Preface

Abstract

　Biodiversity loss is one of the defining environmental issues of the present century. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reported that in the best-studied taxonomic groups, most of the total extinction risk to species is estimated to have arisen during the past 40 years. Of an estimated 8 million animal and plant species, approximately 1 million are currently threatened with extinction. The situation is particularly serious for amphibians, of which more than 40 percent are threatened. Almost one-third of reef-forming corals, sharks and their relatives, and more than one-third of marine mammals are also threatened (IPBES, 2019).

　These global assessments are consistent with other indicators of biodiversity change. According to the Living Planet Report released by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2024, the Living Planet Index, an indicator of trends in monitored vertebrate populations, declined by an average of 73 percent between 1970 and 2020. This finding indicates a widespread decline in the average size of monitored populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish worldwide (WWF, 2024). These declines are mainly driven by anthropogenic factors, including changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species. Emerging infectious diseases can also place additional pressure on some wildlife populations.

　Addressing this biodiversity crisis requires not only the protection of species and their habitats in the wild but also complementary measures to secure biological materials and information for future conservation actions. In recent years, in-situ and ex-situ conservation have been increasingly integrated through the One Plan Approach (OPA). The OPA promotes the coordinated management of populations both inside and outside their natural habitats within a single conservation framework. Genetic resource banking (GRB), genomics and epigenetics can support this integrated approach by providing biological backup resources and scientific information for conservation planning.

　This special issue, entitled “Cell Preservation and Genomic Information Infrastructure Supporting Endangered Species Conservation,” includes five review articles. These articles focus mainly on two important subjects: the preservation of biological materials and the generation and use of genomic and epigenetic information. Through these reviews, we aim to show how cell preservation, germ cell preservation and molecular technologies can be implemented for endangered species conservation.