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The Amphibian RLA central coordination team met at the
IUCN SSC Chair’s office in Bath, UK, on 11–14 June 2013 to
develop an Amphibian RLA strategy and discuss the budget
requirements for updating amphibian assessments. A new
budget focusing on the cost of individual assessments was
subsequently developed and will be used as the basis for a
pay-per-assessment campaign. The new Amphibian SG
website can be accessed here.
MBU: The core support of the Thomas W. Haas Foundation
remains essential to our success. Additionally, initiatives in the
Persian Gulf, West Africa, Europe, Gulf of Mexico, and
Oceania have been funded in cooperation with Qatar National
Research Fund, Qatar University, Qatar Natural History
Museum, IUCN West African Marine Programme and EC
funding and Harte Institute. GSP has also provided support
coming from the US Voluntary Contribution and from Agence
Française de Développement.
A number of proposals have been submitted to various donors
including the European Commission and the MacArthur
Foundation with whom advanced discussions are taking place.
Note that despite some excellent fundraising results (some of
which is mentioned in this report) The IUCN Red List funding is
far from sustainable. Discussion with the World Bank has been
initiated to see if they could be persuaded to regard the
knowledge products mobilized through IUCN as global public
goods. Jointly with UNEP WCMC we have made an approach
to the Joint Research Committee of the European Union with a
view to establishing a partnership with that body which could
lead to the mobilisation of more resources.
The Biodiversity Conservation Group and the IUCN Science
and Knowledge Programme are working on the project Costing
the flagship knowledge products mobilized through IUCN. The
purpose of this project is to assess costs to date in
development and maintenance, and estimated costs for
complete coverage, of each of the six flagship knowledge
products mobilized through IUCN. This project, which key
output will be a scientific report, will be completed by early
2014. This project is key to deliver the future vision of
Knowledge Products mobilized through IUCN, including The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and to move towards
ensuring sustainable funding.
Strategic oversight is provided to The IUCN Red List
(Strategic oversight for delivering the Red List provided
by Red List Committee)
Ongoing with significant engagement by GSP.
Measuring Conservation Success (New methods for
measuring and categorising the success of conservation
in place)
Work initiated WCC-2012-Res-041 called for “Development of
objective criteria for a Green List of species, ecosystems and
protected areas”. The work has progressed most with respect
to Protected Areas, but efforts are being made to ensure that
Green Listing considers both management effectiveness and
biodiversity outcomes. This would mean that knowledge from
The IUCN Red Lists of Species and Ecosystems and from Key
Biodiversity Areas would be included as well.
Population-level Monitoring and Analysis (Monitoring
programmes established for selected species and
groups of species)
The Monitoring Framework for the SOS project portfolio is
currently being rolled out. While SOS will not directly implement
or set up monitoring programmes for all the Critically
Endangered species it supports, it will be able to capture and
collate data received from SOS grantees (when these are
collected) and make these available for further use/analysis.
Currently the SOS Secretariat requests its grantees to indicate
the proportion (estimated %) of the global population of each
target threatened species their projects are supporting.
Invasive Species (Measures to manage invasive species
greatly enhanced through focused efforts involving
knowledge, policy and action)
Invasive Species Initiative: ISI has been supporting the
Invasive Species Specialist Group in many aspects of data
storage and dissemination concerning invasive species and
especially, in formalizing a framework for understanding
pathways of invasion and ways to address these to reduce or
block new biological invasions. However, much of the
Initiative’s work involves the development of capacity for the
establishment and implementation of invasive species
strategies in developing countries.
Integrating IUCN Knowledge Products (IUCN’s key
biodiversity knowledge products (e.g. Red List and
WDPA) fully integrated to allow interoperability and to
maximize efficient use)
The intersections between IUCN Red List data and protected
areas are done on a regular basis to keep the integration
between The IUCN Red List and Protected Planet via the Map
Browser, as up-to-date as possible.
Work on linking The IUCN Red List to the Global Invasive
Species Database (GISD) is ongoing. More than half of the
GISD species now have entries in SIS, allowing them to be
selected as named invasives under the threats classification
scheme and this coding in turn provides the link between the
two systems. The integration will be fully implemented once
the new GISD database and website is released.
Species Conservation Strategies, Action Plans and
Tools (Conservation action for species improved
through application of IUCN species specific
conservation strategies and action plans and other
relevant tools)
GSP staff participated in the Species Conservation Planning
Sub-Committee meeting that took place August 20–22.
Report of the Global Species Programme Director
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