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What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the measure of variety of the Earth's
animal, plant and microbial species; of genetic
differences within species and of the ecosystems
that support those species.
The term first came to public attention in 1992 at the
Rio Earth Summit at which a convention for the
preservation for the maintenance of biodiversity
was signed by over 100 world leaders [excluding
the USA as they feared it would undermine the
patents and licences of US biotechnology
companies]
The maintenance of biodiversity is important for
ecological stability and maintaining the gene pool,
and as a resource for research into, for example,
new drugs and crops
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Approximate pages: 5
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