The global ecology movement is based upon environmental protection, and is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the 1960s. As a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology. Aspects of the ecology movement view wild species as possessing natural life-rights to exist based upon the importance of maintaining and preserving biodiversity.

Another argument for the preservation of species is based upon species competition: species tend to compete most intensely with their own kind, so therefore any cessation of competition between humans must be presaged by cessation of competition between humans and other species.