What is biodiversity?
Biological diversity — or biodiversity — is often understood in terms of the wide variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms.
Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species. For example, between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock.
Yet another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes.
It is the combination of life forms and their interactions with each other and with the rest of the environment that has made Earth a uniquely habitable place for humans. Biodiversity provides a large number of goods and services that sustain our lives.
Today's status of biodiversity in Switzerland
Biodiversität - alles was lebt (PDF, dt.)