Ensuring a healthy environment, while at the same time ensuring prosperity for people, is an ongoing challenge. Decisions regarding the environment must be made on a broaded and more inclusive basis than has been done in the past, recognizing that, in one way or another, everything is linked. Without healthy ecosystems, a high quality of human life and prosperity cannot be sustained. An ecological perspective recognizes the importance of viewing ourselves as part of, rather than separate from, the world's ecosystems.