Revive & Restore’s flagship project, The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback, aims to restore the passenger pigeon’s ecology to North America’s eastern forests. View the project’s 20-Year Roadmap, go in depth into the project’s work, meet the project Advisors, and learn more about this historic and future icon of conservation.
Thanks to the rapid advance of genomic technology, new tools are emerging for conservation. Endangered species that have lost their crucial genetic diversity may be restored to reproductive health. Those threatened by invasive diseases may be able to acquire genetic disease-resistance.
It may even be possible to bring some extinct species back to life. The DNA of many extinct creatures is well preserved in museum specimens and some fossils. Their full genomes can now be read and analyzed. That data may be transferable as working genes into their closest living relatives, effectively bringing the extinct species back to life. The ultimate aim is to restore them to their former home in the wild.
Molecular biologists and conservation biologists all over the world are working on these techniques. The role of Revive & Restore is to help coordinate their efforts so that genomic conservation can move ahead with the best current science, plenty of public transparency, and the overall goal of enhancing biodiversity and ecological health worldwide.
“Gone”— Isabella Kirkland’s painting of 63 species that have gone extinct since the 1700s.
IUCN World Conservation Congress
