Australia's biodiversity

Biodiversity: nature's variety, our heritage, our future

A guide to using and protecting Australia's biodiversity
Environment Australia, 1998 (Revised 2001)

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About the guide

Biodiversity is the web of life – the thin skin of living things, including us, which inhabits the surface of planet Earth. Biodiversity includes humans, animals, plants, fungi and microbes – from dugongs to daisies, toadstools to termites. This variety of life has evolved over hundreds of millions of years. We don’t know how many species live on Earth – scientists have described about 1.8 million. But that’s just a drop in the ocean compared to the estimated 10 to 100 million which probably exist.

Cover of Biodiversity: nature's variety, our heritage, our future

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