Ex situ conservation

Ex situ conservation takes threatened plants and animals out of their natural habitat into special settings where they are protected and cared for.

Zoological parks, botanical gardens and wildlife safari parks do this job. Many animals now extinct in the wild survive only in zoos.

Modern methods go beyond enclosures: gametes of threatened species can be kept viable and fertile for long periods by cryopreservation.

Eggs can be fertilised outside the body (in vitro), and plants can be multiplied by tissue culture.

Seed banks store seeds of different genetic strains of commercially important plants for long periods.

Biodiversity knows no political boundaries, so its conservation is the collective responsibility of all nations.

The Convention on Biological Diversity ('The Earth Summit') at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 called on all nations to conserve biodiversity and use its benefits sustainably.

At the follow-up World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, 190 countries pledged to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, at global, regional and local levels.