Conservation and biodiversity is about humans manipulating the environment away from a natural equilibrium to something better. A desert is at equilibrium, if

Conservation and biodiversity is about humans manipulating the environment away from a natural equilibrium to something better. A desert is at equilibrium, if we plant stuff and water it, it's more diverse and ecologically better. Often conservation requires active maintenance to keep the benefits. Usually this maintenance occured as a side effect of historical human activity (resource extraction, grazing, hunting, fire). As humans do less interaction with the environment as they progress in cities they make nature less bio diverse paradoxically.