The Importance Of Global Biodiversity

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Earth holds a vast diversity of living organisms and immense varieties of Habitat and ecosystem. Biodiversity is the variety and variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic eco¬systems and the ecological complexes; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems (CBD 1992). The term biodiversity, the short form of biological diversity, was coined by Walter G. Rosen in 1985. The fundamental to ecologically sustainable development is conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. An environment rich in biological diversity offers the broadest array of options for sustainable economic activity, for sustaining human welfare and for adapting to change. Global Biodiversity Assessment estimates that a total number of animal and plant species to be between 13 and 14 million (Heywood 1995). It further records that so far only 1.75 million species have been described and studied. UNEP-WCMC (2000) estimated around 2, 70,000 species of vascular plants and 52,000 animals (vertebrates). Nearly 45% of the World’s vascular plant species occur …show more content…

So, there is a need of State Art technology for a holistic management of forests and biodiversity. The modern technology of remote sensing allows us to collect a lot of spatial data rather easily, with speed and on a repetitive basis. Remote sensing is the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area, phenomenon through the analysis of data acquired by a device that is not in contact with the object, area, or phenomenon under investigation. Remote sensing is facilitated with mapping, studying, monitoring and managing various resources like agriculture, forestry, geology, water, ocean etc. It has further enabled monitoring of the environment and thereby helping in conservation (Lillesand and Kiefer,

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