"...when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another Heaven and another Earth must pass before such a one can be again."
-William Beebe

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Over the past several years, ALBC has developed a conceptual framework for conservation: Discover - Secure - Maintain. Breeds and populations must be discovered. This includes finding them and confirming their status as a breed. Once discovered, the population and/or breed needs to be secured. This can take many forms from rescue to general support, from the development of specific breeding strategies to cryopreservation. Many breeds will move in and out of this phase. Maintaining the breed is about ensuring the viability of the genetic resources for the long-term. At this state, getting breeds back into the marketplace is critical and if this stage is successful the breed has the potential to grow numerically and find lasting viability in the marketplace.

Defining Heritage is a maintenance strategy. The value of the definition for farmers is that it safeguards the integrity of the breed as expressed by its genetics. Therefore, farmers and consumers can share a common understanding of a product that is derived from a defined Heritage breed.