Previous Year Question

In-situ Conservation means conserving a species, its population and genetic diversity within its natural habitat.

In National Parks, species remain within their natural ecosystems. Natural breeding, natural selection, gene flow and ecological interactions continue to operate. Therefore, In-situ Conservation plays an important role in maintaining genetic diversity over the long term. The Convention on Biological Diversity also links In-situ Conservation with maintaining viable populations in their natural surroundings.

National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Biosphere Reserves are major examples of In-situ Conservation.

In contrast, Ex-situ Conservation protects organisms outside their natural habitats, for example:

Zoo
Botanical Garden
Seed Bank
Gene Bank
Cryopreservation

Ex-situ methods can be highly useful for threatened species, but a National Park itself is an In-situ protected area. The Convention on Biological Diversity also treats Ex-situ measures primarily as complementary to In-situ conservation.

A Gene Pool means the complete collection of genes and alleles present in a population.

Within natural habitat → In-situ
Outside natural habitat → Ex-situ