Biodiversity Gateway - Directory of Online Biodiversity Resources: general links, digital library, animal studies, botany, databases, primate studies, salmon, forests, centers & organizations, biological sciences, environmental law, environmental studies, fisheries & fish science, oceanography, zoology.

PDF file. What is biodiversity, what threatens it, why is it important, and what are ecologists doing to better understand it? From Ecological Society of America.

Learn about biodiversity, what is is and how we benefit from it. As well as how to preserve it and in so doing save our Planet. From Kind Planet Environmental Forum, an in depth look at the subject of biodiversity, part of our Humane Community celebrating life.

The ALL Species Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the complete inventory of all species of life on Earth within the next 25 years - a human generation.

The UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre is the biodiversity information and assessment arm of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Centre provides objective, science-based ecosystem assessments, support for implementation of environmental agreements, regional and global biodiversity information, research on threats and impacts, and development of indicators and future scenarios for the living world.

This section of the NBII provides links to selected W sites that provide data and information (including photographs and descriptions) about biodiversity.

Biology, ecology, habitat, and status of rare, threatened and endangered species of mammals and information on their native countries: biodiversity, ecosystems, population, and land use.

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world's longest established international conservation body, founded over 100 years ago. FFI acts to conserve threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, are based on sound science and take account of human needs.

The Global Diversity Foundation (GDF) aims to promote biocultural diversity around the world through research, training and social action.

This paper outlines what biodiversity is, and the three levels at which it is usually defined: genetic, species and ecosystem. Most importantly, this paper explains why biodiversity is important. The range of invaluable ecosystem services provided by biodiversity are described, as are the values of biological resources such as timber and food and the range of social and cultural values of biodiversity. To conclude, the paper describes the value of biodiversity itself.