Skip to main content
Login
  1. Home
  2. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa
  3. 1. What is Conservation Biology?
Open Book Publishers

What is Conservation Biology?

  • John Wilson(author)
  • Richard Primack(author)
Chapter of: Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa(pp. 1–22)
  • Export Metadata
  • Metadata
  • Locations
  • Contributors

Export Metadata

Metadata
Title What is Conservation Biology?
ContributorJohn Wilson(author)
Richard Primack(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0177.01
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0177/chapters/10.11647/obp.0177.01
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CopyrightJohn Wilson; Richard Primack
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2019-09-08
Long abstract

Conservation biology has three goals: (a) to document Earth’s biological diversity; (b) to investigate how humans influence species, evolution, and ecosystem processes; and (c) to investigate approaches to protect and restore biological communities, maintain genetic diversity, and prevent the extinction of species. Due to the fact that conservation is multidisciplinary and requires a deep understanding of natural processes and human society, conservation biologists must take on multiple roles. Specifically, they must be curious, good communicators, effective educators, law-abiding citizens, and effective managers and practitioners of conservation projects. They also generally agree that biodiversity should be preserved, untimely extinctions should be prevented, ecological complexity should be maintained, evolution should continue, and biodiversity has intrinsic value. Conservation biology relies on scientific evidence and ethical principles that underpins the preservation of biodiversity. Science provides conservation biologists with useful tools that guide the setting of clear, achievable, and measurable goals, to monitor conservation actions to assess whether goals have been met, and to communicate in a clear and unbiased manner. Meanwhile, environmental ethics holds that biodiversity must also be protected because human well-being and economic opportunities are linked to a healthy environment. It appeals to people of different walks to life to preserve biodiversity.

Page rangepp. 1-22
Print length21 pages
Locations
Landing PageFull text URLPlatform
PDFhttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0177Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/OBP.0177.01.pdfFull text URLPublisher Website
Contributors

John Wilson

(author)
North Carolina State University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7230-1449

Richard Primack

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3748-9853

Export Metadata

UK registered social enterprise and Community Interest Company (CIC).

Company registration 14549556

Metadata

  • By book
  • By publisher
  • GraphQL API
  • Export API

Resources

  • Downloads
  • Videos
  • Merch
  • Presentations
  • Service status

Contact

  • Email
  • Bluesky
  • Mastodon
  • Github

Copyright © 2026 Thoth Open Metadata. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.