Biodiversity

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity literally means the whole variety of life on earth - from you to your back garden, from the rain forest to the desert, from the birds to the bees. The word is a contraction of the phrase “biological diversity”, the term given to the variety of life on this planet. It reflects the number and variety of living organisms. Together biodiversity and life diversity makes the variety of life on earth.

“One of the great unknowns in science today is how much biological diversity there is on earth.” E.O. Wilson

In celebration of the great variety of life on Earth, the United Nations (UN) declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity.