Sustainable use

Use of biological resources at rates and in ways that allow populations and ecosystems to persist over the long term.

Maximum sustainable yield: The largest long-term harvest that can be taken from a renewable population under specified conditions. It formalizes a harvest ceiling, though uncertainty can make the calculated maximum risky.
Sustainable fisheries: Fisheries managed to maintain fish populations and the ecosystems that support them over time. Fishing illustrates how catch limits and ecosystem safeguards can guide renewable-resource use.
Biological resource: A living organism or biological material used or valued by people. Sustainable use applies to living resources and products derived from them.
Sustainable development: Development that seeks to meet present needs while safeguarding future generations' ability to meet theirs. It is broader than sustainable use, encompassing social and economic development alongside resource stewardship.
Overexploitation: The removal of organisms or resources at rates that exceed their capacity to recover. It is the direct failure mode sustainable use seeks to prevent.
Population viability analysis: A method for estimating the probability that a population will persist under specified threats and management choices. It tests whether proposed use leaves a population likely to persist.
Sustainable forestry: Forest management that maintains forest productivity, biodiversity, and ecological functions over time. Timber extraction can continue when regeneration and forest functions are maintained.
Renewable resource: A resource replenished by natural processes on timescales relevant to human use. Biological resources can renew, but only if extraction does not exceed replenishment.
Conservation biology: The scientific study of protecting biodiversity and managing biological systems amid human pressures. It supplies evidence and methods but includes protection goals beyond continued resource use.
Defaunation: The decline or disappearance of animal populations and species from ecological communities. Unsustainable harvest can reduce animal abundance and alter ecosystem functions.

Linked from 10 pages