Rethinking De-Extinction Criticism: A Multi-Dimensional Model for Prioritizing Revivable Species under Funding Controversies

Abstract

De-extinction is often criticised for siphoning funds from classical conservation, yet quantitative evidence remains scarce. Here we assemble a disaggregated United States finance dataset covering 2021 to 2024 and find that every dollar invested in de-extinction originated from private sources and coincided with a net rise in public and NGO conservation budgets. Rather than displacing existing capital, de-extinction mobilised new money and produced a crowding-in effect that enlarged the pool available for biodiversity protection. To channel these additional resources strategically, we develop the Multidimensional De-extinction Effectiveness Model (MDEM), which ranks candidate species by ecological benefit, genetic insight, technical feasibility, and habitat readiness. Applied to sixteen taxa, MDEM consistently places the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) first; Monte Carlo tests (10,000 runs, {+/-} 3 input jitter) yield a median class-level stability of 73.2%, underscoring robustness to uncertainty. Our results position de-extinction as a complementary branch of conservation finance and offer a transparent framework for steering biotechnology investments toward species with the greatest combined ecological and scientific return.