Harvesting natural populations is practiced for many animal and plant
species and frequently constitutes a part of the management of those p
opulations. Similarly, enhancement through the release of captively br
ed animals and cultivated plants is an increasingly common practice in
the management and protection of biological resources. Both harvest a
nd enhancement may, however, constitute potential threats to biodivers
ity at the gene level. Many of these perils are not recognized today,
and strategies for carrying out these activities in a genetically sust
ainable manner are largely lacking. The potentially negative effects o
n intraspecific biodiversity caused by harvest and enhancement are par
ticularly serious when managing economically important species since t
hose programs are typically carried out on a very large scale. Contrar
y to the potential perils associated with high technology DNA engineer
ing and the release, or escape, of transgenic organisms, these genetic
manipulations presently attract very little attention.