Volume 1

Biodiversity : the UK Steering Group report.

  • Great Britain. Biodiversity Steering Group.
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Biodiversity : the UK Steering Group report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    L Gill parts of the world in recent decades, Article 8(f) of the Convention states that each Contracting Party shall, as far as 1.12 This theme is in line with a number of others addressed at the Earth Summit. These included: ® the Rio Declaration, a Statement of Principles which addresses the need to balance the protection of our environment with the need for sustainable development, ® Agenda 21, an action plan for the next century which aims to integrate environmental concerns across a broad range of activities; ® a Statement of Principles for the sustainable management of forests, and ® the Convention on Climate Change which commits all ratifying countries to prepare national programmes to contain greenhouse gas emissions, and to return emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. 1.13 The United Kingdom published strategies for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forestry and Climate Change at the same time as it published the Biodiversity Action Plan. Although the protection and enhancement of biodiversity is important in its own right, it should be seen as one gf a family of initiatives arising from the Earth Summit. The UK plans and strategies responsibility for environmental aspects of policy lies with a designated “Green Minister”. A Ministerial Committee on the Environment meets to consider questions of environmental policy Government-wide. 1.14 Although Government is in the lead, conserving and enhancing biodiversity requires action by the whole community. Delivering the biodiversity targets contained in this report will require concerted effort from central and local Government, the nature conservation agencies, business, land managers, non- Government organisations (NGOs) and individual members of the public. 1.16 Put more simply, biodiversity is the variety of life. It encompasses the whole range of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and other invertebrates, plants, fungi and micro-organisms such as bacteria and viruses. 1.17 No one knows for certain the number of Earth’s species. Informed opinion suggests a figure of between 5 and 30 million. Our knowledge of the major groups of living organisms in the UK is very uneven. Microbial organisms, such as bacteria and protozoa, are much less studied than flowering plants, birds and mammals. Invertebrates are generally less well known than vertebrates and only very few species have their population sizes assessed. We do however know broadly how many birds, and increasingly, reptiles, amphibians and mammals we have. jeusey 4