Top 10 Most Controversial Conservation Policies

Ecologists celebrate wolves restoring ecosystem balance, but ranchers losing livestock to predation demand lethal management, creating bitter rural-urban political divides.

The 1989 CITES ban aimed to save elephants, but southern African nations argue their well-managed herds should fund conservation through legal ivory sales while stockpiles sit unused.

The goal to protect 30 percent of land and ocean by 2030 faces backlash from indigenous groups who fear displacement and developing nations that see it as eco-colonialism.

Scientists are engineering heat-resistant coral to survive warming oceans, but critics warn that releasing genetically modified organisms into marine ecosystems could have unpredictable consequences.

Australia's campaigns to kill millions of feral cats, camels, and cane toads polarise opinion between ecological pragmatists who see it as necessary and animal welfare advocates who oppose mass killing.

Creating strict protected areas has historically displaced indigenous peoples from ancestral lands in Africa and Asia, raising questions about who conservation truly serves.

Japan's decades-long "scientific" whaling in the Southern Ocean drew international condemnation, with critics calling it commercial hunting disguised as research before Japan withdrew from the IWC in 2019.

Companies purchase carbon credits tied to forest preservation, but investigations have found many offset projects overstate their impact or protect forests that were never under threat.

Colossal Biosciences aims to resurrect mammoth-like creatures to restore Arctic grasslands, but sceptics question whether billions should fund de-extinction while living species face imminent extinction.

Ecologists celebrate wolves restoring ecosystem balance, but ranchers losing livestock to predation demand lethal management, creating bitter rural-urban political divides.

The 1989 CITES ban aimed to save elephants, but southern African nations argue their well-managed herds should fund conservation through legal ivory sales while stockpiles sit unused.

The goal to protect 30 percent of land and ocean by 2030 faces backlash from indigenous groups who fear displacement and developing nations that see it as eco-colonialism.

Scientists are engineering heat-resistant coral to survive warming oceans, but critics warn that releasing genetically modified organisms into marine ecosystems could have unpredictable consequences.

Australia's campaigns to kill millions of feral cats, camels, and cane toads polarise opinion between ecological pragmatists who see it as necessary and animal welfare advocates who oppose mass killing.

Creating strict protected areas has historically displaced indigenous peoples from ancestral lands in Africa and Asia, raising questions about who conservation truly serves.

Japan's decades-long "scientific" whaling in the Southern Ocean drew international condemnation, with critics calling it commercial hunting disguised as research before Japan withdrew from the IWC in 2019.

Companies purchase carbon credits tied to forest preservation, but investigations have found many offset projects overstate their impact or protect forests that were never under threat.

Colossal Biosciences aims to resurrect mammoth-like creatures to restore Arctic grasslands, but sceptics question whether billions should fund de-extinction while living species face imminent extinction.