Brazil is the latest country to publicise its plans
for the cloning and hybridization of endangered species. For the past two
years, researchers have been gathering somatic cells and spermatozoa from eight
threatened species. The final step in this ‘conservation effort’ is to gain
permission from the government in order to conduct their experiments.
The research agency does have cloning experience, as
it has been conducting experiments on livestock such as cows and horses since
2001. Therefore, a change in focus
towards cloning endangered animals seems the next most logical and practical
use for this research.
However, conservationists criticise this technique of
cloning endangered species, stating that it generates a market demand for rarer
species and distracts people from the underlying cause of the biodiversity
crisis – habitat destruction.
Furthermore, cloned, hybridized and captive-bred animals have little or
no genetic value and could potentially weaken wild populations if they are
mixed.
However, the goal of the Brazilian research agency is
to increase the number of rare captive species rather than replenish wild
populations.
"The cloning is specifically for zoos. We don't want it to become a
conservation technique," Carlos Frederico Martins, a
researcher with Embrapa, told the Guardian. "The idea is to test cloning
technology so the zoo has its own repository of animals, which will avoid the
need to take species from their natural habitat."
I find the use of cloning for conservation difficult
to understand. It seems to be of very little advantage, if the cloning of an
animal weakens its genome and potentially threatens the wild population if ever
allowed to breed freely, is there any use for it in conservation? Finally,
using cloning as a method for increasing a captive population seems extremely
unethical, as it would be for purely human benefit.
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