In light of this, the government has enacted conservation policies in an effort to balance preservation of natural resources, sustainable development, and industry, but a growing tourism sector will help ensure that the country's
valuable natural
ecosystems remain
intact.
If that's just a bunch of international relations - speak to you, this is why this is important: The idea behind
ecosystem services payments is that in exchange for preserving
intact (or at least not entirely degraded)
ecosystems, which perform
valuable social functions such as improving air quality, flood protection, traditional medicines, sequestering carbon emissions, et cetera, nations should be compensated.