On this World Biodiversity Day, know more about our ecosystem

As sanctioned by the UN, May 22 is observed as the World Biodiversity Day. The theme for this year is Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism. Check out some facts about the planet’s ecosystem:

The UN has declared 2011-20 the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, which serves to support and promote the goal of significantly reducing biodiversity loss

70 per cent of the world’s species is found in just 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Congo, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexio and Peru

More than 70,000 plant species are used in traditional and modern medicinal purposes. The Himalayan belt has an estimated 25,000 plant species, comprising 10 per cent of the world’s flora

The ocean constitutes 90 per cent of the habitable space on the planet. By the year 2100, without significant changes, more than half of the world’s marine species may stand in the brink of extinction

There are close to 500 dead zones — hypoxic areas in water bodies, caused by excessive nutrient pollution — covering more than 2,45,000 sq km globally, equivalent to the surface of UK

98 per cent of Madagascar’s land mammals, 92 per cent reptiles, 68 per cent flora and 41 per cent of its breeding bird species exist nowhere else on Earth

According to the WWF Living Planet Report 2014, between 1970 and 2010, the planet has lost 52 per cent of its biodiversity. Estimates of the number of species on Earth vary from 3 million to over 100 million