Bio-diversity
If you want to know what is meant by 'biodiversity',
just look around you.
There are
millions of living species on earth, in the seas and in the skies -
plants, animals, insects, bacteria - which
have been sharing the planet for millions or billions of years.
This
amazing
variety forms an interdependent blanket which covers the world. The
year 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity.
Although it is difficult to measure biodiversity,
it's generally agreed that biodiversity is greatest in and near the
tropics and lowest in the far north and far south. It's clearly the
outcome of billions of years of evolution yet it's been more under
threat in recent years than for many millenia.
Biodiversity is known to be of great benefit to the
human species. The enormous variety of plants, for example, offers many
advantages in the production of food, medicines, raw materials and the
spiritual benefits of landscape and art.
Where biodiversity has been restricted by human
activity, the result is monoculture - concentrating on only one
species. These species are at great risk from pests, as shown by the
Irish famine of 1846; only two varieties of potatoes were grown and
when they were attacked, millions faced starvation and death. The
widespread destruction of habitats - for example in the tropical rain
forests - will endanger all aspects of life. We ignore biodiversity at
our peril.
http://www.cbd.int/2010/biodiversity/
www.africanbiodiversity.org