Biodiversity may be a catchphrase, but as a concept it sits at the heart of the ecological and legal research and especially when concepts like sustainable development are gaining pace. Since the earth, and everything on or in it, is limited, the economic formulas developed over the past few hundred years to keep track of the values involved in human transaction cannot make it any larger, nor give us any more of the productive systems and commodities on which we depend. Biodiversity represents not only the organisms living in an area and the ecological processes necessary for their maintenance, but includes the interaction between these components which can be translated in the capacity of the ecosystem to support a number of living organisms. The preservation of biodiversity can be accomplished only as a part of an overall strategy to promote global stability. Contrary to the wishful thinking embodied in some cornucopian scenarios, the earth and its systems can either be used in such a way as to provide a sustainable context for our operations, or we shall destroy them. We are currently losing our biodiversity on which we depend. Human activity cannot be divorced from biodiversity. Growing population and modernization have brought about change in the ecology and biodiversity. In particular, the following factors have contributed to the degradation of natural ecosystems and loss of biodiversity: deforestation, human encroachments, excessive grazing, man-animal conflicts, forest-fire, illegal logging, cash cropping and plantation, excessive grazing, developmental activities etc. the need of the hour being mitigating these adverse factors, and to prepare a comprehensive plan for biodiversity management. The conservation of biodiversity is a thrust area in the national and international agenda. Therefore every attempt has to be made to consummate the importance and preservation of biodiversity and its sustainable use both nationally and internationally through various legislations. At the international level, India has contributed to biodiversity conservation by signing to the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, Kyoto Protocol, 1997 etc. Conservation of biological diversity has been given high priority in India as reflected in various enacted national legislations viz., Biodiversity Act, 2002, National Forest Policy, 1988, Forest (Conservation) act, 1980, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 etc. In June 1992 the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janerio explicitly recommended through the United Nation’s Agenda 21 development patterns based on the satisfaction of basic needs of the environment. The summit choose three major areas namely, biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development. Protecting our environment, while stabilizing our population and adequately feeding the people who will share the earth in the next generation is the largest challenge facing human kind today. For the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use it is vital to understand the root causes of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and therefore, all informal and formal institutions have to work together (politics, policy and people) to generate awareness and technical demonstrations to maintain and conserve biodiversity that could well support the future livelihood and generations to come. This would necessarily involve social equity issues, improved agricultural and forestry practices, capping the activities that are leading to global warming and other drastic alterations of the earth’s environment, and limiting over consumption in industrialized countries to levels that the world could sustain
