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Addressing Critical Conservation Issues
The SSC has continued to focus on numerous urgent
conservation issues around the world. During this reporting
period, much of the focus has been on follow-ups to
Resolutions and Recommendations from the IUCN World
Conservation Congress in Jeju, in September 2012. There has
been follow-up on most of the c. 45 species-related
Resolutions and Recommendations, but the SSC Chair’s
Office has been particularly involved in the following:
Resolution 017 – Enhancing the usefulness of The IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species
The implementation of this resolution is covered in section 3
(Promoting the Biodiversity Assessment Work of the SSC)
below. Most notably, the Red List Strategic Plan 2013–2020
has been adopted. Mike Hoffmann, Chair of the Red List
Committee, ably led the process to reach agreement on this
critically important document.
Resolution 018 – Support for the development and
implementation of national and regional red lists
Work is progressing very well on the formation of a National
Red List Alliance which will create a new network of national
red list practitioners from around the world. Mike Hoffmann
and Simon Stuart have been working with Jonathan Baillie and
Katherine Secoy from the SSC National Red List Working
Group (NRLWG) and ZSL, to finalize the Memorandum of
Understanding for the new Alliance. It is expected that the
NRLWG, which will become the governing body of the
Alliance, will in future be elected by the Alliance members. This
promises to be a very exciting new initiative.
Resolution 022 – Supporting regional initiatives to
conserve mammal diversity in West and Central Africa
Funding has been secured for the situation analysis called for
in this resolution (which has been expanded to include all
terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, not just mammals). A
call for tenders has been issued, and 13 were received. After
reviewing the tenders, contracts have been issued for four
consultants, each with distinctive roles in the project: David
Mallon; Phil McGowan; Fabrice Hibert and Nathalie van Vliet.
Work is now underway and letters have been sent from the
IUCN Director General to all IUCN Members in the region to
encourage participation in the situation analysis. Likewise,
Simon has written to SSC members about this project. This
project is being overseen by Mike Hoffmann and it will be
completed during 2014.
handle day-to-day decisions, and an Internal Accountability
Team (of which Simon was a member) to handle more strategic
decisions, were formed. Tanzania initially agreed to be the host
country and the AES was scheduled for 4–6 November 2013.
However, for various reasons it proved impossible to proceed
with the meeting in Tanzania, but the Government of Botswana
subsequently stepped in and hosted the AES on 2–4
December in Gaborone. Following two days of discussions and
negotiations, a set of strong, Urgent Measures (see Appendix 1)
were unanimously agreed by delegates representing the 30
countries present at the AES. These countries represented
every step along the illegal ivory trade value chain from
producer to transit to consumer countries. In effect, the Urgent
Measures have secured a higher-level political commitment
(generally at the ministerial level) to implementing the CITES
COP16 decisions on the African elephant (see section 9 below).
Huge thanks are needed for Diane Skinner and Holly Dublin for
the work they did to make the AES a success. In addition, to
direct work on the AES, much effort has gone into building
partnerships with other initiatives addressing illegal wildlife
trade. In particular, this has involved partnering with the UK
Government and Royal Family in their Illegal Wildlife Trade
Initiative (Richard Jenkins and Simon Hedges represented
IUCN at the first meeting of this initiative in London on 21 May).
The London High Level Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade
took place on 13 February 2014. Consultations also took place
with the Government of India on their International Elephant
Congress (E: 50-50), which was planned to take place in New
Delhi on 14–19 November 2013, but was postponed at short
notice. On a closely-related matter, following inputs from the
SSC African and Asian Elephant Specialist Groups, the IUCN
Director General sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand
on 28 February requesting immediate action to close down the
loophole which allowed this country to become a major trading
route for illegal ivory. Steps taken by the Thai Government
subsequently suggest that pressure from IUCN and other conservation
groups has been taken seriously, and this has been
helped by decisions taken by the CITES Standing Committee
regarding ivory trade in Thailand (see section 9 below).
African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Vulnerable. © Ian White
Resolution 025 – Conservation of African elephants
Preparations for the IUCN African Elephant Summit (AES) in
December 2013 were a major focus during the latter part of the
year. Several side meetings were held during CITES COP16 in
Bangkok in March to plan the AES and to clarify how it relates
to other current initiatives focusing on illegal wildlife trade.
Following the CITES COP, the management and decisionmaking
process for the AES were agreed within IUCN. Holly
Dublin and Ali Kaka served as the AES Co-Leaders, with Diane
Skinner as the AES Coordinator. A Core Coordination Team to
Addressing Critical Conservation Issues
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