Value of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Summary Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992, defines biodiversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. However, environmental policies, which have developed since the second half of the 20th century, have not focused much on biodiversity and ecosystem services, with the exception of the protection of emblematic species (lynx, bear.), the management of fisheries resources and remarkable ecosystems, such as national parks.