This directorate deals with a complex of natural, primarily native or indigenous vegetation, not currently subject to cultivation or artificial landscaping, a primary purpose of which is to provide habitat for wildlife, either terrestrial or aquatic.
This directorate also deals with the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable
1) Department of Terrestrial Natural Habitats for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with a terrestrial ecosystem which is a land-based community of organisms and the interactions of biotic and abiotic components in a given area. Examples of terrestrial ecosystems include the tundra, taigas, temperate deciduous forests, tropical rainforests, grasslands, and deserts.
2) Department of Freshwater Natural Habitats for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with freshwater habitats. A freshwater habitat is any body of water which has a very low salt content. This type of habitat make up less than 0.01% of the planet’s total surface, but they support over 100,000 different species. That includes, fish, worms, frogs, newts, birds, mammals, and amphibians.
3) Department of Marine Natural Habitats for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with marine habitats which are habitats that support marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea. A habitat is an ecological or environmental area inhabited by one or more living species.
Marine habitat means areas where living marine resources naturally occur, such as mangroves, sea grass beds, algal beds, salt marshes, transitional wetlands, marine wetlands, rocky shore communities, hard bottom communities, oyster bars or flats, mud flats, coral reefs, worm reefs, artificial reefs, offshore springs, near shore mineral deposits, and offshore sand deposits.
4) Department of Ecosystem Diversity for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with ecosystem diversity which is defined as the variety of different habitats, communities and ecological processes. It concerns itself with the variations in ecosystems within a geographical location and its overall impact on human existence and the environment. Ecosystem diversity therefore, addresses the combined characteristics of biotic properties and abiotic properties
5) Department of Species Diversity for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with species diversity which is the number of different species that are represented in a given community. The effective number of species refers to the number of equally abundant species needed to obtain the same mean proportional species abundance as that observed in the dataset of interest.
Species Diversity is simply the number and relative abundance of species found in a given biological organization (population, ecosystem, Earth). Species are the basic units of biological classification and hence, this is the measure most commonly associated with the term ‘biodiversity’.
6) Department of Genetic Diversity for Environmental Sustainability
This department deals with genetic diversity. This refers to the range of different inherited traits within a species. In a species with high genetic diversity, there would be many individuals with a wide variety of different traits. Genetic diversity is critical for a population to adapt to changing environments.