While most of us are well aware of Hawai'i's unfortunate moniker as the endangered species capital of the nation, the Endangered Species Coalition recently named the Hawaiian Islands as one of the top 10 places to save for wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of extinction. The report, It's Getting Hot Out There: Top 10 Places to Save for Endangered Species in a Warming World highlights the importance of saving habitat for endangered species and examines how the changing climate is increasing the risk of extinction for imperiled fish, plants and wildlife, and the importance of protecting key ecosystems. It also serves the important role of bringing awareness on the national scale to the predicament of so many endangered native species across the islands.

The endangered 'i'iwi's curved bill finds a perfect mate, on more than one account, with the flower of the endangered 'ohawai. The 'i'iwi is threatened by habitat loss and has been decimated by avian malaria carried by mosquitoes. Photo: Jack Jeffrey

Hawai'i joins the threatened ecosystems of the California Sierra Mountains, greater Yellowstone, the Gulf Coast's flatlands and wetlands and others fragile ecosystems. The report calls for the Obama Administration and Congress to provide the tools and resources necessary to protect these key ecosystems from global climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 20 to 30 percent of the world's species will be at an increased risk of extinction if global temperature increases exceed three to five degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. The climate threats to Hawai'i's species include coral bleaching and ocean acidification, loss of coastal habitat for monk seals, sea turtles and millions of nesting seabirds, and increased breeding zones for introduced mosquitoes that transmit deadly avian diseases to unique forest birds.

The 60-year-old Conservation Council for Hawai'i has long been focused on shaping policy to protect native species and is hopeful of the awareness the report will raise. "Native ecosystems, from our coral reefs to the alpine summits on Hawai'i and Maui, will be harmed by global warming," says Marjorie Ziegler, Executive Director of the Conservation Council for Hawai'i. "The solution is awareness. Hawai'i needs its fair share of funding proportionate to the number of endangered species here."

The full report is available online at itsgettinghotoutthere.org.

conservehi.org