What is biodiversity?
The word ‘biodiversity’ comes from the term ‘biological diversity’ and simply means all living plants and animals on earth and the natural systems that they support. This includes everything from plankton to puffins, weasels to willows and back gardens to rain forest.
Biodiversity is the thing that feeds us, gives us the air that we breathe, provides the natural resources that we use, shapes our world and our society. Biodiversity is to humanity what the sea is to the fishes – it is the thing that supports and sustains us.
The variety of life on Earth is astonishing. So far about 1.5 million species of plant, animal, fungus, alga and bacteria have been described. However, it is thought that there maybe as many as 100 million species still to be found and identified.
Further information
Please see
- Biodiversity – your questions answered a 780Kb pdf file by Natural England
- Biodiversity indicators in your pocket a 2.6Mb pdf file published by Defra on behalf of the UK Biodiversity Partnership
