General introduction

Conservation is one of the most important subjects to understand. In this book we present arguments which suggest that causing substantial and irreversible change to the living world will be severely detrimental to the welfare and prospects of huge numbers of people. Future generations will judge us in the way we judge those who wiped out the dodo or extinguished their own societies through resource depletion. Fortunately, there is still time to make a big difference, and this book will illustrate the methods that are used with great success.

Conservation means different things to different people, but is relevant to all. It interlinks fields as diverse as biology, philosophy, economics, chemistry, welfare, governance and human rights. Conservation deals with issues that are urgent and that lie at the core of environmental and societal concerns.

In combination with science, conservation includes many personal and subjective opinions. The reader should see a book on conservation as an introduction to the debates rather than as a statement of facts and solutions. It is important that voters, policy-makers and developers find the strongest arguments supported by the best evidence. Notably, the opinions of conservation scientists are sometimes in conflict with other ‘environmentalists’, because of different perceptions, priorities and scales of analysis but, by being explicit about the roles of science and values, we hope this book will help clarify and bridge this gap.