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De-extinction and Conservation Genetics in the Anthropocene
The Hastings Center Report
|July 27, 2017
Summary
De-extinction, like reviving the mammoth, challenges traditional conservation goals. It doesn't fit efficiency or necessity rationales, prompting a re-evaluation of its conservation value.
Area of Science:
- Conservation Biology
- Ecosystem Management
- Genomics
Background:
- De-extinction projects focus on long-extinct species (e.g., passenger pigeon, thylacine, mammoth).
- Novel conservation strategies are often justified by efficiency and necessity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze de-extinction within existing conservation rationales.
- To question the inherent value of de-extinction as a conservation goal.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of de-extinction's alignment with conservation principles.
- Examination of efficiency and necessity as justifications for conservation technologies.
Main Results:
- De-extinction does not align with the efficiency rationale of improving existing conservation efforts.
- De-extinction's focus on reconstituting absent species differs from maintaining extant ones.
Conclusions:
- The social and ethical assessment of de-extinction requires more than evaluating its means.
- The worthiness of de-extinction as a conservation objective itself needs critical examination.
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