Final answer:
Monitoring programs are an essential tool for analyzing human-environmental change as they help identify priority areas for research and conservation and quantify the response of plant and animal populations to disturbance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The essential tool for monitoring and analyzing human-environmental change is monitoring programs. Monitoring involves repeated data sampling at certain intervals of time for management purposes, focusing on rates and magnitude of change. It helps identify priority areas for research and conservation, quantify the response of plant and animal populations to disturbance, and inform management interventions.