ABSTRACT
A highlight of the conception of ecological security is that it raises concern about the environmental/ecological issues to a qualitatively new level, the level of national security.[2] Conventionally, national security mainly refers to the protection of societies and states from predatory neighbors. However, ecosystemic challenges such as plagues, pestilence, pollution, blizzards, fl oods, and droughts, often aided and abetted by intemperate human behavior, over time, have been responsible for killing and injuring much larger numbers of human beings.[4] Thus, Westing defi nes a broader human security as being
Biom es-
Ecosystem s
composed of two intertwined components: political security and environmental/ecological security, where political security includes military, economic, and social/ humanitarian subcomponents, and ecological security has protection-and utilization-oriented subcomponents.[9] The protection requirement refers to safeguarding the quality of the human environment, and the utilization requirement means providing a sustaining basis for any exploitation (harvesting or use) of a renewable natural resource.
