The document discusses several topics related to endangered species conservation, including: 1) The main causes of species endangerment are habitat loss, pollution, overexploitation, disease, and climate change due to human activity. 2) Efforts to conserve biodiversity and endangered species include creating protected areas, environmental education, captive breeding programs, and international agreements. 3) While captive breeding and private farming have helped some species recover, they also pose risks like inbreeding from small populations and providing incentives for poaching wild animals. Overall conservation requires balancing human and wildlife needs.

2.  An endangered species is a population of organisms which is facing a
high risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or
threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. The
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has calculated the
percentage of endangered species.
 Many nations have laws offering protection
to conservation reliant species: for example,
forbidding hunting, restricting land
development or creating preserves.

3.  The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of
that endangered species becoming extinct. Many factors are taken into
account when assessing the conservation status of a species, including
statistics such as the number remaining, the overall increase or
decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, known
threats, and so on. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the
best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system.
 It has been estimated that over
40% of all living species on Earth
are at risk of going extinct.
Internationally, 199 countries
have signed an accord agreeing
to create Biodiversity Action
Plans to protect endangered
and other threatened species.
In the United States this plan is
usually called a species Recovery
Plan.

4.  In order to conserve the biodiversity of the planet, one must take into consideration the reasons
why so many species are becoming endangered. "Habitat loss is the most widespread cause of
species endangerment in the U.S., affecting 85% of imperiled species" (Wilcove & Master, 2008,
p. 416). When an animal's ecosystem is not maintained, they lose their home and are either forced
to adapt to new surroundings or perish. Pollution is another factor that causes many species to
become endangered. Also, over-exploitation, disease (Wilcove & Master, 2008, p. 416),
and climate change (Kotiaho et al., 2005, p. 1963) have led to the endangerment of several
species.
 Humans have an impact on the species and their environment. "As human use of resources, energy,
and space intensified over the past few centuries, the diversity of life has been substantially
diminished in most parts of the world" (Ishwaran & Erdelen, 2006, p. 179).
 Humans also set standards for which species they think should be saved and which species they
find unimportant or undesirable. For example, the coquí frog, an invasive species in Hawaii, is so
common there that its "nocturnal singing" reduces the value of homes and prevents hotels from
using rooms near forests. Hawaiians have proposed eliminating the frog, and several wildlife
managers want to release a pathogen to kill the frogs (Minteer & Collins, 2005, p. 333). The frog
has decreased the value of homes and caused a loss of business for several hotels, so the
Hawaiians decided it was acceptable to get rid of the group of coquí frog living near them.
 In another example where humans affected the welfare of a species, non-native mute swans
started establishing themselves at Arrowhead Lake in Vermont. When the population of swans grew
to eight birds, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department decided to take action. Two swans were
eventually killed, angering animal welfare organizations and people living near the lake (Minteer &
Collins, 2005, p. 333).
 Yet another example of the human impact in the lives of endangered species is that of the Preble's
meadow jumping mouse. Research has shown that the mouse is not taxonomically different from
the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed
removing the Preble's mouse from the endangered species list based on this information (Minteer &
Collins, 2006, p. 333).

5.  It is the goal of conservationists to create and expand upon ways to preserve endangered
species and maintain biodiversity. There are several ways in which one can aid in preserving
the world's species who are nearing extinction. One such way is obtaining more information on
different groups of species, especially invertebrates, fungi, and marine organisms, where
sufficient data is lacking.
 Another way to help preserve endangered species is to create a new professional society
dedicated to ecological ethics. This could help ecologists make ethical decisions in their
research and management of biodiversity. Also, creating more awareness on environmental
ethics can help encourage species preservation. "Courses in ethics for students, and training
programs for ecologists and biodiversity managers" all could create environmental awareness
and prevent violations of ethics in research and management (Minteer & Collins, 2005, p. 336).
One final way in which one can conserve endangered species is through federal agency
investments and protection enacted by the federal government. "Ecologists have proposed
biological corridors, biosphere reserves, ecosystem management, and ecoregional planning as
approaches to integrate biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development at
increasingly larger spatial scales" (Ishwaran & Erdelen, 2006, p. 179).
 One example of a federal mandated conservation zone is the Northwest Hawaiian Islands
Marine National Monument, the largest marine protected area in the world. The monument is
essential to the preservation of underwater communities and overfished regions. Only
researchers working in the area are permitted to fish, no corals may be removed, and the
Department of Homeland Security will enforce restrictions on vessels passing through the
waters via satellite imaging. The monument will serve as a home to an estimated seven
thousand species, most of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world (Raloff, 2006,
p. 92). This environmental monument demonstrates the fact that it is possible to create a safe
environment for endangered species, as well as maintaining some of the world's largest
ecosystems.

6.  Captive breeding is the process of breeding rare or
endangered species in human controlled environments with
restricted settings, such as wildlife preserves, zoos and other
conservation facilities. Captive breeding is meant to save
species from going extinct. It is supposed to stabilize the
population of the species so it is no longer at risk for
disappearing.
 This technique has been used with success for many species
for some time, with probably the oldest known such instances
of captive mating being attributed to menageries of European
and Asian rulers, a case in point being the Pere David's Deer.
However, captive breeding techniques are usually difficult to
implement for highly mobile species like some migratory birds
(e.g. cranes) and fishes (e.g. Hilsa). Additionally, if the captive
breeding population is too small, inbreeding may occur due to
a reduced gene pool; this may lead to the population
lacking immunity to diseases.

7.  Whereas poaching causes substantial reductions in endangered animal populations,
legal private farming for profit has the opposite effect. Legal private farming has
caused substantial increases in the populations of both the southern black
rhinoceros and the southern white rhinoceros. Dr Richard Emslie, a scientific officer
at the IUCN, said of such programs, "Effective law enforcement has become much
easier now that the animals are largely privately owned... We have been able to
bring local communities into the conservation programmes. There are increasingly
strong economic incentives attached to looking after rhinos rather than simply
poaching: from eco-tourism or selling them on for a profit. So many owners are
keeping them secure. The private sector has been key to helping our work”
 Conservation experts view the effect of China's turtle farming on the wild turtle
populations of China and South-Eastern Asia—many of which are endangered—as
"poorly understood. While they commend the gradual replacement of wild-caught
turtles with farm-raised turtles in the marketplace (the percentage of farm-raised
individuals in the "visible" trade grew from around 30% in 2000 to around 70% in
2007, they are concerned with the fact that a lot of wild animals are caught to
provide farmers with breeding stock. As the conservation expert Peter Paul van
Dijk noted, turtle farmers often believe in the superiority of wild-caught animals as
the breeding stock, which may create an incentive for turtle hunters to seek and
catch the very last remaining wild specimens of some endangered turtle species.
 In 2009, researchers in Australia managed for the first time to coax southern bluefin
tuna to breed in landlocked tanks, opening up the possibility of using fish farming as
a way to save the species from the problems of overfishing in the wild.

8. Luis pablovich
Florencia Cañete
Gabriel Genoni
Gonzalo Cifala