What is the history of the term biodiversity hot spot, and what does it mean?

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction. For example forests are considered as biodiversity hotspots. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in "The Environmentalist" (1988), & 1990[2] revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in "Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions" and a paper published in the journal Nature.

To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation. Around the world, 36 areas qualify under this definition. These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species, with a very high share of those species as endemics.