Biodiversity Data Sourcebook from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)

This sourcebook of biodiversity data was released in part as a
contribution to the First Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity (Bahamas, 28 November - 9
December) in anticipation that it will provide information of
interest and relevance.

An extended introduction to many theoretical and applied aspects
of biological diversity was provided in Global Biodiversity:
status of the Earth's living resources (WCMC, 1992; funded
largely by the UK Overseas Development Administration). That
document, which benefitted from collaboration with many
organisations and individual scientists, was produced at the time
of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. The purpose of the book was to
provide conceptual background and baseline data both to
practitioners in the biodiversity field, and to all concerned
persons who needed a guide into that complex and highly topical
area.

Given the grounding previously provided in Global Biodiversity,
the present volume concentrates on data rather than text and
provides an illustrative set of data tables, in part revised and
expanded from the earlier volume. The choice of data to be
included and the manner of presentation have been determined with
the likely end-users borne strongly in mind. With this aim, most
data are presented in standardised tables by country, so that
they are immediately available to users working at a national
level but can also be placed easily in regional and global
contexts. Overall, they give a good indication of the global
availability of information on many aspects of biodiversity,
drawing attention to some of the gaps that exist and to the
regional imbalances in the distribution of biodiversity and the
resources that have been devoted to its assessment and study.