Download The importance of ecosystems

The importance of ecosystems
Why are ecosystems important?
Plants, animals and microorganisms interact to form
complex webs which supply the ecosystem services upon
which all life depends. With climate change a real and
present danger and natural resources increasingly overexploited, human well being is ever more dependent on
the remaining pockets of resilience and ecosystem health.
The Ecosystem Approach
to natural resource management
Why do we need to engage and give a ‘voice’
to the most vulnerable?
Why apply the ecosystem approach?
Taking an integrated, equitable approach to
sustaining or restoring ecological systems will
allow nature itself to provide society’s most basic
needs and the very foundations of our global
economy.
Access to land, clean water, adequate food and fuel
is essential for people to escape poverty and prosper.
Rural and coastal communities are most dependent
on a healthy environment, and thus best placed to
take a stewardship role in resource management.
support
pollution
Ecosystem
Services
climate
change
Regulating
Major
threats
to
ecosystems
Restoration of
natural capital
land
conversion
Provisioning
civil society
engagement
Cultural
Ecosystem-based
adaptation
Inadequate
land use
planning
over- and
destructive
exploitation
Sustainable local
economy
CO2
Thriving
economies
Improved
livelihoods
Food
security
water
Security
sustainable
development
Healthy
biodiversity
Climate
resilience
Sustainable
value chains