Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth.  It's about the whole range of living things, from well known trees, animals and flowering plants to lesser known flies, bugs, mosses, fungi, bacteria and even viruses.  It is also about the wide range of habitats that these species live in and depend upon.  Biodiversity can be found everywhere, not only in nature reserves, remote upland areas and in the sea, but also in your back garden, local park and roadside.

The urgent need to conserve biodiversity has been at the top of the UK government’s conservation agenda since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.  Signatory governments at this conference accepted responsibility for conserving biodiversity in their own country through the sustainable and fair use of biological resources.

Our government has produced a national framework for the protection of biodiversity - the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).  At a more local level, regional BAP partnerships help to develop and deliver biodiversity targets.