Biodiversity simply signifies the variety of life on earth in all its shapes and sizes – from the smallest insect and fungus to the largest mammal or tree and the habitat or ecosystem needed to sustain it. Tayside has a very rich biodiversity resource that is vital to its economy: tourism relies on our beautiful landscape, insects pollinate our crops, community orchards and allotments, and the land provides raw materials for our food, drink, clothing, fuel, buildings and roads. It is essential for sustaining our natural ecosystems.

The Tayside Biodiversity Action Plan has two main aims:

• to co-ordinate existing actions, as well as initiating and co-ordinating new ones; and
• to conserve and enhance the region’s biodiversity, taking into account both local and national priorities.

This is not just the task of government - it concerns everyone. We need to consider new options on how to safeguard both our local and global biodiversity to ensure quality of life not just for ourselves and future generations, but also for the other species with which we share the planet. The earth is, after all, the only home we have and we are all responsible for our actions and the impacts we have on our local surroundings.

* the word "biodiversity" is a contraction of biological diversity and has been increasingly used since the late 1960s