Ecojustice takes the position that you need both. An ecosystem-based approach at its best would enable protection of individual species in the necessary habitat, but the model that we've seen developed in Canada seeks to reduce the amount of habitat available to species to as small as possible. Since we do that by stacking the habitat and trying to pick one area that captures the most species and offering that as proxy for protecting their habitat, current science suggests that you need to look at both the species-by-species basis to determine individual needs, and then you need to look at the well-being of the ecosystem to ensure it sustains their needs.
