It is commonplace to say that we live in the ‘age of ecology’. This is an interdisciplinary, cultural concept which recognises the global scramble for scarce natural resources and the widespread environmental damage of industrialisation. Cultural ecology defines flows of materials and ideas between people, environment and place, where place is defined as:

- 'nature'; a biophysical ecosystem consisting of habitats and species;
- 'goods'; a human resource managed scientifically for food, protection, wealth, recreation and knowledge;
- 'notions': a personal experience communicated in words, music and pictures.

A conservation curriculum connects 'nature', 'goods' and 'notions' holistically, on cosmic and human time scales, to find all others in one's self;one's self in all others.