- Biological conservation: meaning, goals, “values” and leading principles.
- Elements of eco-ethics: anthropocentrism, biocentrism and ecocentrism; precautionary principle; "ecological crisis" and religion.
- Elements of ecological economics: market economy, externalities, “tragedy of the commons” and market failure; direct and indirect economic values; “sustainable development” concept and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
- Elements of human ecology: social and environmental problems related to the overgrowth of the human population and the overexploitation of natural resources; IPAT model, “ecological footprint”, lifestyles.
- Biodiversity: definition and levels; types (point-, alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-, epsilon-, omega-diversity); models on biodiversity and ecosystems functioning; factors affecting biodiversity; distribution of biodiversity on the planet and biodiversity "hotspots".
- Extinction: global and local; natural, mass and centinelian extinction; neo-extinction and its remote and proximate causes.
- Eco-biogeography: species number/area relationship and processes that regulate it; theory of island biogeography, archipelagos and "stepping stones".
- Fragmentation and destruction of habitats: causes and processes; “margin effect”; biological characteristics of species endangered by habitat fragmentation.
- The population: hemi-, pseudo- and meta-populations; "effective population”, "minimum viable population” and "minimum dynamic area"; “population viability analyses” and “extinction vortices”; meta-populations and "source-sink" dynamics.
- Elements of population genetics: loss of genetic variability and genetic and demographic fluctuations in small populations; "founder effect" and "bottleneck", genetic drift, neutral mutations, "inbreeding" and "outbreeding".
- IUCN classification of the risk categories of the species; criteria for assigning risk categories; the "threatened species"; types of "focal species"; treaties for the legal protection of species.
- Ex-situ conservation strategies: botanical gardens, zoo germplasm banks, aquariums, ichthyogenic centers.
- Natural protected areas: typologies and definitions; regulatory, managerial and naturalistic aspects; natural protected areas of Campania Region.