Note I am not 100% sure.
It is important for humans to protect the animals because the humans eat the some animals for example, rabbit, moose, fish and many other animals. It is also important to the humans to protect the animals because, for example, some plants and other organisms could overpopulate. If, for example, the roses would overpopulate they would not have less other plants because they would have no more predator.
I am not perfect to explain, but I think you get the idea :)