A Portal on Sustainability

Biodiversity

04.05.2005 · Research Group on the Global Future

The Short Film that was used to open the IUCN World Conservation Forum, Bangkok, in November 2004 introduces briefly to the importance of biodiversity.

Commonly, biodiversity is understood in terms of the wide variety of plants, animals and microorganisms. So far, about 1.75 million species have been identified and scientists suggest that there are actually around 13 million species on this planet.

But the concept of biodiversity also includes, as it is articulated by UNEP through the Convention of Biological Diversity genetic differences within each species – e.g., between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. Chromosomes, genes, and DNA-the building blocks of life-determine the uniqueness of each individual and each species.

In addition, biodiversity encompasses the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water, and soil around them.

United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
The environment programme deals with different issues concerning biodiversity. Its aim is to make the environmental management of biodiversity an important part of, and fully integrated with, social and economic activities.

Through a steady increase of the human population on earth as well as environmental practices that threaten the existence of species and ecosystems, World Resources Institute's (WRI) scientists predict the extinction of a quarter of the earth's species by 2050, only two generations away. Our planet's biodiversity is endangered.

The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity represents a pact among the vast majority of global leaders who are committed to maintain the world’s ecological underpinning in a world driven by economic development and businesses. The Convention’s three goals are: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits that result from the use of genetic resources.

A National Geographic's report on biodiversity informs readers about strategies to save the diverse life on earth - and what we are about to lose forever.

An internationally recognized centre of excellence, The World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) is focused on the location and management of information on the conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources. The center's pages guide you to global data on biodiversity and information relating to WCMC's activities in this field. It also creates the EU annual report on the implementation of biodiversity conventions.

The Center for Applied Biodiversity Science tries to anticipate scenarios harmful to biodiversity before these situations become unsolvable crises. Its activities include workshops and conferences and seek to strengthen the ability to respond rapidly.

The Biodiversity Center by Defenders of Wildlife, an organization that is dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities, focuses on the accelerating rate of the extinction of species and the associated loss of biological diversity, and habitat alteration and destruction.

A paper on biodiversity and trade liberalization produced by IISD staff develops a framework for assessing the impacts on biodiversity of trade policies such as tariffs, non-tariff barriers and international liberalization agreements. The intended audience is non-economists working on biodiversity policy, who may wish to integrate such macroeconomic considerations in their work. The framework is described, and applied to two case studies: Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.