ABSTRACT
According to Ghilarov (1996), the term ‘biodiversity’ first appeared (in his words, was ‘invented’) in the literature 16 years earlier in two separate publications authored, first by Lovejoy (1980), and second by Norse and McManus (1980). For Lovejoy the concept was a shorthand way of referring to species totals. For Norse and McManus, the main focus was on genetic and ecological diversity. A few years later the term was adopted as the title of Edward Wilson’s (1988) landmark text. The concept is now synonymous with ‘biological diversity’ and defined in the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as:
The variability among living organisms from all sources … and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.
