The term biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.
Biodiversity is the most complex feature of our planet and it is the most vital.
Two human actions that contribute to the loss of biodiversity are:
1. Forest clearing
2. Wetland filling
3. Stream channeling and rerouting
4. Road and building construction
These are often part of a systematic effort that produces a substantial change in the ecological trajectory of a landscape or a region. As human populations grow, the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems they use may be transformed by the efforts of human beings to find and produce food, adapt the landscape to human settlement, and create opportunities for trading with other communities for the purposes of building wealth. Biodiversity losses typically accompany these processes.
