Biodiversity and Conservation 4,535 (1995)

GUEST EDITORIAL

Captive propagation and effective conservation Rapidly expanding human populations, excessive energy consumption and the poisoning of the planet as a result of short-sighted industrial development are having a devastating effect on the world’s flora and fauna. Relatively few, if any, ecosystems persist in a pristine state and management is increasingly required to sustain what remains of shrinking biological diversity.

A variety of conservation strategies exists to address these problems and to protect and manage threatened faunas and habitats. One of these strategies is the establishment of demographically and genetically self-sustaining populations of animals in captivity. These populations can be built up through captive breeding programmes managed by collaboration and coordination on a national, regional and international scale. At the very least these programmes can ‘buy time’ for critically threatened species. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and its Species Survival Commission has acknowledged the increasing importance of captive breeding programmes for reinforcing conservation efforts in the wild. This Special Issue of Biodiversity and Conservation highlights the role of captive propagation, with its attendant management, research and education programmes, in the conservation of species and habitats.

Modern zoological collections are no longer ‘stamp collection’ menageries, but breeding centres, coordinating their actions and using their resources in such a way as to contribute to biodiversity conservation. The conservation potential of zoos has been highlighted in the recent World Zoo Conservation Strategy, which provides a blueprint for the conservation development of zoological institutions. This strategy emphasizes how the role of captive breeding should be complementary to, and not a substitute for, other areas of conservation activity. In fact in many cases, conservation projects involve both in situ and ex situ aspects, and interactive management of wild and captive populations is a feature of several endangered species programmes. The ideal is still to conserve species and habitats in their areas of origin.

The contributions in this issue illustrate some of the many aspects of conservation work of zoos and of the multi-disciplinary approach to conservation that is increasingly being taken. The destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitats and animal populations, and the consequent problems for adjacent and distant human populations present a challenge to governments, and people concerned with solving the problems and mitigating their effects. Zoological institutions, through their collaborations with other centres of expertise, have considerable potential to contribute towards addressing some of these problems.

Jeremy J.C. Mallinson and Anna T.C. Feistner Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, Les AugrPs Manor, Trinity, Jersey JE3 5BP, Channel Islands, British Isles

0960-3115 0 1995 Chapman & Hall