Natural heritage is the legacy of natural objects and intangible attributes encompassing the countryside and natural environment, including flora and fauna, scientifically known as biodiversity, and geology and landforms (geodiversity).
Heritage is that which is inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
The term "natural heritage", derived from "natural inheritance", pre-dates the term "biodiversity", though it is a less scientific term and more easily comprehended in some ways by the wider audience interested in conservation biology. "Natural Heritage" was used in the United States when Jimmy Carter set up the Georgia Heritage Trust while he was governor of Georgia; Carter's trust dealt with both natural and cultural heritage,. It would appear that Carter picked the term up from Lyndon Johnson, who used it in a 1966 Message to Congress. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act of 1964. "Natural Heritage" was picked up by the Science Division of The Nature Conservancy when, under Jenkins, it launched in 1974 the network of state natural heritage programs. When this network was extended outside the USA, the term "Conservation Data Center" was suggested by Guillermo Mann and came to be preferred.
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