Here's a troubling approach to endangered species conservation that may or may not sound familiar to you: let's try cloning our endangered species to protect them from extinction.  Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem quite right.

This week Malaysian officials announced a new $9 million project designed to clone what remains of one of the world's seven largest leatherback turtle populations in an attempt to bring the beleaguered critter back from its precipitous 99% decline since the 1960s.   Conservation groups cite the loss of both feeding and nesting areas, excessive egg-collection, pollution, unchecked development, and fishing nets as causes for the decline, none of which appear to be part of the proposed recovery plan.  In the words of one conservation biologist, "It's a bizarre idea."

Famously, in 2000, the first cloned endangered species was born... and then died two days later.  Since then a handful of endangered species have been cloned around the world, begging the question of whether this is good conservation or just lazy stewardship.  While protecting the world's most endangered animals from extinction is certainly a noble motivation, it provides an instant "get out of jail free" card instead of prompting serious, thoughtful recovery plans that will provide long term solutions.

Even if the cloning of the leatherback turtle is successful (which is in serious doubt as there have never been any successful reptile cloning projects, and the leatherback turtle is one of the more complicated species in the turtle family), and they can be successfully released into the wild, they will have little to no habitat in which to thrive.  Unless the root causes of the leatherback's decline can be addressed and rectified, the cloned version of this magnificent animal won't have a fighting chance and may even harm the remaining leatherbacks as they compete for resources.

$9 million.  That's a really big bandaid.