1. Introduction

Biodiversity is the variety of all life on earth: the plants and animals, and the habitats in which they live. It ranges in scale from bacteria to blue whales. Biodiversity is not just the rare or exotic but also the everyday and commonplace, it is the birds in our garden as well as tigers in the rainforest. There are three distinct levels of biodiversity:

• the variety of ecosystems and habitats
• the diversity of species
• the genetic variation within individual species

Across our world, biodiversity is under threat from many kinds of human activity: farming, large-scale forestry, building development, industry, recreation and transport. If we want to conserve and protect our biodiversity for future generations, a co-ordinated, planned approach to action is needed now to deal with these threats. Global change requires numerous local changes throughout the world.

The Birmingham and Black Country Biodiversity Action Plan shows how we in our local area can conserve our own biodiversity and contribute to improving biodiversity on a global scale. This Framework for Action is the first part of the Action Plan, and it sets the scene and describes the main themes that need to be addressed. The second part, the individual issues, habitat and species Action Plans, sets out in more detail the actions needed to conserve specific plants, animals and habitats. It is very much a working document that will be added to and revised as needed.