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.

Law can influence conservation translocations in two basic ways: it can play a supportive and/or a restrictive role. Regarding the first role, legislation can provide support, a mandate, and/or an obligation to consider or perform a translocation. This may involve both general obligations to conserve or restore certain species or ecosystems, as well as specific obligations concerning species reintroductions or other types of translocation. Regarding the second role, legislation can impose limitations on translocation possibilities and/or make translocations conditional on meeting certain requirements. Such limitations and conditions may follow from legislation on native species protection, area protection, invasive non-native species, disease, trade, animal welfare, and several other areas of law. Requirements of both types may flow from international and national law. The legal requirements that will apply to any projected conservation translocation will depend on the countries, areas, and species involved, and there may be significant differences between one project and the next. The applicable requirements may be easy to meet for some projects, and be prohibitive for others. It is crucial that a careful analysis of applicable domestic legislation is carried out in the early stages of any contemplated conservation translocation. Practitioners should also make themselves aware of the relevant international legislation to provide them with the wider legal context of their work, and to help them influence the development of future legislation.