A major objective of conservation is to maintain biological diversity by promoting long-term persistence of species as part of native ecosystems. Biological diversity includes genetic diversity within populations, within species, and within natural assemblages or communities of different species. These types of diversity are interdependent. For example, genetic diversity is known to promote species persistence, and species depend on the communities to which they belong. At the same time, if a species is lost, so too is its genetic diversity, and the diversity of the community of which the species was a part is diminished.