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, all of which are located at least partially in tropical or subtropical regions.
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.
List of megadiverse countries
In alphabetical order, the 17 megadiverse countries are:
Australia
Brazil
China
Colombia
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ecuador
India
Indonesia
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mexico
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
South Africa
United States
Venezuela
List of most biodiverse countries 2022
| Country (or dependent territory) | Bird | Amphibian | Fish | Mammal | Reptile | Vascular Plant | Biodiversity Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil |
1,816 | 1,141 | 4,738 | 693 | 847 | 34,387 | 512.34 |
| Indonesia |
1,723 | 383 | 4,813 | 729 | 773 | 19,232 | 418.78 |
| Colombia |
1,863 | 812 | 2,105 | 477 | 634 | 24,025 | 369.76 |
| China |
1,285 | 540 | 3,476 | 622 | 554 | 31,362 | 365.84 |
| Mexico |
1,105 | 411 | 2,629 | 533 | 988 | 23,385 | 342.47 |
| Australia |
725 | 245 | 4,992 | 355 | 1,131 | 19,324 | 337.18 |
| Peru |
1,861 | 655 | 1,583 | 490 | 510 | 19,812 | 330.12 |
| India |
1,212 | 446 | 2,601 | 440 | 715 | 45,000 | 301.63 |
| Ecuador |
1,629 | 659 | 1,111 | 392 | 492 | 18,466 | 291.58 |
| United States |
844 | 326 | 3,081 | 531 | 556 | 15,500 | 280.13 |
| Venezuela |
1,386 | 365 | 1,735 | 376 | 419 | 30,000 | 273.39 |
| Papua New Guinea |
743 | 416 | 2,884 | 282 | 384 | 13,634 | 226.57 |
 Myanmar |
1,034 | 540 | 1,088 | 304 | 364 | 16,000 | 221.77 |
 Vietnam |
835 | 263 | 2,423 | 313 | 512 | 8,500 | 216.97 |
| Malaysia |
721 | 278 | 1,951 | 348 | 502 | 14,060 | 214.71 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo |
1,110 | 227 | 1,528 | 465 | 313 | 8,860 | 214.43 |
 Tanzania |
1,074 | 207 | 1,773 | 412 | 346 | 10,100 | 213.10 |
 Bolivia |
1,435 | 259 | 407 | 382 | 315 | 14,729 | 209.55 |
| South Africa |
762 | 132 | 2,094 | 331 | 421 | 21,250 | 207.94 |
 Thailand |
936 | 153 | 2,150 | 314 | 468 | 6,600 | 200.77 |
See also
References
- ^ Williams, J. (2001). "Biodiversity Theme Report". environment.gov.au. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
- "Megadiverse Countries definition| Biodiversity A-Z". biodiversitya-z.org.
- "The 201 Most (& Least) Biodiverse Countries in 2022". September 22, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
External links
Works related to Declaration of Cancún (Spanish) at Wikisource
