Biodiversity is the variety of the biological world is expressed by the number of species and genetic varieties of living beings on the planet. For the study of biodiversity can be considered three hierarchical levels: genes, species and ecosystems. The genetic information passed from generation to generation, and the combination of beings with different hereditary information is combined with the evolution and natural selection. In a second level are the different species and their status can be limited to one locality, region or country. The number and variety of these are known as species richness. With regard to ecosystems, diversity is usually assessed taking into account the number of species that live there.
They have been classified about 1.7 million species to date. Of these, the group is best evaluated of vertebrate animals.
One hundred and fifty countries signed on June 14, 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity under the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Were set as goals of the convention to conserve biodiversity, sustain a long-term biodiversity and sharing of genetic resources conditions in specialties such as biotechnology, among others.
In 10 km2 can live 760 species of trees, 125 mammals, 400 birds, 100 reptiles and 60 amphibians