CEMEX Presents Hotspots Revisited

    Business Editors/Environment Writers

    MONTERREY N.L., Mexico--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2005--CEMEX S.A. de C.V. (NYSE: CX) announced today the launch of Hotspots Revisited, produced by CEMEX, in collaboration with Conservation International, Agrupacion Sierra Madre, and the University of Virginia. Hotspots Revisited identifies 34 regions worldwide where 75 percent of the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface, roughly equivalent to the combined areas of the five largest U.S. states.
    The new book, which features nearly 300 photographs, contains the results of an in-depth reanalysis of global hotspots, a widely used prioritization strategy for allocating conservation dollars to areas where they can do the most good. The new analysis shows that an estimated 50 percent of all vascular plants and 42 percent of terrestrial vertebrates exist only in these 34 hotspots.
    "Hotspots Revisited is the twelfth in our series of conservation books. Like its predecessors, the new book illustrates approaches to protect the world's biodiversity and works to promote a culture of environmental awareness within our communities and our society at large," said Armando J. Garcia, CEMEX's Executive Vice President of Development.
    "The biodiversity hotspots are the environmental emergency rooms of our planet. This latest assessment underscores the value of the hotspots concept for defining urgent conservation priorities," said Russell A. Mittermeier, President of Conservation International and Co-Editor of the new book. "We must now act decisively to avoid losing these irreplaceable storehouses of Earth's life forms."
    Hotspots Revisited was written by Russell Mittermeier, Gustavo A.B. da Fonseca, Michael Hoffmann, John Pilgrim, Thomas Brooks, Patricio Robles Gil, Cristina G. Mittermeier, and John Lamoreux. The book can be purchased on www.conservation.org.
    CEMEX is a growing global building solutions company. The company provides consistent quality products and reliable services for customers and communities in more than 30 countries across four continents. CEMEX improves their well-being because of its passion to do things better and care for the future. For more information about the company, visit www.cemex.com.
    Conservation International applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information about CI, visit www.conservation.org.

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CONTACT: CEMEX S.A. de C.V Media Contact, Houston Sarah Simpson, 713-722-6058 or Media Contact, Monterrey Jorge Perez, (52-81) 8888-4334

KEYWORD: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA VIRGINIA TEXAS MEXICO INTERNATIONAL LATIN AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ENVIRONMENT REAL ESTATE BUILDING/CONSTRUCTION PUBLISHING PRODUCT SOURCE: CEMEX S.A. de C.V.

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