There is a strong link between the two problems, which are basically the same issue viewed from different lenses.
Ecological destruction = environmental disturbance to a level beyond the support/replenishment capacity of a given region. This disturbance can take many shapes (species extinction, chemical pollution, habitat destruction, to give a few examples), but the common thread here is that the environment becomes less efficient in performing its usual functions.
What are these usual functions? From a strictly human viewpoint, a lot of what they are is encompassed by the label "production of resources". Clean water, food supplies, air quality, are the most general examples of values that are strictly dependent on properly functioning ecosystems.
In other words, ecological destruction has as one of its main effects the scarcity of resources.
Now, there are resources that are less directly linked to proper ecological functioning (e.g. many metals, oil). But since (a) the methods of extraction of these resources are often hurtful for the environment and (b) the scarcer they are, the more expensive they become, this creates a vicious positive feedback in which more and more hurtful methods are employed to extract the last tons of a scarce resource, harming ever more intensively the environment.
Hope that helped.
