Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference - A Pacific Response

Session Details

Conservation Genetics within the Australasian Region

Wednesday, 11 July 2007 13:35 -15:05

Bio-Med Theatre A

It is evident that the biological diversity of our planet is rapidly diminishing. As species and populations become increasingly threatened, the loss of genetic diversity often leads to a decreased ability to adapt to these changing conditions, with inbreeding and accumulation of deleterious alleles leading to decreased fitness of these populations. The genetic principles most relevant to conservation of populations in crisis include: loss of diversity, fragmentation, inbreeding, loss of fitness, and genetic management of small populations.

But while conservation genetics is one of the three pillars of conservation biology (the other two being conservation of species and conservation of environments), the conservation of the genetic diversity of populations and species is often relegated to a sideline function and thought of as something ‘nice to do if we only had the funding.’ Often the claim is that there are much more pressing needs, and conserving environments and species is paramount, leaving understanding and conservation of the genetic diversity and processes that underlie species diversity to a ‘luxury pursuit.’

Here, we bring together leaders in conservation genetics within the wider Australasian region to present recent findings and discuss case studies in conservation genetics of some of the most threatened species in our region, highlighting the core need to conserve the biological (i.e. genetic) diversity of populations.