Conservation Through Ecosystem Management

Ecosystem-based management (EBM), formerly called ecosystem management, employs management approaches for entire systems rather than merely system components like timber or wildlife, and considers humans an integral part of the ecosystem to be explicitly addressed in management strategies. Decision-making is informed by adaptive management, in which management actions are executed as experiments to both enhance system performance and acquire reliable knowledge about system behavior. Management objectives are achieved, whenever possible, using ecosystem processes (for example, fire) and in collaboration with human “stakeholders” vested in the health of the ecosystem. EBM is employed in conservation biology to correct limitations of management efforts targeted to only a few species or limited areas, but needs further clarification of its distinctions to offer more effective contributions to biodiversity conservation.