Reforestation efforts are positive, but achieving replication of the old growth forests will take seventy to one hundred years. Land has been set aside in national parks, but the same sort of human intrusion, logging, and slash and burn farming is occurring within the boundaries of the parks. Ambiguous government policy and a lack of enforcement leave the problem unresolved throughout the country. This is a difficult issue to argue without relying almost entirely on emotional sentiments. Obviously, it is critical says the one camp.
Species die all the time, says the other.
The point being made by Wilson, in light of the Philippine problem being discussed, is not that the human communities cannot survive without the eagle. The eagle represents the health of the natural ecosystems of the Philippines. And the health of these natural systems determines the ability of the land to recover from any impositions placed upon it. Like the health of the human communities, the natural systems depend upon diversity. As the people of the Philippines came to rely upon single economies to survive, they worsened their economic and social condition.