Both natural and managed ecosystems deliver important ecological services such as the production of food and fibre, carbon storage, climate regulation and recreation opportunities.
The program was established to address the complex scientific questions posed by the loss in biodiversity and ecosystem services and to offer science-based solutions to this crisis.
The key findings during its first decade were synthesised in a series of books and laid the groundwork for experimental and theoretical research carried out by the program and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
[5] These findings also contributed to the Global Biodiversity Assessment, an initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI), and to the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), established in 1992, and with which Diversitas has a Memorandum of Understanding.
[7] To implement this science plan, nine projects were established embracing a cycle of discovery, observation, analysis, and information sharing, on overarching scientific questions on biodiversity and related ecosystem services: In addition to these scientific projects, the program has been strongly engaged in the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP),[17] a partnership for the integrated study of the Earth System, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional sustainability.