Human interactions with ecosystems can be negative, such as pollution, using up land and deforestation, or positive. Scientists and concerned citizens have put in place programmes to reduce the negative effects of humans on ecosystems and biodiversity.
These include breeding programmes for endangered species, and the protection and regeneration of rare habitats. In agricultural areas where farmers grow only one type of crop, field margins and hedgerows can be reintroduced to give wild species somewhere to live. Some governments reduce deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions, and recycling resources rather than dumping waste in landfill means less land is needed for waste.
These programmes can conflict with other pressures. Protecting land costs money, and farmers and growers need land to produce food, so decisions have to balance the benefits to biodiversity against the costs.