Key word: Biodiversity
The term biological diversity, or “biodiversity”, refers to the diversity of life on Earth. It encompasses

• genetic diversity, 
• species diversity and 
• diversity of ecosystems.

Biodiversity is therefore enormously broad in scope, covering everything from the molecular relationships between individual genes to functional landscape units. It also includes all crop plants and livestock animals, collectively referred to as agro-biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the result of an evolutionary process under way since the beginning of life on Earth.

Scientists assume that there are around 13 million species of flora and fauna, although estimates vary between 10 and 100 million. Only around 1.75 million of these have so far been recorded scientifically. The greatest species richness is to be found in the developing countries. Scientists estimate that these areas are home to around 90 percent of known living organisms.

A high degree of biological diversity generally goes hand in hand with a highly diverse landscape structure, but also with a high level of ethnic diversity. The hotspots of biological and cultural diversity are thus found in and around the tropical and subtropical mountain regions.

World map of biodiversity hotspots: Number of higher plants per 10,000 km².

World map of biodiversity hotspots: Continental fauna species diversity per 100 km².

World map of threatened biodiversity hotspots: Loss of continental fauna species diversity per 100 km².