The term conservation biology was introduced as the title of a conference held University of California at San Diego in La Jolla, California in 1978 organized by biologists Bruce Wilcox and Michael Soulé. The meeting was prompted by the growing concern among scientists over tropical deforestation, disappearing species, eroding genetic diversity within species. The conference and proceedings that resultedsought to bridge a gap existing at the time between theory in ecology and population biology on the one hand and conservation policy and practice on the other. Conservation biology and the concept of biological diversity (biodiversity) emerged together, helping crystallize the modern era of conservation science and policy.

The rapid decline of biological systems around the world means that conservation biology is often referred to as a “Discipline with a deadline”. Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size, inbreeding depression, and minimum population viability of rare or endangered species. Conservation biology is concerned with phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biodiversity and the science of sustaining evolutionary processes that engender genetic, population, species, and ecosystem diversity.

The concern stems from estimates suggesting that up to 50% of all species on the planet will disappear within the next 50 years, which has contributed to poverty, starvation, and will reset the course of evolution on this planet.

Founded in 1948, its headquarters is located in the Lake Geneva area in Gland, Switzerland. The IUCN brings together 83 states, 108 government agencies, 766 Non-governmental organizations and 81 international organizations and about 10,000 experts and scientists from countries around the world.

IUCN’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

Four of the fifteen biosphere reserves are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme list^.

• Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve
• Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve
• Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve
• Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve

It was established in 1993 and is located in the Southern part of Jordan. It consists of valleys and mountains. It has six hundred and ninety plants and four hundred and forty nine animals. [The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature] says that many of the species at Dana are rare while others are threatened to be extinct. Dana is one of the main camping attractions in Jordan where visitors can go hiking on trails that vary from easy to moderate to hard. The reserve contains a Wadi (Arabic) meaning valley and a village area, which has been occupied since 4000 BC.

Shaumari Reserve

Established in 1975 and also lies in the eastern Jordanian desert near Azraq. Shaumari, the first wildlife reserve Jordan, was established to house the Arabian Oryx. According to the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature eight animals from the rare breed were flown to the reserve in 1978. It mentioned that they have reproduced to more than 200 in the year 1999. Shaumari also has 193 different kinds of plants; sixteen of them are used in medical prescriptions. Also it has six carnivore species, seven kinds of rodents, six types of snakes and seventy seven species of birds.

Wadi Mujib Reserve

It lies on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. It was established in 1987. The reserve includes a variety of different plants and animals due to its unique geography and weather. This reserve has 412 kinds of plants, between 40 to 50 invertebrates, 150 birds and 24 species of mammals including rare breeds such as the striped hyena and the Syrian wolf. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature says it has captured in the year 1989 a group consisting of 20 ibex. They say that this number multiplied to more than on hundred animals adding that they released thirty of them back to the wild. Visitors can also camp in the area and go on hiking trips and trails tracking the different species in the area.

Many nations have laws offering protection to conservation reliant species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves. Only a few of the many species at risk of extinction actually make it to the lists and obtain legal protection. Many more piespecies become extinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice.

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. 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)

There are approximately 1,890 species listed under the ESA. Of these species, approximately 1,320 are found in part or entirely in the U.S. and its waters; the remainder are foreign species.

The ESA requires NMFS to designate critical habitat and to develop and implement recovery plans for threatened and endangered species.

^A rare albino American alligator

Construction began on the new building on September 12, 2005, while the exhibits were moved to 875 Howard Street for a temporary museum. The design architect for the museum replacement project is Renzo Piano. The design won the Holcim Award Silver for sustainable construction projects for region North America in 2005.^{[5 ]} One critic praised the building as a “blazingly uncynical embrace of the Enlightenment values of truth and reason” and a “comforting reminder of the civilizing function of great art in a barbaric age.”

The main contractor for the museum reconstruction is Webcor Builders. Other key members of the design and construction team include Stantec Architecture of San Francisco, TEECOM Design Group, who designed the IT infrastructure, and Arup, who provided most of the engineering services. The SWA Group, headquartered in Sausalito, California, provided landscape architectural services, including implementation design of the Living Roof, and Rana Creek Living Architecture from Carmel Valley, California, provided additional consultation.

A modern green roof employs native plants and engineered drainage, extensive daylighting, and photovoltaic electrical generation

The new building is at the forefront of environmentally-friendly design, in keeping with the Academy’s focus on ecological concerns and environmental sustainability. It received Platinum certification under the LEED program. As a result of its environmentally-friendly design and other unique features, this project was featured on the Discovery Channel’s Extreme Engineering series in 2006 and on the National Geographic Channel’s Man-Made series in July 2008.

Steinhart Aquarium

Prior to being replaced the old Academy building attracted around half a million visitors each year. As has been the case from the start, the main thrust of the exhibits is natural history. As such, the public areas of the Academy are divided into three general areas.

• Steinhart Aquarium – which takes up most of the basement area, as well as four-story dome that emulates a rainforest.
• Morrison Planetarium – devoted to things astronomical.
• Kimball Natural History Museum – Which in addition to African Hall and a Foucault pendulum includes a variety of changing displays covering a variety of subjects.

There is also discussion about the long term affects of global warming on the extinction process. Currently, studies have shown that global warming may drive one quarter of all land animals and plants to extinction by 2050.

The white lemuroid possum, only found in the mountain forests of northern Queensland, has been named as the first mammal species to be driven extinct by global warming. The White Possum has not been seen in over three years. These possums cannot survive extended temperatures over 30 degrees C, which occurred in 2005. A final expedition to uncover any surviving White Possums is scheduled for 2009.

Mass Extinctions

There have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life on earth, and four in the last 3.5 billion years in which many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time. The most recent of these, the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, is best known for having wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, among many other species.

There are a variety of causes that can contribute directly or indirectly to the extinction of a species or group of species. “Just as each species is unique,” write Beverly and Stephen Stearns, “so is each extinction… the causes for each are varied—some subtle and complex, others obvious and simple”.  Most simply, any species that is unable to survive or reproduce in its environment, and unable to move to a new environment where it can do so, dies out and becomes extinct. Extinction of a species may come suddenly when an otherwise healthy species is wiped out completely, as when toxic pollution renders its entire habitat  unlivable; or may occur gradually over thousands or millions of years, such as when a species gradually loses out in competition for food to better adapted competitors.

Assessing the relative importance of genetic factors compared to environmental ones as the causes of extinction has been compared to the nature-nurture debate. The question of whether more extinctions in the fossil record have been caused by evolution or by catastrophe is a subject of discussion; Mark Newman, the author of Modeling Extinction argues for a mathematical model that falls between the two positions. By contrast, conservation biology uses the extinction vortex model to classify extinctions by cause. When concerns about human extinction have been raised, for example in Sir Martin Rees’ 2003 book Our Final Hour, those concerns lie with the effects of climate change or technological disaster.

Currently, environmental groups and some governments are concerned with the extinction of species caused by humanity, and are attempting to combat further extinctions through a variety of conservation programs. Humans can cause extinction of a species through overharvesting, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of new predators and food competitors, overhunting, and other influences. According to the World Conservation Union (WCU, also known as IUCN), 784 extinctions have been recorded since the year 1500, the arbitrary date selected to define “modern” extinctions, with many more likely to have gone unnoticed.