IUCN: Safeguarding Biodiversity – Mission, Threatened Species, and Conservation Initiatives

IUCN: Origins and Evolution

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources was founded in October 1948 as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (or IUPN) following an international conference in Fontainebleau, France.
• The organization changed its name to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1956 with the acronym IUCN (or UICN) with its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.

Vision of IUCN:

• Just a world that values and conserves nature.

IUCN Mission:

• To influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
• IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects globally and brings governments, non-government organizations, United Nations agencies, companies and local communities together to develop and implement policy
• International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Members include both States and non-governmental organizations.
• A neutral forum for governments, NGOs, scientists, business and local communities to find practical solutions to conservation and development challenges.

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Priority Areas of IUCN: 

IUCN Red Data Book

• Threatened species are any species which are vulnerable to extinction in the near future.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories: vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered, depending on the degree to which they are threatened.

IUCN Critically Endangered Species: A High Risk of Extinction

• Critically Endangered (Cr) is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN for wild species.
• Critically endangered species means species numbers have decreased, or will decrease by 80% within three generations.
• It is therefore considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

IUCN Endangered (EN) species

• Endangered (EN) species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
• Also it could mean that due to deforestation there may be a lack of food and/or water.
• It is therefore considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

IUCN Vulnerable (VU) species

• Vulnerable (VU) species is a species which has been categorised by the IUCN as likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve.
• It is therefore considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

IUCN: Extinct, Functionally Extinct, and Extinct in the Wild

• A species becomes extinct when the last existing member of that species dies. Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that are able to reproduce and create a new generation.
• A species may become functionally extinct when only a handful of individuals survive, which are unable to reproduce due to poor health, age, sparse distribution over a large range, a lack of individuals of both sexes (in sexually reproducing species), or other reasons.
• An important aspect of extinction at the present time is human attempts to preserve critically endangered species, which is reflected by the creation of the conservation status “Extinct in the Wild” (EW).
• Species listed under this status by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources are not known to have any living specimens in the wild, and are maintained only in zoos or other artificial environments.
• Some of these species are functionally extinct; as they are no longer part of their natural habitat and it is unlikely the species will ever be restored to the wild.

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Reasons for Species Extinction:

• Main reasons for extinction are either natural or manmade. Through evolution, new species arise through the process of speciation and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition.
• A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years (1 crore year) of its first appearance although some species, called living fossils, survive virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.
• Extinction, though, is usually a natural phenomenon; it is estimated that 99.9% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct.
• Various anthropogenic activities causing extinction are man made reasons. Only recently scientists have become alarmed at the high rates of recent extinctions due to various anthropogenic activities.
• Some of these anthropogenic activities include intentional or accidental introduction of invasive alien species, over exploitation and unscientific collection of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFPs) including medicinal plant, climate change, unsustainable tourism, habitat destruction, encroachment etc.

IUCN PUBLICATION:

• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assesses risk of species extinction
• The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems assesses risk of ecosystem collapse
• The IUCN World Heritage Outlook assesses World Heritage sitesover time
• The World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas assesses sites important for biodiversity
• Protected Planet assesses protected areas
• ECOLEX provides a gateway to environmental law
• PANORAMA

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