INTRODUCTIO TO BIODIVERSITY

Our planet, earth, is occupied by diverse kinds of living organisms. They live in various environments. The world is estimated to have 5 to 30 million species of living organisms. At present about 2.5 million species of living organisms have been given scientific names. Over 1.5 million of them are animal species and out of which 750,000 belong to insect species alone. There are 350,000 species of plants including algae, fungi, mosses and higher forms of plants. Thus the existence of different forms of a species or genus and diverse adaptations for, varied surroundings are referred to as “biodiversity”.

The survival of such a vast range of living beings could be ensured only when their habitats and environmental conditions remain without alterations. The term ‘biosphere’ had been coined to highlight the interde­pendence of living and non-living world. It represents a stable environment of various physical and biological factors which have been operating since the past. The organic continuity of the system rests on a delicate network of inter­dependent relationships. The air, the water, the animals, the plants, the mi­crobes and human beings are all interlinked in a life sustaining system, called the environment.

Safeguarding the entire biosphere with all its intricacies is of prime importance today. The nations of the world have convened several conferences and adopted important resolutions for safeguarding the sustainability of earth. In this background, the United Nation’s ‘Environmental Agency’ organized the “International Conference on Human Environment” at Stockholm in 1972. This conference adopted the motto ‘Only one earth’. In 1982, a UN conference on Environment was held at Nairobi. The UN again convened “Earth summit” at Rio de Janeiro highlighting “our common future”, in 1992. Once again a world summit on sustainable development was organized in Johannesberg in 2002. One of the agenda commonly placed and accepted in all these meets was the significance of biodiversity and its conservation to ensure sustainable earth.

References

T. Sargunam Stephen, Biology (Zoology). First Edition – 2005,Government of Tamilnadu.