The purpose of this project is to develop a complete exhibition kit on the topic of biological diversity that can be used in a wide variety of settings, including schools, museums and libraries. The kit will include a series of poster panels, an accompanying audio-visual presentation, and an owner's manual that includes programs and ideas for educators to use in conjunction with the exhibit. The exhibition will be developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), building on a National Forum on BioDiversity to be sponsored jointly by the Smithsonian and the National Academy of Sciences in September 1986. The objective of this exhibit is to educate the public about the need to maintain global biological diversity, the ways in which it is currently threatened, and steps to preserve diversity of organisms and environments. Each year, due to a wide variety of factors, including development, population increase, movement of peoples, and poor agricultural practices, the planet is losing both habitats and living species. The loss of tropical forests, advancing desertification in many areas, depletion of agricultural soils, and polluting of the ocean are serious problems for all countries. Preserving biological diversity is a subject that has been the fundamental principal guiding conservation strategies for the last two decades, but there has never before been a comprehensive exhibit on this topic in the kind of easily accessible format proposed by the Smithsonian Institution. This project is funded jointly with the Directorate for Biological, Behavioral and Social Sciences.
