BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

Learning Outcomes:

In this Unit  students you will be able to learn the following:

• The concept of biodiversity and its importance
• The pattern of biodiversity in earth and its organization
• The different types of species and its importance
• The increasing loss of biodiversity and various threats associated with
• The need to conserve biodiversity
• The various conservation efforts across various spheres in both national and international level

BIODIVERSITY – INTRODUCTION

“….Biodiversity is the shortened form of two words “biological” and “diversity”. It refers to all the variety of life that can be found on Earth (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) as well as to the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live…”

Biodiversity is the divergence of all species on our planet such as different species of plants, animals and micro-organisms, including their gene pool, and different ecosystems. The term was defined as contraction of biological array by E.O. Wilson in 1985.

In our biosphere immense diversity (or heterogeneity) exists not only at the species level but at all levels of biological organisation ranging from macromolecules within cells to biomes.

According to the IUCN (2004), the total number of plant and animal species described so far is slightly more than 1.5 million, According to Robert May places the global species diversity at about 7 million.