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IHG and Priority Club Rewards are measuring and managing our impact on the environment, establishing new partnerships and working to ensure that we are operating responsibly. We are committed to making a difference and minimizing our environmental footprint.

You can be part of the solution too by helping us support Conservation through Innovation and choosing to receive e-statements over traditional paper statements. By making the easy switch, you will not only be doing your part, Priority Club Rewards will make a donation to Oxford University’s Department of Plant Sciences in order to support conservation research.

But, switching to e-statements will do more than just help the environment, it gives you access

 

more offers and promotions faster as well as access to your account whenever you need it.

Switch today and receive 250 bonus points!*

So, make conservation one of your priorities.
And make the switch today!


*Must be a Priority Club® Rewards member to participate in this promotion. By providing your email address, you are agreeing to receive a monthly Priority Club Rewards e-statement. A one-time 250 point bonus will be deposited directly into your member account when your preference has been submitted and the email address provided has been confirmed to be a valid email address. Promotion ends June 30, 2010. Miles earners will earn points. No retroactive points will be awarded if you already receive an e-statement. Subject to standard Priority Club Rewards program terms and conditions and earning structure which can be obtained by visiting priority club.com or by calling your local service center.

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Diversity Hot Spots...


 Although biodiversity hotspots have been defined in various ways, the number of ‘endemic’  species is central to most definitions: a species is said to be endemic to an area when it is found only in that area and nowhere else on earth.

In the one popular sense of the term (Norman Myers’ definition adopted by Conservation International (CI)), a hotspot must be both rich in endemics and its habitat must be disappearing fast. Specifically, it must have more than 1,500 endemic species of vascular plant; and it must have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.

There is great scope for these definitions to be refined, especially so that hotspot areas can be mapped more precisely, on a finer scale, to highlight specific areas deserving of protection; and so that endemic species can be considered separately from the degree of vegetation loss. It is useful to think of each hotspot as nested sets of more specific hotspots, separated by less important areas. Ornithologists recognize ‘endemic  bird areas’, and there are often several of these in each of the global hotspots. While we work on fine-tuning and better understanding these hotspots for plants, here is the initial ‘first approximation’ list of global hotspots based on Myers’/CI’s criteria:


 

Biodiversity Hotspots


   
 John Wood
Herbarium specimen collected in Mexico in 1992.

John Wood
A herbarium is a collection of pressed, dried plants, and is a fundamental conservation tool. Herbaria are central to the initiatives to catalogue plant life on Earth, the debate about the future of global plant biodiversity and its conservation and understanding plant evolution. There are many herbaria scattered around the world, and may contain a few thousand specimens to more than ten million specimens.

To find out more about the herbarium and to post a question or comment, please see the Oxford Department of Plant Sciences Blog. Enjoy!!!!

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