Humans have stewardship over natural resources to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem. Sustainable living is not a sacrifice but a conscious decision to ensure human health through the renewal and preservation of natural resources.
Key words: stewardship, sustainability
Stewardship and Sustainability: Tropical Rain Forests
Environmental stewardship is the management of natural resources. It is the responsibility by those who use the environment to ensure that their activities do not harm the environment, and if they do, to restore the environment back to its original health. Environmental sustainability is the management of natural resources so that they are used at or below their rate of production; that is, the present needs of the ecosystem are met without compromising future needs (Sheil and Burslem, 2003). It is important that we understand how natural and human systems interact with each other if we are to make conscious and responsible decisions that incorporate all aspects of the environment and human society (Ricklefs and Miller, n.d.).
Deforestation is resource management at its worst because it compromises the future of the ecosystem. Deforestation disturbs the food chain, either through the eradication or decimation of species, or through the loss of habitats that force organisms out of the ecosystem. Many of the organisms that are displaced by deforestation might not return, and if the extent of deforestation is extreme, some organisms may even go extinct (Sheil and Burslem, 2003). Moreover, the forced emigration of organisms out of one ecosystem and into another may alter the natural balance of the new ecosystem.
The Amazon Rainforest covers a wide expanse of land and is the habitat for thousands of species, many of which only exist in the Amazon, and some of which occupy delicate niches (Cannon, Peat, and Leighton, 1998). The Amazon Rainforest should not be conserved through “wise use” but rather preserved without any use. The primary rainforest of the Amazon have already suffered significant loss (Cannon, Peat, and Leighton, 1998).
References
Cannon CH, Peart DR & Leighton M (1998) Tree species diversity in commercially
logged Bornean rainforest. Science 281, 1366–1368.
Ricklefs, R.E., & Miller, G.L. Ecology 4e. Web.
http://www.whfreeman.com/Catalog/static/whf/ricklefsmiller/
Sheil D & Burslem DFRP (2003) Disturbing hypotheses in tropical forests. Trends in
Ecology and Evolution 18,18–26.
