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New Caledonia – a conservation imperative for an ancient land

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

R. A. Mittermeier ,
T. B. Werner  and
A. Lees
R. A. Mittermeier
Affiliation:
President, Conservation International, 1015 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA and Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York, NY 11794-8081, USA.
T. B. Werner
Affiliation:
Director, Melanesia Program, Conservation International, 1015 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
A. Lees
Affiliation:
Melanesia Program Manager, Conservation International/Maruia Society, 143 Bethells Road, Henderson, Auckland 8, New Zealand.
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Abstract

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When Myers (1988) published his first overview of threatened hotspots for conservation of biodiversity world-wide, most of the 10 areas he selected (for example, Madagascar, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, the eastern slope of the Andes) were already known to be critically important. However, one of his hotspots, the small island territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, was an unexpected inclusion in the global priority list. Although well known to botanists as a living museum of unique and ancient plants, and to marine biologists as the site of the world's second largest coastal barrier reef, New Caledonia had been largely overlooked by the international conservation community. None the less, it ranks as one of the world's most endangered biodiversity hotspots and requires an immediate and substantial commitment of conservation resources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 104 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1996

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