Nation with extremely high biological diversity or many endemic species
A megadiverse country is one of a group of nations that harbours the majority of Earth's species and high numbers of endemic species. Conservation International identified 17 megadiverse countries in 1998.[1][2] All of them are at least partially in the tropics.
Megadiversity means exhibiting great biodiversity. The main criterion for megadiverse countries is endemism at the level of species, genera and families. A megadiverse country must have at least 5,000 species of endemic plants and must border marine ecosystems.
In 2002, Mexico formed a separate organization focusing on Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries, consisting of countries rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge. This organization includes all but three megadiverse countries as identified by Conservation International.[3][failed verification]
Cancún initiative and declaration of Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries
At the same time, they agreed to meet periodically, at the ministerial and expert levels, and decided that upon the conclusion of each annual Ministerial Meeting, the next rotating host country would take on the role of Secretary of the group, to ensure its continuity, the further development of cooperation among these countries, and to reach the various agreements and objectives.[5] The 17 LMMC member countries in 2002 are home to approximately 70% of Earth's species.[4]:83
Later, in 2010, Guatemala and Iran were also included in the list.[6]
List of current member countries
The current member countries of the Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries organization are as follows, in alphabetical order:[7]
Cheng, Wenting (2023). China in Global Governance of Intellectual Property: Implications for Global Distributive Justice. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-3-031-24369-1.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Megadiverse_country, and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.