Western Australia is widely renowned as one of the world's hotspots for terrestrial and marine biodiversity. There are about 13,000 species of plants in Western Australia, with more being discovered all the time. About 3,000 of these species are yet to be formally named. Nearly 70% of Australia's mammal species are found within the state, with 25 species being found nowhere else. Reptile species are even more diverse with higher endemism. Up to 80 per cent of the region's fish and invertebrates found nowhere else in the world. All of this biodiversity means that Western Australia is the ideal place to study biological sciences at all levels of organisation from ecosystems to molecules.

Conservation Biology graduates are employed in private sector companies (consultancies, the resources sector), in government departments (for example, Parks and Wildlife, State Fisheries), in public agencies (such as botanic gardens, conservation groups), and in environment and conservation research agencies (CSIRO), while others join academic institutions.