Reintroduction of rare and endangered plants: common factors, questions and approaches

Abstract

The science of reintroduction for conservation purposes is young, and there is still much to learn about the practice. As a means to achieving biological goals of successfully establishing new populations to enhance a species survival prospects, and project goals, such as learning how to go about establishing new populations, reintroduction projects are best done as well designed scientific experiments that test explicit hypotheses. Focusing on a range of factors common to any reintroduction, we review several empirical reintroduction projects with respect to hypotheses tested, experimental materials and methods employed, and evaluate their success in both biological and project terms.