Humanity is a principal actor of the ecosystem changes.
As a term, ecosystem derives from merging eco (oikos, habitat, home) and system (nested combination of element in an organic whole). This term is born together with ecology, a science founded by Haeckel (1866) as “economy of nature” based on the scientific study of the interaction between organisms, species and their environment. Ecosystem, nowadays, means a complex unity (a nested whole) constituted by interrelationships between the nature different components of a definable geographical area. This whole:

• involves human beings; since nature is society and society is also nature
• has self-organising and co-evolving properties (system)
• concerns the richness of vital capabilities to maintain and develop any natural component as well as any activity of the local system