How can natural history museums help nature recover?
Abstract
It is widely accepted that we face a biodiversity crisis due to human activities, and we need active conservation interventions to address it. Natural history museums have recently made public commitments to play a more active role in helping to address the biodiversity crisis. What role might they play in helping nature recover? To answer this question, we recognise a hierarchy of conservation interventions (species, community and whole systems) and illustrate the role that museums can play in these. We also discuss how museums enable people to engage with conservation science. While barriers remain, there are significant opportunities for the conservation community to better integrate collections into their research. We need museums to help enable this to happen.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Animal and Plant Science Education
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 309–317
- Publication date
- 3 January 2026
- Language
- EN