Biodiversity not only refers to the number and distribution of living things and systems, but it is also closely tied to the earth's processes, such as water and oxygen cycles. It allows our landscapes to be resilient to change and to continue producing goods such as timber, medicines and food as well as providing for social, cultural and spiritual values.
Conserving biodiversity includes conserving wildlife habitat and sustaining wildlife populations.
Since natural systems are so complex that we cannot possibly fully understand them, conserving biodiversity is believed to be an effective strategy for maintaining ecosystem health. Conservation of biodiversity World-wide conservation of biological diversity is becoming acknowledged as a critical environmental issue. In 1995, in response to its signing of the Convention, Canada published the Canadian biodiversity strategy. The Canadian industry is already implementing many of the measures the strategy identified for forests. In recent years, research conducted by Canada's forestry companies has broadened from traditional investigations into timber production to all aspects of biodiversity.