Biotechnology Is a Powerful Tool for Conservation
Biotechnology Is a Powerful Tool for Conservation
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Ecology, RegulationEmma Kovak, The Ecomodernist, 2025.
What do the American Chestnut tree, the black rat, and the northern white rhinoceros have in common? They are all prime targets for conservation through biotechnology. Genetic engineering could give American chestnut trees disease resistance and restore the keystone species to Eastern forests, gene drives could eliminate rats from islands and save seabirds from the invasive predators, and assisted reproduction technology could rescue the Northern white rhinoceros from the brink of extinction. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is poised to approve an American chestnut engineered to resist the blight that functionally eliminated the species from Eastern forests. Meanwhile, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—the world’s largest conservation network—is voting on whether to ban biotechnology outright or recommend thoughtful case-by-case evaluation. These decisions are important determinants of biotechnology’s role in the conservation toolkit. With extinction rates accelerating, conservation efforts should be able to use as many tools as possible.
