same place. Places with the highest biodiversity may not be the best habitats for the species that live there. Meanwhile, some seemingly inhospitable areas turn out to be thronging with life.

Various schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (henceforth WPA), dictate the level of legal protection given to species of Indian animals.

In impoverished Yunnan Province in southwestern China, a confrontation is brewing between economic growth and habitat preservation-and authorities are sending mixed signals about their intentions.

From delicate orchids and magnolias to rare Chinese yews and Kwangtung pines, the flora of Guangdong Nanling National Nature Reserve is considered so precious that ecologists call the reserve "a treasure trove of species." But winter storms have reduced the biological hot spot to a splintered ruin.

The Tibet

Place-specific cultural institutions regulate the relationship between coffee planters and the natural world in the Kodagu district of the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot in South India. Many planters have retained native trees for shade on their plantations, such that these cultivated areas, together with formal protected areas and community-managed sacred groves, constitute a mostly contiguous forested landscape across the district.

A thorough exploration for the rare, endemic and threatened species in the sacred groves of Kanyakumari District in Southern Western Ghats is lacking. The tropical climate and soil conditions coupled with the religious and social beliefs enabled these groves to harbour a large number of RET species, which are on the verge of extinction. (Sep 2007)

In a degraded secondary tropical forest along a traditional elephant route of Mokokchung District, a total of 157 flowering plants were enumerated distributed in 66 families. Although the forest had undergone various degrees of degradation, remnant of different growth forms was found in the component species. Presence of 113 plants used by the locals for various purposes such as timber, medicinal, ornamental, scientific, ethno botanical values including wild vegetables and wild fruits popularly consumed locally indicate high biodiversity valuation. (Sep 2007)