ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the social failures of conservation – its injustices – than its biological failures. Data on membership and funding of environmental organisations would suggest that support for conservation is strongest in more economically prosperous Western democracies, and much weaker in the global South. Care for the environment may also appear more prominent in wealthier societies simply because some ways of expressing care are more visible than others. The idea that 'justice matters' is of course central to this book and central to the many local environmental struggles around the world that chooses to frame their cases in justice terms. Deontological approaches to moral philosophy determine what is right and wrong by reference to one's duty to conform to generally applicable moral rules of behaviour.
