It is usually accepted that conservation ultimately seeks to protect whole ecosystems from harm. However true this may be, it looks only at the practicalities. The physical outcomes of what conservationists seek are the end-point only. We need to understand why conservation is important. The philosophical basis for conservation is embedded in preserving and maintaining, not material things like animals, plants and soil so much as values.
Nature is beautiful, clean, quiet, uplifting, challenging, different and so on.
Being in tune with nature offers us feelings and experiences that can't be bought. This is essentially where the problems occur, because values are intangible, fickle and fluid. Restoring damaged habitat or protecting endangered populations is driven by the basic ethics of right and wrong. Even bush-walkers who oppose hunting are philosophically not that far apart from dedicated hunters in this respect. The important thing is not the whole wilderness environment, nor the reasons why one wishes to visit it, so much as the knowledge that it is there, intact and can be visited and enjoyed when needed.