The Noah's Ark De-extinction Initiative: A framework for science-based species revival in China
Global biodiversity loss drives research into de-extinction, yet species revival projects face major scientific barriers. This perspective reviews worldwide and China’s biodiversity crisis, summarizes global de-extinction trials and challenges, and puts forward China’s ecology-priority Noah's Ark De-extinction Initiative (NADI) by integrating advanced genomics and habitat restoration. It advocates de-extinction must tie to large-scale habitat protection, serving as part of ecosystem restoration rather than a replacement for traditional conservation efforts.
Global biodiversity is declining at an accelerating rate. This trend is reflected at the species level: of the approximately 172,600 species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), over 48,600 are threatened with extinction. The risk is not evenly distributed; critical taxonomic groups are disproportionately affected, with 41% of amphibian species and 26% of mammal species under threat. Avian populations signal widespread ecological distress, with 49% of species currently in decline. This accelerating loss is placed in a deep-time context by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which estimates the current extinction rate to be tens to hundreds of times higher than the background average over the past 10 million years.
As a megadiverse country with diverse ecosystems and harboring numerous endemic species, China's efforts in protecting its endangered vertebrates directly contribute to and influence global biodiversity targets and ecosystem health. The nation's unique and rich biota is under immense pressure, as evidenced by the high extinction risk of the vertebrate groups, including over 37.5% of amphibians, 30.8% of reptiles, 25.9% of mammals, 22.3% of fishes, and 10% of bird species. The tragic trajectories of flagship freshwater species—such as the functional extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin (Baiji, Lipotes vexillifer) despite last-ditch conservation efforts, and the recent declaration of extinction for the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius)—represent irreplaceable losses to its ecosystems. These are not independent incidents but symptomatic of systemic pressures, including widespread habitat fragmentation, pollution, overexploitation, and trade. Such losses highlight the limitations of conventional conservation approaches and underscore the critical need for innovative, multi-faceted strategies that integrate advanced scientific interventions with measures that address the root ecological and anthropogenic drivers.
Global de-extinction endeavors: Ambition and approach
To reverse ongoing global biodiversity loss, de-extinction has emerged as a prospective technological intervention to restore extinct or functionally extinct species and recover their key ecological functions. Current international initiatives primarily target charismatic extinct species such as the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), and dodo (Raphus cucullatus). These projects are technically indebted to earlier pioneering work, most notably the 2003 brief cloning of the Bucardo (Pyrenean ibex), which survived only minutes after birth. The prevailing technological strategy involves advanced gene-editing tools, particularly CRISPR-Cas9, to splice key genetic traits from extinct species into the genomes of their closest living relatives. A landmark achievement was the 2025 creation of “woolly mice” through the multiplex editing of seven genes, successfully conferring mammoth-like fur characteristics and demonstrating the potential to engineer complex phenotypic adaptations.6 Concurrently, progress has been reported in creating gene-edited canids bearing traits of the extinct dire wolf via 20 targeted edits to the gray wolf (Canis lupus) genome.
Current de-extinction efforts, particularly on species with high public appeal, have achieved tangible breakthroughs in several core technologies, such as ancient DNA analysis, comparative genomics, and multiplex genome editing.6 However, these endeavors are not driven by more pressing ecological conservation needs and integration of large-scale habitat and ecosystem restoration, limiting their overall ecological contribution.
