Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This refers to the diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems (UN 1992b) ¹⁾.

The AlpES approach considers biodiversity as a factor which contributes to the generation of ecosystem services (e.g. disease control through diversity) and which may also be a result of ecosystem services (such as provision of specific habitat quality). However, biodiversity is not considered to be an ecosystem service itself.

see also: Biodiversity