What is biodiversity? Biodiversity has different meanings depending on the situation being discussed and the target audience. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary defines biodiversity as being "The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat". This is definition is clearly sufficient for non-specialists. However, when looking more specifically at biodiversity, it becomes evident that thought needs to be given to other groups such as fungi, bacteria and archea.
Nature provides human society with a vast diversity of benefits such as food, fibres, clean water, healthy soil and carbon capture and many more. Though our well-being is totally dependent upon the continued flow of these “ecosystem services”, they are predominantly public goods with no markets and no prices, so are rarely detected by our current economic compass. As a result, biodiversity is declining, our ecosystems are being continuously degraded and we, in turn, are suffering the consequences.
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