"Managed relocation" (also called "assisted migration" or "assisted colonization") is the purposeful translocation of species adversely affected by global change, particularly climate change.  Goals of managed relocation include, but are not limited to, the reduction of extinction risk, the enhancement of evolutionary potential, and the enhancement of ecosystem services.

The terms "assisted migration" and "assisted colonization" are terms that have been used to refer to the same basic strategy as "managed translocation."   In Aug., 2008, this working group suggested a more comprehensive term, "managed relocation."  We prefer "managed relocation" because it captures the concept of persistent intervention (if necessary) and emphasizes the geographical movement of organisms, a conservation or management concept particularly distinctive to the modern era of climate change.  In several locations on this website, however, you will see use of "assisted migration" because it captures the essence of managed relocation in the sense of geographic movements that actors pursue in a helpful or beneficial sense.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human emissions of greenhouse gases are altering the climate and are shifting where species can live, just as glaciation did thousands of years ago.  Unlike historical climate change, however, modern biodiversity lives in a world that is modified by humans, and this human-modified landscape can stand in the way of natural migration that enables species' ranges to shift.

Managed relocation is a potential tool to reduce the negative effects of climate change (and other global changes) to biodiversity, but it could have serious costs in the form of collateral effects.  This working group aims to understand the degree to which managed relocation could achieve its objectives, the risks that it could incur, and the strategies that could be used to implement it.  Much remains to be learned about this controversial idea.