CONSERVED QUASI-LOCAL QUANTITIES AND GENERAL COVARIANT THEORIES IN 2 DIMENSIONS

General matterless theories in 1+1 dimensions include dilaton gravity, Yang-Mills theory, as well as non-Einsteinian gravity with dynamical torsion and higher power gravity, and even models of spherically symme tric d = 4 general relativity. Their recent identification as special cases of ''Poisson-sigma models'' with a simple general solution in an arbitrary gauge allows a comprehensive discussion of the relation bet ween the known absolutely conserved quantities in all those cases and Noether charges, notions of quasilocal ''energy-momentum.'' In contras t with Noether-like quantities, quasilocal energy definitions require some sort of ''asymptotics'' to allow an interpretation as a (gauge-in dependent) observable. Dilaton gravitation, although a little differen t in detail, shares this property with the other cases. We also presen t a simple generalization of the absolute conservation law for the cas e of interactions with matter of any type.