What is biodiversity?
 "Bush regeneration in Royal NP.. Image: DECC")
People across NSW help to conserve biodiversity in many ways - including bush regeneration days like this.
Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms: different plants (from lichens and mosses to shrubs and trees), animals (invertebrates, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals), the genes they contain and the ecosystems in which they live.
Biodiversity is vital in supporting human life on Earth. It provides many benefits, including all our food, many medicines and industrial products, and it supplies clean air and water, and fertile soils.
Australia is home to more than one million species of plants and animals, many of which are unique. About 82 per cent of our mammals and 93 per cent of our frogs are found nowhere else in the world. But over the past 200 years, the Australian environment has been modified dramatically. Australia has lost 75 per cent of its rainforests and has the world's worst record of mammal extinctions.