Biodiversity—What is it?

Biodiversity (short for biological diversity) refers to the diversity among all the living plants, animals and other organisms on Earth, including all species, their genes and the ecosystems in which they live.

Ecosystems can be found just about anywhere - in your backyard, at school, in parks and creeks, on farms and in the ocean.

Australia is one of the most bio-diverse countries on the planet. More than one million different types of plants and animals live in Australia, with many of them not occurring anywhere else in the world. There are more native plants and animals living in Queensland than in any other state in Australia.

Some examples of thriving biodiversity include the Great Barrier Reef, which has over 8,670 different species, including birds, corals, sharks, dugongs, sponges and starfishes. The World Heritage listed rainforests of South East Queensland (such as Lamington and Springbrook national parks) contain more frog, snake, bird and marsupial species than anywhere else in Australia. They also provide a home for many rare and threatened plants and animals and link back to some of the world’s most ancient life forms.