Conservationism is the belief, or the movement, that we should protect animals, plants, land and water — and often old buildings and old streets too — rather than using them up or knocking them down. It is an -ism: a stance, a set of ideas, not a job title. The person who does that work, or holds that stance, is a conservationist. In practice the word sits close to conservation (the protecting itself); conservationism names the outlook behind it. It can point at nature (forests, rivers, species) or at heritage (temples, old houses), and those two fights sometimes travel together, sometimes not. It is not conservatism, which is a political “keep things as they are” family of ideas. People mix those two constantly because they look and sound so close.

保育主義、保育思想（自然用「保育」；老房子、古蹟較常說「保存」。人則是保育人士 / conservationist，不是這個 -ism）