Biodiversity: nature's variety, our heritage, our future
A guide to using and protecting Australia's biodiversity
1998 (Revised 2001)
Download
- Biodiversity: nature's variety, our heritage, our future - full document (PDF - 8.7 MB)
- Contents (PDF - 109.76 KB)
- Australia's report card on biodiversity (PDF - 134.02 KB)
- Biodiversity – we live in it (PDF - 1005.01 KB)
- Biodiversity at the dinner table (PDF - 1.08 MB)
- Biodiversity keeps us healthy (PDF - 978.34 KB)
- Biodiversity in the backyard and beyond (PDF - 1.29 MB)
- Biodiversity at a glance (PDF - 208.64 KB)
- Protecting biodiversity 24 hours a day (PDF - 272.8 KB)
- Biodiversity on holiday (PDF - 968.25 KB)
- Biodiversity on the farm (PDF - 1,022 KB) (PDF - 1021.85 KB)
- Biodiversity afloat (PDF - 876.88 KB)
- Warning signs of change (PDF - 944.31 KB)
- World record breakers (PDF - 261.44 KB)
- Find out more! (PDF - 40.5 KB)
- Top 10 reasons to care about biodiversity (PDF - 141.62 KB)
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.