Conservation of Bio-diversity is essential for maintaining and saving various species and their ecosystems ultimately for survival of human beings. The two approaches of bio-diversity conservation are as follows:

1.       Ex-situ conservation

2.       In-situ conservation

1. Ex-situ conservation: It is done for conservation of various crops and seeds when the population of a species is so fragile that its survival is no longer possible in its natural habitat. This conservation is done away from the natural habitat and hence referred to as ex-situ conservation. Example.

(a) Botanical garden, zoological parks, aquarium

(b) Seed banks: It is the most effective and efficient method of conserving diversity in which the seeds are cold stored for several years. It is usually kept at -5°C for 5 – 25 years and it’s viable for 100 years if preserved at -20°C.

(c) Field gene bank: These are the places where growing plants of various genetics species are gathered for creating a gene pool.

(d) In vitro (i.e. the conservation in enclosed glass): This type of conservation is usually carried out in research laboratories where species are kept under low temperature for slow growth and long storage.

2. Ex-situ conservation: It includes conservation of plants and animals in their native eco-systems and is applicable for wild flora and fauna. It is done by declaring the area as protected area with the emphasis either to save that entire area or the particular endangered species. Example.

(a) National parks: It is an area strictly reserved for conservation of wildlife where activities like grazing, cultivation and private ownership are not allowed. Each national park conserves specifically some particular species of wildlife along with others. Jim corbet national park was the first national park of India.

(b) Sanctuaries: These are the protected areas for wildlife where killing, hunting, shooting is prohibited however operations like harvesting of timbers, collection of miner forest products and private ownership rights are permitted as long as they do not adversely affect the wild life. Eg. Bharatpur wild life Sanctuary in Rajasthan.

(c) Biosphere reserve: These are undisturbed natural areas for scientific study as well as areas where habitat conservation is done. A biosphere reserve consist of two zones i.e. Core zone and buffer zone. Core zone is the internal area with almost no human interference and buffer zone surrounds the core zone where research, tourism, agriculture activities are carried out. A biosphere reserve may have one or more national parks within it. There are 14 biosphere reserves in India. Example. Nilgiri, Nanda devi, Sunderbans etc.