ABSTRACT
The need for biodiversity policy in land management In the history of mankind, economic development has led to prosperity for some and misery for others. Economic development, through the conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural systems, urbanization and environmental pollution, has also led to a wide decline in biodiversity, i.e. the variety and extent of natural ecosystems. Many ecosystems, both on land and in the oceans, are degraded, not only in the European Union (EEA, 2007) but also globally (MA, 2005a). Figure 2.1 presents the decrease of global land-based biodiversity over the last few centuries, and a projected development until 2050 (Braat and ten Brink, 2008). The measure of biodiversity is ‘mean species abundance’, which is an indicator selected by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The land units are biomes, zones of the earth with a similar climate regime.
