Ecosystems maintain their adaptability and resiliency to change through the diversity of species. Just as genetic diversity increases the pool of potential responses to ecosystem conditions, cultural diversity and diversified economies in human ecosystems can provide perspectives and cultural strengths and tools to help the overall community find appropriate solutions to its problems. For this reason, the development and expression of cultural and economic diversity in human ecosystems should be encouraged by local governments.In both the human economy and the natural world, the steps of assembling materials, processing and distribution are accompanied by two further considerations: the natural resource base, and waste. In economics, these concerns have seldom been accounted for. In the study of ecology, however, the limitations these impose are often observed and sometimes explained as the "law of the minimum" and the "law of tolerance."