'Biodiversity' is becoming the keyword for sustaining human society and the ecosystem. The impacts of development on biological diversity, over exploitation of resources of commercial value, changes in land use and land cover, and fragmentation of habitats have led to fastest rate of decline in biodiversity in the 20th Century. This publication provides an insight into the concept of biodiversity, its value and uses, aspects of conservation of material and traditional knowledge, the linkage between ethnic communities and biodiversity, and several other topics of interest in a lucid and user-friendly manner.