It has proven difficult to define operational goals for the maintenance of biological diversity in forested systems. Difficulty derives from two sources: focus on the elements encompassed by definitions of biodiversity encourages “paralysis by complexity”; and, several definitions tend to equate biological diversity with ecological diversity. Careful reading of the international agreements from UNCED '92 reveals both the scientific rationale and public concerns underlying maintenance of biodiversity. Linking management goals directly to public concerns avoids several dangers. Those dangers include managers being convicted of failure to achieve all imagined benefits of the concept “biodiversity,” researchers falling prey to bureaucratic expectation of science to fill policy instead of science to critically assess policy, and undue emphasis on the gap between the production and practical application of knowledge.