Biodiversity

This book provides information on various aspects of biodiversity like overview of Indian and global biodiversity, its organization, conservation, sources, reasons for conservation, obstacles in conservation and causes and effects of biodiversity loss. In addition, the book also deals with important topics like means to conserve biodiversity, MAB programme, institutes conserving crop biodiversity, centres of crop diversity, gene pool concept, biodiversity in relation to intellectual property rights and plant breeder's rights, patenting, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), farmers' rights on genetic resources, remote sensing technology in characterizing biodiversity and sustainable management of biodiversity. It also contains useful information on plant biodiversity of North East India. The treatise would be of great interest to a large group of readers--undergraduate and postgraduate students of ecology, biology, genetics and biotechnology, environmentalists, research workers, teachers and candidates appearing at various competitive examinations like NET, ARS and Civil Services Examinations. Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Indian biodiversity - an overview. 3. World biodiversity - an overview. 4. Biodiversity conservation efforts at international level. 5. Biodiversity conservation efforts in India. 6. Levels in biodiversity organization. 7. Sources of genetic diversity. 8. Distribution of biological species. 9. Biodiversity in human welfare. 10. Factors causing biodiversity loss. 11. Rate of biodiversity loss. 12. Biodiversity conservation strategy. 13. Reasons for conserving biodiversity. 14. Obstacles in biodiversity conservation. 15. Issues related to conservation of harmful species. 16. Causes of biodiversity loss. 17. Effects of biodiversity loss. 18. Means to conserve biodiversity. 19. Role of MAB programme in biodiversity conservation. 20. Structure of biosphere reserve. 21. Biosphere reserves vs. National Parks. 22. International institutes involved in biodiversity conservation. 23. Indian institutes conserving crop biodiversity. 24. Law of parallel variation. 25. Centres of crop diversity. 26. Types of centres of diversity. 27. Gene pool. 28. Classification of gene pool. 29. Biodiversity and IPRs. 30. Patenting of biological species. 31. Biodiversity and PBRs (Plant Breeder's Rights). 32. Criteria for deciding protection of a plant variety. 33. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). 34. Farmer's rights on genetic resources. 35. Remote sensing technology for characterizing biodiversity. 36. Plant genetic resources of North East India - an outline. 37. Rate and endangered plants of North East India. 38. Sustainable management of biodiversity. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.