Conservation-Preservation

The concepts of conservation and preservation typically are used to differentiate between forms of human management and use of renewable resources (e.g., forests, fisheries, many sources of water). While these terms are sometimes used interchangeably in public discussions, environment-related fields carefully deploy these words to refer to particular management regimes for renewable resources. The difference between conservation and preservation is said to be important because these are the “major ideological camps… which still dominate debates over natural resources today” (Cutter and Renwick 2004, 41).