Human-driven environmental change, including pollution, overexploitation, and other factors, has significantly altered the landscape, endangering native species and ecosystems. A key effort in conservation is the restoration of the functions of past ecosystems prior to modern disturbances by reconstructing historical and prehistoric baselines. The archaeological record, with its deep-time perspective, provides unique opportunities to tackle this issue. Leveraging this deep-time perspective, biomolecular archaeology applies a range of techniques, including ancient DNA, stable isotopes, proteomics, and lipid analysis, to inform targeted, actionable conservation strategies for habitat restoration, species recovery, and sustainable resource management. This session aims to highlight how these methods connect the archaeological record to modern conservation efforts in Canada and worldwide.

Our aim is to advance biomolecular approaches to conservation and promote the importance of collaboration among archaeologists, ecologists, geneticists, policymakers, and stakeholders. Any contribution that applies methods in biomolecular archaeology to environmental conservation or policy is welcome, including Indigenous-led projects and/or novel methods.