1. Sustainability and Ecosystems: Document 4
Ecosystem Conservation
Ecosystems are dynamic complexes of biotic communities and their associated abiotic
environments interacting as functional units. An ecosystem approach to conservation is the
management of natural resources using systemwide concepts to ensure that all plants and
animals in the ecosystem are maintained at viable levels in native habitats and basic ecosystem
processes are perpetuated indefinitely (Clark and Zaunbrecher, 1987).
An ecosystem approach to conservation involves protecting or restoring the function, structure,
and species composition of an ecosystem, recognizing that all components are interrelated (U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, 1994). Large-scale approaches, at the level of ecosystems and
landscapes, are the most reliable way to conserve biological diversity. Such approaches avoid
the problems that plague species-by-species methods that quickly exhaust time, financial
resources, public patience, and scientific research resources (Franklin, 1993).
Another important aspect of an ecosystem approach to conservation is the ability to integrate
ecosystem protection and restoration with human values and needs as a way to strengthen the
connection between economic prosperity and environmental well being. The Service recognizes
the fundamental connection between human communities and the environment.
Source: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/EcosystemConservation/ecosystem_approach.html