The Future of Ex Situ Conservation

Abstract

It is with great trepidation that we attempt in this final chapter to address what we believe may be the major issues that Ex Situ conservationists will be forced to confront and attempt to resolve in the next ten to fifty years, let alone the whole of the new millennium. Whether we predict these issues correctly or not, it is clear that they will prove critical to the future of humankind. Thus we must strive to maintain areas of the natural or at least the semi-natural environment, not only for living and recreation, but to ensure that the world’s natural resources are available to all who need them. The very fact that humankind has survived to the year 2000 coaxes the scientist to become a philosopher and ‘crystal-gazer’; to consider issues that will be of importance for us and our descendants’ in the future. As McNeely and Guruswamy (1998) state:

“A world scheme for accomplishing the preservation of the maximum amount of biodiversity possible would be the most important single contribution that the people of our generation could make to the future.”