Table 1.

Management measures to improve the genetic constitution of fragmented and genetically eroded populations in three steps

Measure	Expected result
1. Increase gene flow between fragments and/or increase connectivity	As populations in habitat fragments are expected to be fixed for different (mildly) deleterious alleles, this measure will immediately decrease inbreeding depression levels; it will increase genetic variation levels; local adaptation in general will not be a problem as it restores former undivided conditions and establishes a metapopulation with sufficient gene flow levels.
2. Increase habitat and/or population size	This measure will decrease the impact of genetic drift and inbreeding; it will buffer the genetic erosion of populations that will occur in the future; it will mitigate the cost of selection upon adaptation.
3. Facilitate genetic exchange with more distant populations and populations from different habitats	This measure will mitigate inbreeding depression even more; it will boost the level of genetic diversity; it will supplement adaptive genetic variants not yet present in the population; this will facilitate evolutionary responses in the future. Dangers: this measure may disrupt local adaptation and cause outbreeding depression; if the total population size is large enough, recombination and selection may nullify this loss of fitness over the generations.