Strategies for Improving Ecosystem Resilience

Biodiversity is essential to the ecosystem resilience, and natural systems can offer pollination and water purification, as well as the capture of carbon and climate control. But ecosystems are being compromised by accelerating land-use change pressures, pollution, extractive industries, agribusiness, and climate change with industrialized economies being primary actors and marginalized communities bearing the unequal costs. This chapter brings biodiversity conservation in the context of an ecological and moral duty, where in-situ and ex-situ conservation, community as steward of the environment, agro-ecology, and nature-based solutions are enlightened. Success can be restored in the case of China, Costa Rica and Africa as seen in the examples of restoration case studies. Management can change with emerging technologies like AI, big data, synthetic biology and bioengineering, but needs ethical governance and equitable benefit-sharing. The chapter restates that biodiversity protection in future should combine science, equity and interdisciplinary cooperation.