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The worldÕs biological diversity is a vast and undervalued resource. It comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal, and the ecosystems of which they are part.

The number of species on Earth has been variously estimated to be between 10 and 100 million, although only 1.7 million of them have been described so far. To date, the loss of biodiversity is greater that at any time in the past]. Some 100 species are being lost every day. Even the most insignificant-seeming species can play a crucial role in the ecosystem to which it belongs. We simply do not know what we are throwing away. Forest ecosystems are among those facing the most severe biodiversity loss.

Causes of biodiversity loss
The major direct causes of biodiversity loss are the fragmentation, degradation or loss of habitats; the over-exploitation of natural resources; pollution; the introduction of non-native (alien, or exotic) species and climate change. Among the most important underlying causes of biodiversity loss are ill-fitted policies, undefined lands and resources rights, and the macro-economic context which affects both peoples and ecosystems alike.

The CBD recognises that the conservation of biological diversity is an integral part of sustainable development and promotes the integration of environmental conservation with economic development, arguing that sustainable development is only possible if the earth's renewable resources are consumed in a sustainable way. The CBD has embraced the ecosystem approach to sustaining biodiversity.

Biodiversity loss and indigenous peoples
Most of the worldÕs forests are inhabited by indigenous peoples. An estimated 300 million indigenous peoples live in tropical forests, and, in fact, no large areas of tropical forests are uninhabited or unclaimed by indigenous peoples. In almost all parts of the world, forests are the result of active intervention and shaping by people who inhabit them and have inhabited them for centuries and millennia. Based on a decade of research it is now widely accepted both in environmental and social sciences, that conserving biological diversity is directly related to the maintenance of cultural diversity and vice versa: the loss of cultural diversity is part and parcel of the same socio-economic and political processes that lead to biodiversity loss. The CBD has recognised that recognising human rights and needs is crucial to the success of the Convention.

FAO forest definition
The FAO definition of forests makes no distinction between forests and plantations or tree-crops. Therefore, the removal of an old, natural forest and its replacement with a larger area of monoculture even-aged plantation trees statistically counts as an increase in forest area, while in fact a high conservation value forest has been replaced by a tree crop. The consequent biodiversity loss caused by the replacement of a natural forest by an even-aged plantations will go unaccounted for in the FAO forests assessments. This is also relevant for Europe where a significant area of its landbase is forested, but with hardly any old-growth forests left.