The World Bank, Conservation International, and the Global Environment Facility joined together yesterday to unveil a new $150 million fund aimed at preserving biodiversity by protecting “hot spots,” or threatened areas with heavy concentrations of plant and animal species. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, as the project has been dubbed, will help create new national parks, buy and set aside timber and mining rights, and fund projects by local people who want to build sustainable economies. The three partners have each committed $25 million to the fund, and the remainder of the money will be sought from other donors. About 60 percent of all land-based species live in 25 spots that cover just 1.4 percent of the earth’s surface, according to Oxford ecologist Norman Myers, and a number of conservationists are calling for a concerted push to protect these areas permanently.
