From an anthropological point of view, many people see ecosystems as production units similar to those that produce goods and services. Among some of the most common goods produced by ecosystems is wood by the forest ecosystems and grass for cattle by the natural grasslands. Meat from wild animals, often referred to as bush meat in Africa, has proven to be extremely successful under well-controlled management schemes in South Africa and Kenya. Much less successful has been the discovery and commercialization of substances of wild organisms for pharmaceutical purposes. Services derived from ecosystems are referred to as ecosystem services. They may include (1) facilitating the enjoyment of nature, which may generate many forms of income and employment in the tourism sector, often referred to as ecotourism, (2) water retention, thus facilitating a more evenly distributed release of water and (3) soil protection, open-air laboratory for scientific research, etc.
A greater degree of species or biological diversity – popularly referred to as biodiversity – of an ecosystem may contribute to greater resilience of an ecosystem, because there are more species present at a location to respond to change and thus ‘absorb’ or reduce its effects. This reduces the effect before the ecosystem’s structure is fundamentally changed to a different state. This is not universally the case and there is no proven relationship between the species diversity of an ecosystem and its ability to provide goods and services on a sustainable level. Humid tropical forests produce very few goods and direct services and are extremely vulnerable to change, while many temperate forests readily grow back to their previous state of development within a lifetime after felling or a forest fire. Some grassland has been sustainably exploited for thousands of years.
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