Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is vital to the health of the planet. But overdevelopment and deforestation have threatened biodiversity, as have pollution, overfishing, and hunting and poaching. Conservation efforts must be intensified in order to avoid collapse of our valuable ecosystems. The viewpoints in this volume address the importance of biodiversity and what has contributed to its loss, examples of crises in different parts of the world, and what can be done to ensure the biodiversity of the planet is preserved.

Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is vital to the health of the planet. But overdevelopment and deforestation have threatened biodiversity, as have pollution, overfishing, and hunting and poaching. Conservation efforts must be intensified in order to avoid collapse of our valuable ecosystems. The viewpoints in this volume address the importance of biodiversity and what has contributed to its loss, examples of crises in different parts of the world, and what can be done to ensure the biodiversity of the planet is preserved.