
Ryan Phelan
Bringing Biotech to Wildlife Conservation
Recorded live on Apr 4, 02023
at Club Fugazi
How can we turn the tide on species loss and help biodiversity and bioabundance flourish for millennia to come?
Ryan Phelan is Executive Director of Revive & Restore; the leading wildlife conservation organization promoting the incorporation of biotechnologies into standard conservation practice. Phelan shared the new Genetic Rescue Toolkit for conservation – a suite of biotechnology tools and conservation applications that offer hope and a path to recovery for threatened species. In this talk, Phelan presented examples of the toolkit in action, including corals that better withstand rising ocean temperatures, trees that withstand a fungal blight, and the genetic rescue of the black-footed ferret, once thought to be extinct.
Revive & Restore brings biotechnologies to conservation in responsible ways; from engaging local communities where ecological restorations are underway, to connecting stakeholders in disciplines like biotech, bioethics, conservation organizations and government agencies. Together, they are forging new paths to bioabundance in our changing world.
Ryan Phelan was joined by forecaster and Long Now Board Member Paul Saffo for the Q&A; to discuss long-term outcomes and the Intended Consequences framing used by Revive & Restore.
watch
bio
Ryan Phelan is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Revive & Restore, founded in 02012 with the mission to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. Phelan works with some of the world’s leading molecular biologists, conservation biologists, and conservation organizations to envision and develop pioneering genetic rescue projects. By using cutting-edge genomic technologies, Revive & Restore works to solve seemingly intractable wildlife conservation challenges, such as those posed by inbreeding, exotic diseases, climate change, and invasive species.
Join our newsletter for the latest in long-term thinking
Subscribe