IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, was established on 5 October 1948 in the French town of Fontainebleau. As the first global environmental union, it brought together governments and civil society organisations with a shared goal to protect nature. Its aim was to encourage international cooperation and provide scientific knowledge and tools to guide conservation action. IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 Member organisations and the input of more than 17,000 experts. This diversity and vast expertise makes IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

 

IUCN is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. It continues to champion nature-based solutions as key to the implementation of international agreements such as the Paris climate change agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Dr Bruno Oberle assumed office as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in July 2020. Then, Dr Grethel Aguilar, born in Costa Rica, assumed office as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in October 2023.

 

 

SSC (Species Survival Commission)

 

The SSC was established by IUCN in 1949. Since that time, the SSC has grown into a global, science-based network of thousands of volunteer experts, working together towards achieving the vision of ‘a just world that values and conserves nature through positive action to reduce the loss of diversity of life on earth’. The major role of the SSC is to:

• Provide information to IUCN and the wider world on the conservation of species and on the inherent value of species in terms of ecosystem health and functioning, the provision of ecosystem services and the provision of support to human livelihoods; and

• Promote the conservation of species, thereby leading to measurable reductions in the loss of biodiversity.

 

Collectively, SSC members form a highly regarded and influential network of species experts that is able to influence conservation outcomes at all levels, particularly international, through engaging with each other and collaborating in both the IUCN’s and SSC’s name. The SSC undertakes assessments of the status of species, develops species conservation action plans and strategies, prepares technical guidelines and formulates IUCN policy statements.

 

The work of the SSC is guided by the vision of a just world that values and conserves nature through positive action to reduce the loss of diversity of life on earth. The overriding goal of the commission is ‘the species extinction crisis and massive loss of biodiversity are universally adopted as a shared responsibility and addressed by all sectors of society taking positive conservation action and avoiding negative impacts worldwide’. Main strategic objectives include:

1. Assessing and monitoring biodiversity; to assess and monitor biodiversity and inform the world about the status and trends of biodiversity, especially at the species level, thus providing measures for the health of our one and only biosphere;

2. Analysing the threats to biodiversity; to analyse and communicate the threats to biodiversity and disseminate information on appropriate global conservation actions;

3. Facilitating and undertaking conservation action; to facilitate and undertake action to deliver biodiversity-based solutions for halting biodiversity decline and catalyse measures to manage biodiversity sustainably and prevent species’ extinctions both in terms of policy change and action on the ground; and

Convening expertise for biodiversity conservation; to provide a forum for gathering and integrating the knowledge and experience of the world’s leading experts on species science and management and promoting the active involvement of subsequent generations of species conservationists.