The Eurasian beaver has returned to Britain, presenting fundamental challenges and opportunities for all involved. Beavers will inevitably expand throughout British freshwater systems and provide significant benefits. Unofficial releases have presented challenges in terms of sourcing and genetics, health status and disease risks, the risk of introducing the non-native North American beaver species, and the lack of engagement with communities and resulting conflict. Agreed approaches require development using multi-stakeholder approaches to recognise and promote benefits whilst sensitively managing beavers’ impacts on people’s livelihoods.

The May 2019 IPBES emphasised the scale of the current biodiversity crisis and the need for transformative change, but highlighted that the tools exist to enable this change. Conservation translocation is an increasingly used tool that involves people deliberately moving and releasing organisms where the primary goal is conservation – it includes species reintroductions, reinforcements, assisted colonisations and ecological replacements. It can be complex, expensive, time consuming, and sometimes controversial, but when best practice guidelines are followed it can be a very effective conservation method and a way of exciting and engaging people in environmental issues. Conservation translocations have an important role to play not only in improving the conservation status of individual species but also in ecological restoration and rewilding by moving keystone and other influential species. As the climate continues to change, species with poor dispersal abilities or opportunities will be at particular risk. Assisted colonisation, which involves moving species outside their indigenous range, is likely to become an increasingly used method. It is also a tool that may become increasingly used to avoid threats from the transmission of pathogens. Other more radical forms of conservation translocation, such as ecological replacements, multi-species conservation translocations, and the use of de-extinction and genetic interventions, are also likely to be given stronger consideration within the wider framework of ecological restoration. There have been significant advances in the science of reintroduction biology over the last three decades. However new ways of transferring and sharing such information are needed to enable a wider spectrum of practitioners to have easier access to knowledge and guidance. In the past the biological considerations of conservation translocations have often heavily outweighed the people considerations. However it is increasingly important that socio-economic factors are also built into projects and relevant experts involved to reduce conflict and improve the chances of success. Some level of biological and socio-economic risk will be present for most conservation translocations, but these can often be managed through the use of sensitivity, professionalism, and the application of tried and tested best practice. The role of species reintroduction and other forms of conservation translocations will be an increasingly important tool if we are to restore, and make more resilient, our damaged ecosystems.

Between 20 and 40 per cent of plant species are at risk of extinction in the wild worldwide. Conservation translocation is an accepted strategy intended to ensure the conservation of a species in a natural context where it can undergo evolution, usually, but not exclusively, within its historical indigenous range. Because plants are sedentary, practitioners should take care to select an appropriate recipient site, consider the possibility of local adaptation, and choose source material from similar climatic and environmental conditions to the recipient site. As variation increases in a target species’ environment, practitioners should expect greater variation in seed dormancy and timing of germination, and take account of this in the monitoring plan. Prior to translocation, consider the focal species’ dependency on belowground mutualists (e.g. mycorrhizal fungi) and whether recipient sites have appropriate plant-pollinator networks. When selecting founder populations, use as large a founder size as feasible to increase the chance of establishment and survival, and consider the focal species’ life history when choosing propagule stage. If the biology of the focal species is poorly understood and key environmental drivers of translocation success are unknown, use experiments, predictive models, and multiple recipient sites to test hypotheses and improve translocation outcomes. Ensure that threats are known and abated before and after translocation, consider herbivore or predator exclusion, and create a management plan to maintain appropriate habitat conditions or disturbance regimens over the long term. Develop a detailed monitoring and data management plan to track translocated individuals and make sure to account for plant life history, vegetative dormancy, and the potential for lags in next generation seedling recruitment. Translocation success requires long-term commitment, financial and public support, and collaboration among conservation partners.