"la préservation d'espèces"

Question

Bonjour! Je me demande pourquoi on dit "d'especes" et non pas "des especes" dans cette phrase?Merci!

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Lorie,
Chris is right here as in this instance ‘ la conservation d’espèces’ refers to species in general.

Le lait de chèvre = goat’s milk (general / unspecific)
Le lait de la chèvre = the milk of the goat (that you can see / talk about...)

Une liste de résultats = a list of results (unspecified)
Une liste des résultats = a list of the results (all of the results)

I hope this is helfpul.
Bonne journée!

Answer

If you regard la conservation d'espèces as a kind of compound noun that refers to the conservation of species in general (not some species), then you don't use the definitive article.

Answer

It would be nice if someone could post the full sentence. I think both préservation and conservation (which is it?) des espèces are also possible, e.g. CEPA = La Conservation des Espèces et des Populations Animales, and in the title of this article: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_des_esp%C3%A8ces

If you're talking about things in general, then quite often you do use the definite article. Typically it depends on whether it would make sense to be talking about all the things.