IUCN - The World Conversation Union

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™
Species Information Service
Biodiversity assessments
Providing technical advice to conventions
The development of indicators
Supporting the SSC network

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™, produced, maintained and managed by the IUCN Species Programme is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. With its strong scientific base, the IUCN Red List is widely recognized as an authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity and is increasingly used as a tool to stimulate conservation action. The standards for conducting of Red List assessments are developed jointly between the Species Programme and the Species Survival Commission (SSC).

Species Information Service

The Species Information Service refers to the tools being developed to conduct IUCN Red List assessments from point of collection in the field to dissemination on the The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™. They are being developed for use in the Global Assessment projects, for SSC, for the Red List Partnership and indeed any other individual or institution that wishes to carry out species assessments.

A vast amount of information is gathered in the process of carrying out the conservation assessments; our aim is to make this information widely and easily available to all those who need it in the conservation and development community, including scientists, natural resource managers, educators, decision-makers and donors.

In the coming years, species assessment tools will be further developed for carrying out additional key taxonomic, regional and global assessments.

Biodiversity assessments

IUCN is committed to providing the world with the most objective, scientifically-based information on the current status of global biodiversity. It disseminates this information through The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™.

Our aim is to provide conservation status assessments for key taxonomic groups such as amphibians, mammals, reptiles, cycads, cacti and selected taxonomic groups in habitats such as the freshwater and marine realms. These assessments are usually done through Global Species Assessment projects led by the IUCN Species Programme in partnership with the SSC and a number of partner organizations (see IUCN Red List Partnership).

Providing technical advice to conventions

Much of the work of the Species Programme involves providing technical and scientific advice to governments, international environmental treaties, and other conservation organizations.

Priority conventions are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and Ramsar.

Drawing on the vast expertise that lies in the SSC network, the IUCN Species Programme strives to ensure that decisions that affect the use of natural resources are based on the best available objective scientific information.

All policy statements and technical guidelinesare available on the IUCN website.

The development of indicators

The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have agreed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 – the so-called 2010 target.

How will we know if we have achieved this target?

The IUCN Red List, and its underpinning data, provides one of the best global data sets for the development of indicators of biodiversity trends. Drawing on information collated in the Red List, the Species Programme and SSC are jointly developing a set of biodiversity indicators based on genuine changes in the status of species over time, to help measure progress towards global targets.

Supporting the SSC network

The SSC is the world’s premier network of volunteer scientists who contribute data, information and expertise to the implementation of the IUCN Programme. The SSC network, comprising 130 (check) Specialist Groups, is supported by the IUCN Species Programme which provides network support in the form of communications, fundraising assistance, project development, financial administrative support and facilitation of expertise. The Species Programme and SSC share the same vision and objectives, and both contribute to delivery of the IUCN Programme.