IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group

Overview and description

Description:

Day after day, an increasing number of species are becoming rare or even extinct in the wild. The current mass extinction threatens to undermine the ecological fabric of nature and associated life - ...

Dr Axel MOEHRENSCHLAGER

Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocation

Axel Moehrenschlager, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocations. Moehrenschlager collaborates with others to escalate support, partnerships, discoveries, innovations, actions and impacts around the world that help 33 species of Small Cats in the wild. He also collaborates to elevate the power of responsible conservation translocations such as reintroductions and reinforcements to restore and strengthen the viability of Small and Big Cat populations globally.

Moehrenschlager has worked on a broad variety of threatened species, ranging from invertebrates and birds to antelopes and hippopotami, but his primary emphasis over 30 years has been on carnivores. Before joining Panthera, Moehrenschlager founded the Centre for Conservation Research and later co-founded the Wilder Institute of the Calgary Zoological Society. There his teams developed an international reputation in conservation translocations, as well as community-based conservation which aims to develop mutual benefits for biodiversity and for local people.

Moehrenschlager serves on the Leadership and Steering Committee of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. He is also the Chair of the IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group which escalates Science, Guidance, Policy, Training, Action, and Outreach around the world. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary in Canada, Adjunct Associate Professor at Clemson University in the United States, Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Research Associate at Oxford University where he received his Ph.D. In related capacities, Moehrenschlager serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Equator Prize and as Judge of the St. Andrew’s Prize for the Environment.

Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocation

Axel Moehrenschlager, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocations. Moehrenschlager ...

More about the Specialist Group

The CTSG is one of IUCN’s disciplinary groups, with member representation spanning all continents. CTSG is headquartered at the Wilder Institute in Canada in partnership with the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi. CTSG developed IUCN SSC Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations, which are now available in 8 languages and have been integrated into government policy in many regions. These guidelines are applicable to all species on Earth, conservation translocations have been conducted for over 1500 species, and the diversity of objectives, species, and countries of application continues to increase. CTSG advances science, informs government policy, trains practitioners, and promotes the application of conservation translocations to benefit nature. Such activities acknowledge social, cultural, political, and economic considerations and often align to enhance tangible benefits to society.

Conservation translocations can be proactive to avert extinction, or reactive to return species that have been lost regionally or globally from the wild. CTSG’s mandate includes the planning, application, or evaluation of any human-mediated translocation for conservation purposes. Such activities span translocations among regions in the wild or any form of conservation breeding, propagation, or headstarting for release. Reinforcements or Reintroductions can be used to restore populations within their indigenous range. More risky applications include conservation translocations beyond such ranges including Ecological Replacements which introduced species to restore ecological functions lost through the extinction of other species, or Assisted Colonizations which involve translocations to mitigate against emerging or inescapable threats. The application of CTSG’s guidelines extends to Rewilding Efforts that attempt to restore larger ecosystems, as well as to the controversial topic of ‘De-Extinction’ which aims to resurrect proxies of extinct species for eventual release into the wild.

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Specialist Group work

We aim to create profound benefits for nature and people by saving species and restoring the function of ecosystems. To do so, we aim to support conservation biologists and managers in designing and managing the complexities surrounding conservation translocations in terms of multi-stakeholder interests, biological uncertainties, and risk. We thereby hope to ultimately increase knowledge to plan, courage to act, certainty to secure resources, skill to respond to challenges, and the achievement of successful conservation outcomes.

IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations

The aim of the workshops is to support conservation biologists and managers in designing and managing the complexities surrounding conservation translocations in terms of multi-stakeholder interests, biological uncertainties, and risk.