Manipur, June 1 -- Biodiversity is vital for supporting all life on Earth. It provides all our food, many industrial products and medicines. Biodiversity also ensures clean air, water and fertile soils. It provides opportunities for recreation, scientific research and education. Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effect of global climate change. Species extinction and the degradation of ecosystem are proceeding rapidly and the pace is accelerating. The world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate. Mass extinction of species have occurred five times previously in t...