It lies at the centre of the Central Asian biodiversity hot spot, with a high density of endemic species representing Himalayan flora and fauna biotypes. Despite the country’s small size (0.13% of the world’s landmass), it has a good representation of all terrestrial taxonomic groups, hosting nearly 1 per cent of all known species on Earth (table 8.1). This indicator is higher than expected for a country' of this size in this subregion, with above-average species richness for Central Asia. Species richness of higher vascular plants and vertebrates is better known.