ABSTRACT
Biodiversity is the global composite of genes, species and ecosystems. United Nations Environment Programme estimates there are about 30 million species on Earth, of which only about one and a half million have ever been described, and that about one-quarter of the Earth’s species risk extinction within the next 30 years. This chapter provides a concise review of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Convention on Biological Diversity. Unlike other conventions, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, this convention establishes a wider context for all biological diversity protection, as well as sustainable use of the components of biodiversity. The objectives of the convention, set out in Article 1, are the “conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies”.
