This book provides a review of the multitude of conservation concepts, both from a scientific, philosophical and social science perspective.

1. Introduction

2. Situating conservation: definitions, origins, and context

3. Analysing conservation concepts

4. Western and non-Western ideas of nature and nature conservation

5. Moving forward: which conservation concepts for which purposes?

6. Conclusions and outlook

Kurt Jax is Senior Scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ in Leipzig, Germany, and Professor of Ecology at the TUM School of Life Sciences at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is the author of Ecosystem Functioning (2010).