%0 Journal Article
%T Ex Situ Conservation of Biodiversity with Particular Emphasis to Ethiopia
%A Mohammed Kasso
%A Mundanthra Balakrishnan
%J ISRN Biodiversity
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/985037
%X Biodiversity encompasses variety and variability of all forms of life on earth that play a great role in human existence. Its conservation embraces maintenance, sustainable utilization, and restoration, of the lost and degraded biodiversity through two basic and complementary strategies called in situ and ex situ. Ex situ conservation is the technique of conservation of all levels of biological diversity outside their natural habitats through different techniques like zoo, captive breeding, aquarium, botanical garden, and gene bank. It plays key roles in communicating the issues, raising awareness, and gaining widespread public and political support for conservation actions and for breeding endangered species in captivity for reintroduction. Limitations of ex situ conservation include maintenance of organisms in artificial habitats, deterioration of genetic diversity, inbreeding depression, adaptations to captivity, and accumulation of deleterious alleles. It has many constraints in terms of personnel, costs, and reliance on electric power sources. Ethiopia is considered to be one of the richest centers of genetic resources in the world. Currently, a number of stakeholders/actors are actively working on biodiversity conservation through ex situ conservation strategies by establishing gene banks, botanical garden, and zoo. 1. Introduction According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity refers to the variability among living organisms (animals, plants, and microorganisms) including inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems with their ecological complexes. In another expression, biodiversity encompasses the variety and variability of all forms of life on earth that play a great role in human existence [1, 2]. It also includes the ethnical value of biodiversity such as tradition and traditional knowledge of the indigenous and local communities [2] and the diversity within species (genetics), between species and of ecosystems [3]. Genetic diversity refers to the variation within species of any plant, animal or microbes in the functional units of heredity. Species diversity refers to the variety of species within a geographical area, which become central in the evaluation of diversity, and used as a point of reference in biodiversity conservation. Finally, ecosystem diversity refers to the variety of life forms in a given territory or area with all its functional ecological processes, which is often evaluated based on the diversity of all of its components [1]. Biodiversity is important for the maintenance of a healthy
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.biodiversity/2013/985037/