“…Against the backdrop of this extinction crisis, and the apparent lack of concern of our world leaders, many conservationists feel they need to justify conservation efforts by stating that biodiversity, or a particular organism(s), are important for provision of ecosystem services – most commonly defined as “the benefits provided to humans through the transformations of resources (or environmental assets, including land, water, vegetation and atmosphere) into a flow of essential goods and services, for example clean air, water and food” (Costanza et al 1997). For recent examples, ‘preserving species diversity is critical to ensure ecosystem functioning’ (Coulin et al 2019); ‘critical weight range mammals could provide considerable ecosystem services to a range of industries, including farming, which highlights the value of maintaining these species and assisting their recovery within the landscape’ (Halstead et al 2020); and ‘it is important to have native species around novel, disturbed ecosystems as they provide a range of ecosystem services for native pollinators’ (Everingham et al 2019). However, is this the best way to encourage conservation, be it of a single species or a diversity of species?…”