Re-introductions are increasingly being used as a wildlife management tool to restore extinct or depleted wild populations into suitable habitats. These guidelines have been developed to provide guiding principles for the restoration of viable Galliformes populations in the wild for conservation purposes.
These species, a group of about 150 ground-dwelling gamebird, are found on every continent apart from Antarctica. They live in a wide variety of habitats from tropical forests, high-altitude alpine zones, temperate forests, open country, to desert environment. Although widespread, little is known of the species occuring outside Europe and North America, but several species are considered at grave risk of extinction. Since publication of the first action plan in 1995 a large increase in the amount and quality of conservation work has taken place.
