Neonatives and translocated species: different terms are needed for different species categories in conservation policies
Abstract
Pervasive human-induced environmental changes are increasingly causing species to move, with profound implications for their conservation and survival (e.g. Chen et al. 2011; Dawson et al. 2011).
In a recently published piece on "Global policy for assisted colonization of species", Brodie et al. (2021) call for assisted colonisation (also called managed relocation) to be embraced as a viable management option in post-2020 global conservation policies. They suggest that species, deliberately introduced beyond their historic native range and species that expand their ranges on their own in response to climate changes, should be treated identically for the purposes of policy.
They also suggest expanding the use of the term "neonative" - which we previously proposed for rangeexpanding species that track environmental changes without human assistance (Essl et al. 2019) - so that this term also applies to species targeted for assisted colonisation.