**4.1 Caribbean island biodiversity hotspot (CIBH)**

The Caribbean is one of 25 biodiversity hotspots worldwide (**Table 1**) [2]. Together these hotspots contain about 50,000 endemic species. As many as 44% of all known vascular plant species, and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups, are confined to these 25 hotspots covering only 1.4% of the Earth's land surface. An area is designated as a hotspot when it contains at least 0.5% of the world's endemic plant species [50]. The Caribbean Islands are a known biodiversity hotspot (**Figure 7**), but this amazing biodiversity has been and is still being threatened by humans.

To further characterize the Caribbean Island Biodiversity Hotspot (CIBH): 294 Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) were identified, these cover over 50,000 km2 or roughly 22% of the hotspot [2]. Of these, 144 (or 51%) overlap partially or completely with protected areas. Cockpit Country, Litchfield Mountain—Matheson's Run, Blue Mountains (all Jamaica) and Massif de la Hotte (Haiti) were found to support exceptionally high numbers of globally threatened taxa, with more than 40 such species at each site. In total, 409 globally threatened plants and vertebrate species (trigger species) determined the vulnerability criterion to define KBAs. No data were available for the other 346 globally threatened species, most of which were plants [2].

The CIBH exhibits high endemism. It is seventh of the 25 global hotspots in terms of known plant species, and 6th in terms of known plant endemic species (**Table 1**). A total of 180 genera and 727 species are unique to this hotspot, these are the Caribbean endemics [51]. Type species of most of these were published between 1854 and 1928, but although molecular phylogeny has been available for 63, only 21 have robust data. Much work remains to be done. Conservation and management of resources requires an understanding of their taxonomy. This paper concluded that there is urgent need for (1) additional field studies to learn the conservation status of these genera, (2) effective protection of the habitats where the most endangered genera occur, and (3) additional biological and systematic studies of the least understood genera [51].


#### **Table 1.**

*Top 10 global biodiversity hotspots (in terms of plant species number) [2].*

#### **Figure 7.**

*Caribbean Island Biodiversity Hotspot (CIBH) showing its extent. Source: https://www.cepf.net/sites/default/ files/final\_caribbean\_ep.pdf.*

In terms of biodiversity under threat, Conservation International identified 10 global priority regions in need of targeted funding, in order to build resilience and help adaptation to the impacts of climate change [52]. This would provide the greatest benefits to people and natural ecosystems necessary for life on Earth. These 10 areas intersect known global biodiversity hotspots and cover 13% of cultivated tropical land. The 10 areas include Central America, Caribbean, Andes and Atlantic coast of Brazil (South America), Guiana Highlands, Albertine Rift, Madagascar, Ghats (India), Philippines and Java (Indonesia) [52, 53]. However, there is no corresponding global fund or program to protect these resources at the level at which they need to be protected.

Understanding the biodiversity of the Caribbean is an ongoing process. Knowing where the hotspots are, where the KBAs are, where the global priority regions are, or even which organisms are endemic is not enough. Monographs for each species are needed. Understanding the life cycles, ecosystem interactions and the influences of threats such as population density and climate change are needed. Only then can viable management plans be made—for conservation and sustainable use.

Information for all 25 biodiversity hotspots can be found in source document [2].

#### **4.2 Caribbean medicinal plants**

An important part of biodiversity is the plants that have been found to be useful for health and wealth. The Caribbean medicinal plant industry is growing [54]. While there is still not a master list of all medicinal plants found in the Caribbean, an ethnobotanical database is being assembled. The first version of this database reviewed 21 books and included 2898 plant species and the country that identified them as being medicinal [6]. These books describe Caribbean medicinal plants and their folk uses, some are illustrated, and most have been published in the last 20 years (all since 1986 and 76% (16/21) since 2001). Twelve new literature sources have since been added [12, 55–65]. This database (Version2) now includes 3566 plants growing in the Caribbean that have been identified with at least one ethnomedicinal use—some as tonics, some

#### **Figure 8.**

*Number of plants having at least one idientified ethnomedicinal use in 17 Caribbean countries as enumerated in 34 source documents. Of the total, 353 said 'Caribbean' so were not included in this figure. Another 1034 were identified only in Guianas and so were excluded so as not to overwhelm the graph.*

preventative, some curative—for health and wellness purposes (**Figure 8**). Most of these plants (639) were identified as medicinal in only one country although they might be found in others (**Table 2**). The highest number of medicinal plants were identified in Jamaica (475) for the islands and the Guianas (1309) for the coastal countries. 'Guianas' includes Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana [6]. However, any island not yet represented in this database does not imply that it has no plants with identified medicinal properties, but rather that their information has not yet been added. A problem arises if the books are in different languages, in local publications or if they are out of print [66, 67]. Not until the database is comprehensive will the comparative story of medicinal plants in the Caribbean be clearly seen.
