exploitation

The dilemma between conservation and exploitation in the management of mature forests and developed ecosystems in general is usually false. From a common sense perspective, both are perceived as divergent paths, but in ecology, when we talk about the complex mechanisms that sustain ecosystems, common sense rather serves as a hindrance...

Many people, including broad sectors of environmental activism, believe that to conserve mature forests it is enough to just leave them to their own natural developement with no further interventions needed. This is not the case: both in Europe, Siberia and the Americas, mature forests are not "at peace" because they are missing fundamental pieces, which leaves us with two options:

a) We either restore those pieces or other similar ones, or

b) We artificially implement their functions, thus obtaining the corresponding income.

If we take neither action, forests or other ecosystems destabilize and begin to present structural problems whose roots can easily go unnoticed.

The elephant case is very illustrative, since it is quite paradoxical in several aspects... An economy based on ecosystems needs to manage large amounts of information which serve as a base to develop sophisticated management strategies.

Just sitting around and letting "nature" take its course, or breaking into the ecosystem like an elephant stampede would do (B.T.W) is usually of no avail.