Crocodilians deserve protection on their own merits, but they also provide many ecological services that benefit other species. For example, crocodilians are valuable for:

Selectively preying on fish species - Many crocodilians prey more frequently on slower moving and bottom feeding fishes that are not preferred by fishermen and less often on fish that are harvested for human consumption.

Increasing nutrient recycling - Crocodilians eat fishes, and they also eat mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that come to the water. The digested remains are defecated into the water, which fertilizes the aquatic plants. Those plants are eaten by herbivorous fish, mollusks, and many invertebrates. The herbivorous species in turn are eaten by carnivorous fish. Where crocodilians have been eliminated, the productivity of the waterway often declines because the remains of the terrestrial animals are not available to fertilize the aquatic ecosystem.

Maintaining aquatic refuges for other wetland species during droughts - Ponds dug in marshes, swamps, and riverbeds by alligators and other crocodilians retain water in times of drought. That allows many fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and other animals to survive dry spells.

Keeping waterways open - The regular movement of crocodilians maintains open paths through aquatic habitats.

Crocodilians are heavily impacted by habitat loss, including aquatic pollution, and by excessive hunting. Loss of any species of crocodilian represents more than just the end of these functions; it also represents a significant loss of biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and economic potential. The CSG works to prevent such losses.

Crocodilians are nearly ideal species for professional wildlife management for sustainable utilization, which means that no more crocodilians are harvested than will be replaced by the population's normal reproduction.

Carefully regulated wild hunts, the ranching of eggs collected from protected wild populations, and captive-breeding can be used to sustainably manage crocodilians, and the economic benefits derived from rigorously controlled, sustainable, legal trade provide a powerful incentive for the preservation of wild crocodilians and their habitats. Often it is the only incentive that counteracts the view that crocodilians are sharp-toothed vicious predators that should be eliminated.

More fascinating aspects of crocodilian natural history can be found at 'Crocodilians Natural History & Conservation' and 'Cooperative Feeding of Crocodilians'.