The livelihoods of six and a half billion people are sustained by ecosystems containing almost 2 million known species.
The welfare of Humankind is utterly dependent on this web of life. 

Crops and animals feed us, forests regulate water supplies and provide fuel, oceans provide food and help regulate climate.  And Biodiversity is a source of cultural and spiritual wealth for indigenous people and city people alike.
Yet only a fraction of life on earth has been discovered, less than 10%. There could be up to 90 million unknown species on the planet.
But all this life is disappearing, and at an alarming rate. According to the Global Biodiversity Outlook, 130 species become extinct each day. That’s over 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.

Faced by these frightening rates of biodiversity loss, future generations may well have nothing left than video clips to remind them of long dead species. Projected trends show accelerating species extinctions and loss of habitat throughout the 21st century.

Alarmed at this assault on nature, the United Nations has declared 2010 the international year of biodiversity.

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