Can civilization be sustained, and for how long, without fundamental changes that ensure the conservation and restoration of natural landscapes and biological diversity? What role will science and technology play in strategies for human civilization? What fundamental changes must we make for the sustained evolution of human civilization?

The issues raised by these questions represent some of the most difficult challenges we face today. Biodiversity is the natural resource that is basic for human life. The preservation of plant, animal, and microbial diversity and of our landscapes is essential for the well-being of humans and for all other organisms. The destruction of natural and biological resources by human enterprise, for over two decades, has reached critical proportions. Current human processes conflict with and impair the earth's ability to properly respond to changing environmental conditions, threatening the capacity of natural ecosystems to meet our future needs. The control of these processes requires interdisciplinary approaches encompassing all scientific and humanistic disciplines, with a wide range of ideas and expertise.

To explore these issues in detail, Biodiversity and Landscapes: Human Challenges for Conservation in the Changing World, an international event, was held October 22–25, 1990 at University Park, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. This first-of-its-kind event, organized by the Penn State Center for BioDiversity Research, included the symposium, a “Discourse on Environmental Art,” art exhibitions, films, videos, broadcasts, and a public forum. The event brought together artists, biologists, conservationists, economists, sociologists, technologists, and philosophers.