Halting and restoring species loss: incorporating the concepts of extinction debt, ecological trap and dark diversity into conservation and restoration law

Although there are many conservation and restoration obligations and targets, implementation thereof has so far been insufficient to halt or slow down biodiversity loss. In this context, efforts for ecological restoration must be accelerated. In fulfilling legal obligations and policy targets on restoration, it is important for lawyers and policy makers to understand the underlying ecological concepts. In this article three concepts, that are largely unknow in legal literature, are clarified, namely extinction debt, ecological trap and dark diversity. Their implications in law and policy are analysed and recommendations are made for better integration for these concepts into restoration projects. We recommend more efforts for monitoring beyond the simple presence of certain species, a higher ambition level for restoration measures, a substatial increase in measures for connectivity and restoration  measures for 'absent' species.