Facts on Biodiversity - UNEP-WCMC IUCN

"Biodiversity contributes to many aspects of human well-being, for instance by providing raw materials and contributing to health. Human actions, however, often lead to irreversible losses in terms of diversity of life on Earth and these losses have been more rapid in the past 50 years than ever before in human history.
What factors are responsible for this rapid loss of biodiversity?
What would need to be done to significantly slow this trend?"

Here is the link to download the .pdf (728Kb) of the Summary of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Biodiversity Synthesis. This folder presents a faithful summary of one of several leading scientific consensus reports produced in 2005 by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA): Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis.
A more detailed summary can be found at www.greenfacts.org/biodiversity (in English, French, Dutch and Spanish).