What is Biodiversity ?

     “Biodiversity” or “biological diversity” is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural pattern it forms. Biodiversity covers species diversity, genetic diversity or genetic differences covers species, and ecosystem diversity.

The Importance of Biodiversity

     Biodiversity provides a large number of goods and services that sustain our lives. For example, the variety of plant and animal species used in agriculture enable us to choose more foods and other products to consume. Furthermore, species variety has helped farmers and breeds in selecting and developing the desired plant and animal species. So far, we have been making use of only 5% of all living organism on earth. For example, only 3,000 species of vascular plants (from the entire 320,000 species) have been used as food, even the fact that 25% of the entire vascular plant can be consumed as food.

    Another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in rainforests, grasslands, mangrove forests, lakes, swamps, shores, coral reefs, as well as man – made ecosystems, such as rice paddy, water reservoirs and the other agriculture landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water and soil around them.
     Such variety of life and ecosystem has made Earth a uniquely habitable place for all life. Each ecosystem provides valuable environment place for all life. Each ecosystem provides valuable environmental service that sustain our lives. Forests, For example, help preventing and protecting flood and soil erosion.