In recent years synthetic biology has emerged as a suite of techniques and technologies that enable humans to read, interpret, modify, design and manufacture DNA in order to rapidly influence the forms and functions of cells and organisms, with the potential to reach whole species and ecosystems.

This paper focuses on only one piece of this complex challenge: the ways in which conservation action has been informed, and should be informed, by the interaction between ecological scale and governance. The published literature does not provide much guidance

Decisions that affect how people use land are among the most fraught that any enlightened society has to grapple with. Two claims that typically come out on the short end of the land-use debate are the claims of indigenous people and claims for non-human species.