con·ser·va·tion   (kŏn'sûr-vā'shən)    n.   The act or process of conserving. Preservation or restoration from loss, damage, or neglect: manuscripts saved from deterioration under the program of library conservation. The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and of natural resources such as forests, soil, and water. The maintenance of a physical quantity, such as energy or mass, during a physical or chemical change. con'ser·va'tion·al adj.

Conservation

Con`ser*va"tion\, n. [L. conservatio: cf. F. conservation.] The act of preserving, guarding, or protecting; the keeping (of a thing) in a safe or entire state; preservation.

A step necessary for the conservation of Protestantism. --Hallam.

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation. --Burke.

Conservation of areas (Astron.), the principle that the radius vector drawn from a planet to the sun sweeps over equal areas in equal times.

Conservation of energy, or Conservation of force (Mech.), the principle that the total energy of any material system is a quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished by any action between the parts of the system, though it may be transformed into any of the forms of which energy is susceptible. --Clerk Maxwell.

conservation   (kŏn'sûr-vā'shən)  Pronunciation Key  The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them. Conservation is generally held to include the management of human use of natural resources for current public benefit and sustainable social and economic utilization.