What is Biodiversity and Why is it Important?
Biodiversity is the variability of all living organisms — including animal and plant species — of the genes of all these organisms, and of the terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems of which they are part. Biodiversity makes up the structure of the ecosystems and habitats that support essential living resources, including wildlife, fisheries and forests. It helps provide for basic human needs such as food, shelter, and medicine. It composes ecosystems that maintain oxygen in the air, enrich the soil, purify the water, protect against flood and storm damage and regulate climate. Biodiversity also has recreational, cultural, spiritual and aesthetic values. Society’s growing consumption of resources and increasing populations have led to a rapid loss of biodiversity, eroding the capacity of earth’s natural systems to provide essential goods and services on which human communities depend. Human activities have raised the rate of extinction to 1,000 times its usual rate. If this conti
