WILD animals and plants are sources of food, medicine and building materials, and help generate income. Rivers and lakes provide transport facility, water and sea food. The coastal zone is a permanent source of sustenance. However, recent patterns of development have depleted soils, created genetic and species diversities both in managed fields and surrounding habitats.

Agriculture, grazing, forestry and other human-managed eco-systems cover at least two-thirds of the terrestrial surface of the planet, while protected areas cover only about five per cent. Biodiversity provides goods and services fundamental to survival of human being including air, fresh water, medicines and shelter. It also enables them to adapt to changing needs and circumstances. The diversity of nature is a source of beauty besides providing recreational, psychological, emotional and spiritual inspiration.

The term biodiversity emerged in literature in 1980s and yet to many it is not clear as to what it really means. People generally imagine mammals, beautiful birds and marvelous patches of forests, when they hear this word. While these animals, birds and forest trees are components of biodiversity. The concept encompasses much more than is easily seen, less obviously interesting to humans and yet crucial for human survival as well as development.

Biodiversity is used for biological diversity in variety of life on earth. It includes all genes, species and eco-systems and the ecological process of which they are part. The concept relates to all life forms on earth; it goes beyond organisms and includes their genetic make up and the invisible ecosystem processes and services of which individual species are a part. The convention on biological diversity defines biodiversity in the three inter-linked levels - ecosystem, species and genetic. Each of these levels is important. Change at one level can lead to changes at the other.

One school of thought believes that we should protect and restore biodiversity because of its benefits to mankind, while the other believes that it is our moral obligation to care about biodiversity simply because all species have an equal right to live and have substantial value nature.

Scientists from various fields agree that as a result of human activity, biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate. Already, thousands of species have become extinct. Extinction is a natural process on earth. However, as a result of human interference, the current rate of species extinction is 100 to 1,000 times rapid than the natural rate. Approximately 10,000 to 25,000 species become extinct every year.

The causes of biodiversity loss are complex. The important causes are habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, pollution and over exploitation. The convention on biological diversity came into force in late 1993 and had 117 ratifications by mid March 1995. It offsets new approach to biodiversity, recognising that conservation requires action at levels and in all habitats.

In the convention, governments affirmed that they had sovereign rights over their own biological resources, but were responsible for conserving biodiversity and for using their biological resources in a sustainable manner. The convention also recognised the traditional dependence of indigenous and local communities on biological resources and the desirability of enabling local communities to share equitably in the benefits arising from the use of indigenous knowledge.

Agricultural biodiversity includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, the variety and variability of plants, animals and micro-organisms at genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are necessary to sustain key functions in the agro ecosystem, its structures and processes. It is essential to the world as it is vital for sustainable production of food and other agricultural products, including providing the building blocks for the evolution or deliberate breeding of useful new crop varieties, biological support to production for example soil biota, pollinators, and predators; wider ecological services provided by agro-ecosystems, such as landscape protection, soil, protection and health, water cycle and quality air.

Local knowledge and culture can be considered integral parts of agricultural biodiversity, because it is the human activity of agriculture that conserves this biodiversity. Indeed, most crop plants have lost their original seed dispersal mechanisms as a result of domestication and so no longer can thrive without human input.

The challenge for farmers as well as humanity as a whole lies in ensuring food security, adequate nutrition, and stable livelihoods for the world population. Creating well managed agricultural systems is essential. Today, as a result of the agricultural expansion, the population growth and misuse of agricultural technologies, new direct and indirect drivers of change have increased pressures on biodiversity and natural resources, including water, land and nutrients.

Over the past 50 years, agricultural expansion in tropical and sub-tropical regions has substantially reduced levels of biodiversity. At the same time, food production has increased by 160 per cent from 1961 to 2003. Trade-off for an increase in food production has contributed to a decline in other ecosystem services with 60 per cent of them being degraded.

Each year, the international day for biodiversity is marked on May 22. This year’s theme for the day was “Biodiversity and Agriculture’’. The theme was quite pertinent, as the world is passing through an unprecedented food and energy crisis.

For the first time in recent history, food protests have erupted in many places at once. The theme aimed at highlighting the importance of sustainable agriculture is not only to preserve biodiversity but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods and enhance human wellbeing into the 21st century and beyond.