Table 1.

Conservation strategies. Caricatures of ‘recent’ and ‘emerging’ conservation strategies, in the context of climatic and other drivers of environmental change. (In dynamic systems, increasing emphasis needs to be on balancing the global and regional importance of any actions, and on trans situ conservation, enabling genes and species to survive somewhere, even if that is not within their historical distributions.)

broad strategy	recent emphasis	emerging emphasis
planning	mainly static, with priority areas, holding the line and some attempts to reverse past changes	dynamic, with the mental shift to accept and encourage dynamic ranges and novel ecosystems, co-benefits
in situ reserves, ecosystem protection and management	primary approach, often local, protecting species in existing ranges and ecosystems, restoration and reintroduction	primary approach, regional and global perspectives, refugia, heterogeneous environments, engineered ecosystems
ex situ zoos, botanic gardens, gene/seed banks	modest contribution, largely back-up collections, also for reintroductions (mainly of vertebrates and plants)	increased contribution, but still modest, for trans situ conservation, with gene banks (DNA code) for lost causes
trans situ facilitating movement to new locations	trivial contribution, mainly associated with landscape-scale conservation and ecological corridors	major role, connectivity (stepping-stones, corridors), translocation, managing ecosystem transitions