A commonly stated aim of many captive breeding programmes conducted in zoological parks is to produce founder populations for release into the wild in reintroduction programmes. Not many zoos possess the know-how for seriously managing captive populations, though that is a situation that is rapidly changing. With new technology, like molecular and DNA analysis, species management has become easier and helps scientists avoid potential pitfalls. For example, mapping genealogical information also helps minimising inbreeding.
Policy guidelines have been drafted by the Re-introduction Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in response to the increasing occurrence of re-introduction projects worldwide, and consequently, to the growing need for specific policy guidelines to help ensure that the re-introductions achieve their intended conservation benefit, and do not cause adverse side-effects of greater impact.
These guidelines are intended to act as a guide for procedures useful to re-introduction programmes and do not represent an inflexible code of conduct. Many of the points are more relevant to re-introductions using captive-bred individuals than to translocations of wild species. Others are especially relevant to globally endangered species with limited numbers of founders. Each re-introduction proposal should be rigorously reviewed on its individual merits. It should be noted that re-introduction is always a very lengthy, complex and expensive process. The following sections which illustrate the requirement to integrate ecological knowledge with re-introduction, have been taken from the guidelines.
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