Conservation and development issues were dealt under separate heads like forest, wildlife, and heritage conservation etc. prior to the development in the1990s. But now it is brought under separate head called ‘Biodiversity’. After the formal recognition in the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity signed in Rio de Generio in the year 1992, the level of awareness about the problem and the need to conserve the biodiversity grew significantly.
Definition of Biodiversity
The word was coined by Walter Rosen (1986) in the National Forum at Smithsonian Institute, Washington. Convention on Biological diversity defines the term ‘Biological diversity’ as the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part of; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. This is an international accepted definition.
Three levels of bio-diversity
Biodiversity deals with the degree of nature’s variety and this can be seen at 3 levels namely Genetic Diversity,Species Diversity and Ecosystem Diversity.