The management of natural resources to avoid destruction of species and habitats. It involves maintaining and protecting habitats, controlling the harvesting of natural populations, and seeking to reduce pollution and other threats to other organisms resulting from human activity.
Conservation embraces all life and the environment that supports it.
It may be concerned with the smallest pond, with sites of scientific interest or scenic beauty, with one of the planet's biomes, such as its rainforests, or with particular species of plants and animals. Some governments provide protected areas, such as wildlife parks and nature reserves, and impose bans on hunting endangered species. Many regulate their fishing industries, but several major fisheries have collapsed in recent years through overfishing. The reintroduction of captive-bred species may be used to rebuild a wild population, as in the case of the Hawaiian goose . Conservation may include measures to protect clean air, water supplies, and land, or defend particular habitats against, for example, deforestation or desertification , or save endangered species .