Are our conservation efforts working to slow the loss of biodiversity?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-02-25 11:01

Australia; International; QLD

Photo by Hendrik Cornelissen on Unsplash

The world's conservation efforts over recent decades have made great strides in slowing biodiversity loss, according to international and Australian researchers who argue that referring to the world's current biodiversity crisis in terms such as 'the sixth extinction' is "alarmist". The researchers reviewed existing research to investigate the impact of conservation efforts on slowing global extinction rates, rescuing declining populations and protecting important natural habitats. They say while the current state of biodiversity is "dire", there is evidence of success in all three areas as a result of conservation efforts, and argue that there should be more focus on clearly and transparently measuring the success and failure of conservation efforts.

News release

From: The Royal Society

Conservation targets and how to achieve them

We ask three questions. (1) Does conservation slow global extinction rates? (2) Does conservation rescue previously declining populations? (3) What is the progress of protecting areas globally? Are such areas selected optimally to slow extinctions and reverse population declines? We find a disconnect between unsupported claims about impending planetary doom and carefully documented evidence of conservation’s successes and failures. Certainly, gaps exist in our knowledge about biodiversity loss. Nonetheless, conservation has prevented extinctions and allowed some once-declining species to flourish. It protects ever-greater areas of land and ocean, often doing so in sensible places. Future success will depend on clearly defined metrics to measure what works and what does not.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: James Cook University, Duke University, USA

Funder: No funding has been received for this article.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.