Convention on Biodiversity

Biodiversity (BD) is the genetic/species variation within or between ecosystem(s), biome, or for the entire Earth, and is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. Biodiversity is a blended word, from biology and diversity, originating from and used interchangeably with biological diversity. This multilevel conception is consistent with the early use of the term biological diversity in Washington, D.C., and in international conservation organizations in the late 1960s and 1970s, by Raymond F. Dasmann, who apparently coined the term. Thomas E. Lovejoy later introduced it to the wider conservation and science communities. Subsequently, the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de [Page 77]Janeiro defined biological diversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, ...