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Conservation Biology: A Response to the Extinction Crisis

Note: Emphasized words can be found in the Glossary.

The new discipline of conservation biology has developed to respond to the increased threats to biological diversity. Its main goals are to determine human impacts on other species and to develop practical solutions to reduce the extinction rate.

Conservation biologists draw on knowledge from a broad range of fields. They apply the natural and social sciences, law, economics, ethics, resource management, veterinary medicine, and many other kinds of knowledge to individual conservation challenges.

Scientists, political leaders, resource managers, economists, lawyers, educators, anthropologists, engineers, and many others cooperate to solve these difficult problems. Solutions often require compromises between conservation and short-term human needs.

Conservation biology is called a "crisis discipline" because decisions must be made under severe time pressures, often with incomplete information. We can not afford to wait to take action until we have all the information we would like.