ex-situ conservation

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the conservation of biological diversity outside of the organism's natural habitat, through facilities including botanical gardens, zoos, aquaria, seed banks, gene banks, and captive breeding programmes; ex-situ conservation serves as a safety net for species whose wild populations are too small or threatened to be secured through in-situ (on-site) protection alone, and as a repository of genetic material that can support future reintroduction efforts; the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens, and the Frozen Ark project are major ex-situ conservation repositories; critics note that ex-situ conservation, however valuable, cannot replicate the ecological relationships, evolutionary pressures, and behavioural complexity of wild populations