Conservation is the act of conserving and preserving natural resources. Typically conservation has involved protecting the natural world from the results of harmful human activities. Only in recent decades has the human population fully understood the interdependent relationship that exists between human beings, the animal kingdom, plant life, and the environment. Since the 1950s, humans have come to realise that their activities are destroying this balance. Since the 1980s, conservation groups have formed with a mission to find ways of protecting the planet and its animal life.

The first living forms inhabited the earth over 3.5 thousand million years ago. Natural extinction however saw most of these species die out. Gradually life forms died out and new types of species replaced them, or they evolved to create a whole new species. Extinction was a natural, and important, part of the evolutionary process. Climates and environments changed gradually over time and the animals and plant life had to adapt and evolve to survive.

Those who could not adapt died out, creating room for a new species to emerge. Today though, extinction is occurring faster than ever before. Species are becoming extinct at an unnatural rate, and the earth┐s mammals, birds, reptiles and plant life are disappearing and are not being replaced.

Human beings and their population explosion are the most significant factor in this rapid extinction process. Humans have over-exploited and over-used natural resources, building sprawling urban landscapes in every corner of the world. Above all, humans have evolved as incredible hunters and killers, capable of wiping out any animal life that interferes with ┐human progress┐. Intelligent and skilled, human beings sit, understandably, at the top of the food chain. Throughout history, each time humans have settled in a new land, rapid extinction has followed.

In Africa alone, one of the world┐s greatest landscapes, the Serengeti grasslands, is declining and will disappear by 2015 if the rapid advancement by humans continues. The Serengeti has declined by 50% since 1900. It is home to many animals including the black rhinoceros, African elephant and buffalo, all of which are already endangered. It is humans that have destroyed animal habitats and the natural environment and therefore it must be humans who curb their destructive ways and fight for the survival of Africa┐s incredible wildlife.