The Ecosystem Approach is considered one of the most important principles of sustainable environmental management

Environmental management

Environmental resource management is “a purposeful activity with the goal to maintain and improve the state of an environmental resource affected by human activities” . It is not, as the phrase suggests, the management of the environment as such, but rather the management of the interaction and...

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The Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Convention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity , known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international legally binding treaty...

 defined the Ecosystem Approach in Decision V/6, Annex A, section 1 as ‘a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way’

Essentially it requires the taking into consideration of the effects of actions on every element of an ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

, based on the recognition that all elements of an ecosystem are linked.

Supporting the 15th Conference of the Parties meeting in Copenhagen

The ecosystems approach is intended to tackle not just climate change mitigation and adaptation, but also poverty alleviation, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity loss and many other environmental issues .

External links

• UNEP Ecosystems Approach papers supporting COP 15 climate change conference (MLURI)
• Convention on Biological Diversity: Ecosystem Approach
• Convention on Biological Diversity: Decision V/6