Biodiversity and Biosecurity in Turkey Ali KAHRAMAN + , Mustafa ÖNDER, Ercan CEYHAN Selcuk University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Field Crops, Konya – TURKEY Abstract. Biodiversity represents the basis of all life on our planet. Turkey is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the temperate zone. More than one third of species found in Turkey are endemic, native to the region. So Turkey is like a kind of small continent in terms of biodiversity. It is also rich as biodiversity with 120 mammals, 469 bird species, 130 reptiles, 400 fishes and 4000 endemic of 11000 plants species. However, this gene pool is threatened by genetic erosion as in some other parts of the world. The primary objective of germplasm conservation depends on genetic diversity. The importance of biodiversity is highlighted. Keywords: conservation, diversity, ecology, germplasm, plant species. 1. Introduction The Earth is made up of ecosystems and ecological features which are supported by biodiversity; yet many people do not understand the meaning of biodiversity or what the impact of its loss would mean. The scarcity of non-renewable resources such as soils and fertilizers and the consequences of climate change can dramatically influence the food security of future generations [1]. Climate change, pollution and excessive use of resources in the last century cause to destruction of biological diversity and this situation is quite serious for human life. In order to highlight the importance of biodiversity, 2010 has been selected as the International Year of Biodiversity in an attempt to educate people on biodiversity and how biodiversity supports everyday life. The fact is that all the species of flora and fauna, including humans, are dependent on each other, and the extinction of any one of these species can trigger a domino effect on the other species, which are directly or indirectly dependent on it. Biodiversity covers the diversity of life on all these levels, the diversity within species, between species and the variability of habitats. Biodiversity in an ecosystem consisted from four main sections: a) Genetic diversity b) Species diversity c) Ecosystem diversity d) Ecological processes diversity. Knowledge about the genetic characteristics of a population is fundamental in breeding programs and it involves the local farmers. This strategy allows improving and, at the same time, safeguarding the genetic reliability of landrace genetic resources [2]. Also, conservation or restoration of semi-natural habitats appears to be the most promising agro-environmental measure to enhance small mammal populations in intensified agricultural landscapes [3]. There is an increasing use of indicator taxa to predict spatial patterns in other taxa, yet it is unclear how well species from one taxonomic group may serve as indicators of species richness in other groups with different ecological needs [4]. Totally 12 countries includes 34 "hotspot" area that have 150000 endemic plant species (50% of the world total). Although these areas once the world's 15.7% percent, 86% of the hotspot habitat being destroyed today and hotspot area declined to 2.5% percent [5]. In the recent years many developed countries completed determination of their plant and animal species and formed their relational species databases by benefiting geographical information technologies. These countries realized effective area managements and determined national development strategies on the subjects of determination, register and conservation of natural values. However, World-wide biological diversity on all levels is severely endangered. Through numerous factors such as changes of land use and habitat destruction are whole ecosystems (e.g. rainforests or coral reefs) and many species (e.g. Pandas) severely threatened. Conservation + Corresponding author. Tel.: + 90 332 223 28 84; fax: +90 332 241 01 08. E-mail address: kahramanali@selcuk.edu.tr 33 2011 International Conference on Biology, Environment and Chemistry IPCBEE vol.24(2011) © (2011)IACSIT Press, Singapoore