ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, attention focused on the concept of sustainability, which often is held up as a vision or an ends for resource and environmental management. The ecosystem approach can be viewed as one means to achieve sustainability or sustainable development, and it is in that context that the ecosystem approach is considered in this chapter. The distinction between ends and means is important, as too often in resource and environmental management the ecosystem approach is treated as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end. In the next section, various views regarding the ecosystem approach are considered. That will be followed by examination of comprehensive and integrated interpretations of the ecosystem approach, agroecosystem analysis and some applications of the concept.
