The term 'environment' is widely used and has a broad rangeof definitions, meanings and interpretations. What does theterm 'environment' mean? In popular usage, for somepeople, the term 'environment' means, simply, 'nature': inother words, the natural landscape together with all of itsnon-human features, characteristics and processes.However, for other people, the term 'environment' includeshuman elements to some extent - the surroundings orconditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives oroperates, the natural world, as a whole or in a particulargeographical area, especially as affected by human activity.

An ecosystem (also called as environment) is a natural unitconsisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms(biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all ofthe non-living physical (abiotic) factors of theenvironment. The natural environment encompasses allliving and non-living things occurring naturally, meaningin this case not artificial. The term is most often applied tothe Earth or some parts of Earth. This environmentencompasses the interaction of all living species, climate,weather and natural resources that affect human survival2and economic activity. Therefore, it is not particularlyhelpful to conceptualize the ‘environment’ withoutincluding in that conceptualization some notion ofrelationship. Individual, objects, elements and systemsinfluence and are in turn influenced by their surroundings.