VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY Biodiversity plays a key role in providing numerous irreplaceable services to the Australian community. Yet these remain poorly measured and demonstrated, with many changes occurring subtly on timescales that are not immediately evident to the vast majority of Australians. What was once common in our grandparents’ time is now absent in many places across Australia. Understanding the state and trend of biodiversity is crucial to what we leave behind for our grandchildren. The importance of biodiversity for numerous industries across Australia has not been quantified, but recent issues exemplify our ongoing reliance on functioning ecosystems to maintain key processes that, in the past, may have been taken for granted. For instance, the role of native insects in pollination, which is critical for agriculture, has been highlighted in recent years. There are more than 1500 speci...
