May 2021

Seven new Network Coordinators for the Global Center for Species Survival at Indianapolis Zoo will support the SSC Network, as an extension of the SSC Chair's Office team.

A new IUCN tool – the Species Threat Abatement and Recovery metric – promises to help practitioners assess the potential for conserving threatened biodiversity, and set site scale or landscape scale targets compatible with the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Strategy.

A working group coordinated by Associazione per la Biodiversitá e la sua Conservazione, IUCN SSC Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group, and Universidad de Concepción led the process to return the cacti.

Photo © Andrea Cattabriga

The IUCN Red List now includes 134,425 species of which 37,480 are threatened with extinction, according to the latest update on Thursday 25 March.

Remember to watch the CPSG webinar series! Each episode in the series explores an element of or approach to species conservation planning.

NEW: The next Call for Proposals for Threatened Species Grants has been launched, as part of the SOS African Wildlife initiative co-funded by the European Union.

This call targets lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs and Ethiopian wolves, as well as threatened species of bovid, equid, giraffid and small carnivore, in continental sub-Saharan Africa. It is open to Civil Society Organisations, and the maximum grant size will be EUR 300,000 for a maximum duration of 24 months.

Read the latest edition of the IUCN SSC Quarterly Report, and find the full collection Quarterly Reports from the 2017-2020 quadrennium here.

Cover photo © Debbie Bishop

Catch the latest webinars on Reverse the Red and the IUCN One Programme and Communicating Reverse the Red.

Read recent Crossroads blogs with contributors from the Species Survival Commission: It is Time for a Global Wildlife Health Authority and Why the Global Water Crisis Needs Local Solutions.

The IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group has launched Shark News, its official magazine. Shark News provides a forum for the exchange of information on all aspects of shark, ray, and chimaera conservation matters for SSG members and the general interested audience.

Cover photo © Michael Scholl / Save Our Seas Foundation

We express our condolences for the loss of Jeremy Mallinson OBE, who passed away on 2 February 2021. In addition to being the Director Emeritus of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, an IUCN member, he served for decades on the Strategic Committee of the IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group.

Read tributes by IUCN SSC and IUCN Member, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Photo: Left to right, Sir Patrick Bateson and Jeremy Mallinson OBE © Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Pak Widodo Ramono to Covid-19 on 24 December 2020 in Jakarta. He was the winner of the IUCN SSC Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit in recognition of his lifetime’s work to save the Javan and Sumatran rhinos from extinction, and a leading voice in the Sumatran Rhino Survival Alliance.

Photo © Yayasan Badak Indonesia

We mourn the loss of Phillip Bishop, leading amphibian conservationist, who passed away on 23 January 2021. He was the Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group between 2009 and 2020.

Photo © IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group

Emma Vovk is the IUCN Global Species Programme's new Sustainable Use and Trade Programme Officer, based in Cambridge, UK. 

Emma previously worked on wildlife trade with UNEP-WCMC, having completed her MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford.

Discover the winners of the Tony Whitten Conservation Award 2020. The third and final round of Tony Whitten Conservation Awards will be announced this summer.

The next WildTeam workshop is currently available for booking. This course will focus on Strategy Development for Wildlife Conservation, taking place between Monday 10 May and Monday 21 June 2021.

According to a new report from IUCN-Med, dung beetles are facing major losses of suitable habitats due to the decline of traditional livestock farming practices and the abandonment of rural environments, as well as chemical contamination of dung by veterinary medical products.

Read the press release and the report.

"R–R–T (resistance–resilience–transformation) typology reveals differential conservation approaches across ecosystems and time" has been published in Conservation Biology, authored by members of the IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group.

Gajah, Number 53, the journal of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group

Gnusletter, Volume 37 Number 2, IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group newsletter

IUCN SSC Grouper and Wrasse Specialist Group Newsletter, Number 14

Shark News, IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group magazine

IUCN SSC Spider and Scorpion Specialist Group Newsletter, Winter Edition

Suiform Soundings, Issue 19 (2), IUCN SSC Wild Pig Specialist Group newsletter

IUCN SULi Digest, March and April 2021, the newsletter of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group