Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the whole variety of life on Earth, all species of plants and animals, their genetic variation and the habitats they are part of. It includes not just the rare or the threatened but also the wildlife that is familiar to us in the places where we live and work.

Without biodiversity we could not survive. The loss of too much habitat and too many species would threaten the functioning of our natural environment.

Gloucestershire is a highly diverse county ranging from the Wye Valley with its ancient ravine woodlands in the west, to the streams of the Cotswold plateau in the east. The county fits into three key Natural Areas. These are the acid grasslands, bogs, heaths and ancient woodlands in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley; the Severn Vale and its floodplain habitats which are important for bird-life, especially wintering wildfowl and breeding waders; and the Cotswolds with its limestone grasslands and beech woodlands. (from the Biodiversity Action Plan for Gloucestershire 2000)