Old fashioned conservation (Teddy Roosevelt etc.) was often Human centered, We should see nice animals/places, general ecosystem health etc.

  Roosevelt believed that the laissez-faire approach of the U.S. Government was 
  too wasteful and inefficient 

  While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt subscribed to 
  Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of 
  whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for 
  generation after generation of men and trees.

-Wikipedia conservation movement

I get the feeling that todays version is more "ethical" in nature, saving animals for their own sake etc.

I'm obviously painting in very broad strokes