Food, water, shelter, fuel, transportation, recreation, scenic amenities, waste recycling, biodiversity, and climate stabilization are just a few examples of the goods and services that are supported by ecosystems (that is, functional systems that include the organisms of natural communities together with their environment). Human life would be impossible without nature's services. However, at the scale of individual ecosystems, people make decisions every day that affect the health and sustainability of ecosystems and that reflect the people's values for ecosystems and their services.