Justify the importance of ecosystem management and protection
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Justify the importance of ecosystem management and protection
There are several cogent reasons why ecosystem management and protection are crucial at this point in history and will be perhaps even more so in the future.
Firstly, it is essential to preserve the utility value of environmental systems, both the current and potential value. By utility value I mean how useful all the living and non-living things could be to humanity at the current time but also in the future. These uses can be as medicines, chemicals, foods or merely for constructions. The Amazon Basin is a perfect example of the need for ecosystem management and protection. Due to extensive land clearing for agricultural lands and timber, many species of flora and fauna are now endangered, some extinct. Cedarwood for instance, now a rare commodity was once common in the Amazon area. It is a very expensive and useful timber but now, due to unrestrained logging, it is scarce. In most areas, the utility value of forest flora species is not assessed for human benefit and humankind might lose what could become a valuable commodity in the future.
The intrinsic value presents a second reason for the protection and careful management of ecosystems...