Biodiversity plays an important role in the sustainability of ecosystems and provides both goods and services that are essential for human survival. However, despite the increased awareness of its benefits, biodiversity is undoubtedly under threat from the many pressures imposed by human-induced changes. The ten chapters of this book provide a broad view of the many threats to global biodiversity and of the policy responses required to combat them. Thus policy is a theme common to several of the chapters, but for the most part this is dealt with in the specific context of the particular topic under discussion, e.g. invasive species, threatened habitats, land use change, etc.