Introduction

Abstract

This is a book about the conservation of the diversity of life forms that exists on earth. That is, it is a book about evolved biological diversity, or ‘biodiversity’. Biological diversity is important because it is the primary output from a four-and-a-half-billion year evolutionary process. The evolutionary process has endowed the earth with this range of diversity for important reasons, from the perspective of humans and for the preservation of life on earth. This book is about the conservation of this unique global endowment.