Talk:Megadiverse countries

17 countries?

It says there are 17 countries, but the map clearly highlights more than 17 countries. Or am I seeing things? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.27.209.247 (talk) 22:17, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Removed dubious claims

I have edited the article to remove some very dubious claims about India and the Phillippines. Both countries, while definitely in the megadiverse list, are not in the top 5. Additionally it was stated that India had 60-70% of the diversity in the world which is clearly ridiculous! It should've stated that all 18 countries COMBINED have 60-70% of the diversity in the world.

Map

Iran is not highlighted on the map.

Why does the map not highlight the United States? and why does it highlight Taiwan (Republic of China) which has a disputed status over whether it is independent from the People's Republic? SCHZMO ✍ 20:39, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

The article states that there are 17 megadiverse countries, but only 16 are listed. Is the United States missing from this list? Jodamn 20:06, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Bolivia

Bolivia is the 17th megadiverse country, why is not highlighted in the map nor included on the list? Additionally, the United States is not a megadiverse country. Lunaticcloud 14:44, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Lunaticcloud. I have updated the map so that it highlights Bolivia as well. Jodamn 19:01, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

According to the list, the US IS a megadiverse country. User:Jumacdon

Costa Rica

How is it possible that Costa Rica (by any measure one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world, despite its small size) is not listed here? Moreover, I notice that it was one of the original signatories of the "like-minded megadiverse countries" group. - Potosino 04:08, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

I think that Costa Rica does not have to be in the list. The source only cites 17 countries, Costa Rica is noy in the list. Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Vietnam and other countries have high level of biological diversity but not as high as the megadiverse countries. --SonCR (talk) 23:41, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually, reading the World Conservation Monitoring Centre report, it specifically named all 17 countries as megadiverse, so there is no room for ambiguity. I'm very sure countries like Costa Rica, Kenya, Vietnam and others certainly rank high in biodiversity, but we are quoting the actual source (the UNEP report) afterall, so we should follow it. The so-called Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries Group is not affiliated with the UNEP organization anyway, and so it's a good alternative source to have, kind of like when we're talking about global GDP stats using either World Bank or CIA Factbook data. Haleth (talk) 12:25, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Australia

The page on Australia: Flora and fauna states that Australia is a megadiverse country. Which of these two pages is incorrect? FienX 23:38, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Australia is not a megadiverse since it doesn not fit in the criteria to be in. It must have 19 species per square kilometer.

Who says it isn't? Statistics from the UNEP report says that it is. Haleth (talk) 12:25, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Spanish Wikipedia

In the Spanish Wikipedia says that they are 18 megadiverse countries including Bolivia and Costa Rica and excluding the USA. That makes more sense to me, I doubt that the USA has more biodiversity than Costa Rica despite it's much smaller. Can someone tell me what's the correct one? Also I'm not sure if Australia is a megadiverse country although it should be.

In the Catalan Wikipedia it shows the map with the correct countries.

There are two different sources that identify some of the most megadiverse countries in the world. One is the UNEP report, the other one is the so-called Like-Minded Megadiverse Country Group conference in Cancun. I checked the Catalan Wikipedia entry, it only cites the latter.

Comments re missing countries

I notice the various remarks about other highly diverse tropical countries not being on the list. If you follow the first reference you can read a description of the criteria for megadiversity. It is not merely enough to have a high number of species in a country but also that the species represented are mostly endemic (i.e. they are not found in other countries). This tends to favour larger countries and islands because they are probably going to have more endemic species as a function of geography. On a related note there is a very interesting article in The Economist [1] regarding the issue of "species inflation" where conservationists are possibly fragmenting species to make taxonomic groups appear more rare or unique. This is likely to have a strong influence on perceptions of biodiversity especially in developed countries where there are more conservation groups. Edwin s 03:41, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

List of countries (order)

The current list of countries is alphabetical and there is no indication which countries are more mega diverse than others (top 10, etc,).

If the information is available, could someone please add ranking or sort the list in a more meaningful way?

Number of Countries

It says in the introduction that there are 17 megadiverse countries and and the following section it then lists 18 countries. I assume that the 17 should be 18 but I don't wanna make any changes that I'm not 100% sure of. Fatla00 (talk) 06:21, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Kenya is not cited by the Australian article, so it's 17 countries. --Pixeltoo (talk) 01:47, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Expansion on lines of LMMC

It appears that not much info is available on the 18 megadivere countries but that the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC) has extensive information on various websites. That information should be incorporated here and the article could be either expanded on those lines, or a seperate article created for the LMMC. Enviropearson (talk) 21:21, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Argentina

How come Argentina is not in the list? That country boast 3 million sq km and has all the climates, from subtropical to antartic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.23.5.73 (talk) 13:06, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

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Tanzania

Tanzania is also mega diverse country 196.249.98.57 (talk) 17:40, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

It is in the top 20 most biodiverse countries (as of 2022), but it was not identified in the original list of 17 countries, nor is it a member of the "Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries" group. ZLima12 (talk) 19:52, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

India - vascular plant species

The linked source says India has "45000" vascular plant species, not "15000". Did someone make a mistake copying the text? There's obviously a substantial difference. 2A02:3102:AD00:580:5C69:1E6E:EC7B:A55 (talk) 18:33, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

It indeed seems to have been a mistake from when the table was copied. Fixed in revision 1232821442. ZLima12 (talk) 19:48, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Clarifying origination of the term "megadiverse"

Currently, the article doesn't explicitly touch on the history of the term. From some quick preliminary research, it appears as though the term was coined right around the publication by Conservation International, but this is not adequately conveyed in the article. A good source would be necessary to claim that they invented the term, however. ZLima12 (talk) 19:19, 5 July 2024 (UTC)