Introduction - The Biodiversity Storybook

Welcome to the Communicating Biodiversity Project.

The Earth is benevolent and shares with us a dynamic and ever-transforming relationship. It sustains life in countless forms, allowing some to develop and evolve and others to slip into non-existence, embedding new lessons in the fabric of life everyday. Change is as certain as the fruit after the withering flower.

For centuries, we have held fast to our place in the complex web of  interdependence that nature spins. We have lost and found our footing innumerable times. We have survived and embraced nature's diverse conditions, responding to them with dexterity and giving birth to various cultures.

Yet today, mankind's role in nature seems to be one where we hold the pendulum of change, felling anything that might come in the way as it swings between destruction and development. Not only have we found our footing, we have invaded into the territory of other lifeforms in the web. The rate at which modernization is affecting biodiversity is alarming, as is the indifference or lack of concern on our part.We willingly partake in the fruits of development but not in the responsibility to undo its damage.

The role of design in communicating the importance of biodiversity is something that we will try to explore through this project. Do those of us who live in cities and lead an urban lifestyle consider biodiversity too remote a problem? Instead, do the choices we make, our consumption patterns and our outlook towards natural resources define which and how many species we will share the planet with in the future?

The project Communicating Biodiversity will try to address these issues in the form of a storybook, created for the National Biodiversity Authority of India. The project is housed in the Law Environment Design Lab (LED Lab) as my diploma project at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.

Here's to getting to the bottom of a very tangled subject, which is far bigger than all of us, and surfacing with stories about our ongoing struggle to maintain the harmony of biodiversity. Do keep a bookmark handy = )