October 2019

9 October 2019 is the next deadline to submit a proposal for the Recovery of Species on the Brink of Extinction funding opportunity.

In a partnership between National Geographic, Fondation Segré and IUCN SSC, the goal of this request for funding is to halt further biodiversity decline by implementing species conservation plans for species and groups of species.

All applications are required to include a letter of endorsement signed by the Chair, Regional or Thematic Leader of the relevant IUCN SSC Specialist Group. Proposals that include the active involvement of early career conservationists, and projects that support conservation leaders from the countries where the species or group of species occur are encouraged.

Typical proposal requests should be less than $30,000; however, applicants may request up to $50,000.

For further information, please visit this webpage or write to speciesrecovery@ssc.iucn.org.

The SSC Chair's Office is excited to announce the recipients of the second round of SSC Internal Grants. The funding available is to be dispersed across a range of diverse activities to be carried out by the following Specialist Groups:

IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Mid Atlantic Islands Invertebrate Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Afrotheria Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Anteater, Sloth and Armadillo Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Hornbill Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Equid Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Vulture Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Otter Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Orchid Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Lagomorph Specialist Group

IUCN SSC Skink Specialist Group

The SSC Chair's Office is extremely impressed with and thankful for the response to this grant opportunity. Congratulations to all!

Olivier Hasinger, SSC Network Coordinator left the IUCN Global Species Programme in September to take up the position of Grant Manager at the Franklinia Foundation. This is very sad news for us in the Global Species Programme - and in IUCN as a whole given his skills in all aspects of his work, his collegiality and his strong networking role as SSC Network Coordinator. Olivier was a key resource person for the IUCN SSC Plant and Marine Specialist Groups. Among many different tasks, he supported the establishment of new SSC Specialist Groups and Red List Authorities, which has helped the SSC to grow in a strategic manner for optimal delivery of the IUCN Programme through the joint GSP and SSC Species Strategic Plan.

While we wish Olivier many congratulations on his new position and look forward to continued engagement on tree conservation issues through the SSC, we would like to welcome Dao Nguyen as the new SSC Network Coordinator in the Global Species Programme to replace Olivier Hasinger. Dao has been fulfilling the role of SSC Network Support Officer for two years, since October 2017, so she has a deep understanding of IUCN, SSC and all the necessary experience for this new role!

From Vietnam, she has 22 years of experience at local and regional levels in Asia, Africa and Oceania, as well as globally through international policy advocacy work. Her combined experience in on-the-ground species conservation (including with SSC), protected areas management, policy advocacy and network management, as well as communication, make her an ideal candidate for this position.

Harriet Brooker has joined as the news Species Media and Communications Officer, based at the IUCN office in Cambridge, UK.

Hari has experience working in communications in international, regional and national contexts, and speaks English and French. In addition to her training in art and design, her academic background is in philosophy and politics, particularly political ecology.

With the departure of Elaine Paterson, Hari is now responsible for the Species E-bulletin. Please send all contributions you would like included in the Species E-bulletin to Hari by the 20th of each month, including a short text of 50 words or fewer, any links, and a small image or logo. For topics that call for more extensive communications, please get in touch with Hari to discuss the options.

The most recent IUCN SSC Quarterly Report was published in June.

In this Report, the SSC Chair's Office talks about the 4th IUCN Species Survival Commission Leaders Meeting, and the importance of this unique opportunity for the members of SSC to celebrate the impact of our 9000 people strong network. The Commission Support Unit shares some details of the newly launched Commission System. Finally, it contains a report from IUCN SOS colleagues on a creative and innovative initiative between Lacoste and IUCN.

Find the IUCN SSC Quarterly Report for June here.

The IUCN SSC Quarterly Report for March is also available, here.

In July, the IUCN Red List broke through the 100,000 species barrier; it now includes assessments for 105,732 species, of which 28,338 species are threatened with extinction.

The latest update highlighted that overfishing has pushed two families of rays to the brink of extinction, while hunting for bushmeat and habitat loss have led to the decline of seven primate species. The update also reveals further evidence of the perilous state of freshwater fishes globally. This is shown by high numbers of species threatened by the loss of free flowing rivers, habitat degradation, pollution and invasive species in Japan and Mexico.

The headline photo of this Species e-bulletin is one such Japanese freshwater fish: the Cobitis magnostriata, photo © Shigefumi Kanao.

Rhino Rays featured in latest Red List update

The second IUCN Red List of Threatened Species update of 2019 included all members of the ray families Rhinidae (wedgefishes) and Glaucostegidae (giant guitarfishes).

Collectively called ‘Rhino Rays’ in allusion to their elongated snouts, these two families now surpass the highly threatened sawfishes as the most threatened families of marine fishes. Only one of the 16 species was not assessed as Critically Endangered. A full analysis of the Rhino Ray assessments can be found here.

The occurrence of Rhino Rays in shallow waters overlapping with some of the most intense and increasing coastal fisheries in the world, and their over-exploitation for meat and high-value fins is driving them to their perilous state.

CITES CoP18 New Shark and Ray Listings

At the recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties (CoP18), held in Geneva, Switzerland on 17–28 August 2019, three shark and ray proposals were considered spanning 18 species. Proposal 42 laid out the case for listing the Shortfin Mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) in Appendix II, with Longfin Mako (I. paucus) as a ‘look-alike’ species. Proposal 43 recommended inclusion of the Blackchin Guitarfish (Glaucostegus cemiculus), and the Sharpnose Guitarfish (G. granulatus) in Appendix II with the other four giant guitarfishes (family Glaucostegidae) as look-alikes. Proposal 44 recommended inclusion of the Bottlenose Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae) and the Whitespotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis) with the other eight wedgefishes (family Rhinidae) included as look-alikes.

A notable feature of the proposals was the large number of proponent countries, with 54 (26 plus the 28 countries of the European Union) for the makos, 52 for giant guitarfishes, and 64 for the wedgefishes. All proposals passed by the required two-thirds majority after a secret vote, and the new Appendix II listings enter into force on 28 November 2019. A number of marine trade issues were also progressed at CoP18 including capacity building activities, non-detriment findings, legal acquisition findings, introduction from the sea, and simpler procedures for permits, along with proposed amendments to update the Resolution on Conservation and Management of Sharks. The SSC Shark Specialist Group (SSG) delegation and SSG members made significant scientific and advisory contributions, not least through the development of trend analyses, productivity analyses, and updated IUCN Red List Assessments for makos, wedgefishes, and giant guitarfishes, and communicating these findings to CoP18 participants through Information documents and side events.

The Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria have now been updated to version 14 (August 2019). This version brings in a new set of guidelines and tools to help Assessors to decide whether to list a species as Extinct or as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), clarification of what we mean by “rapidly” in the definition of location, and guidance on the appropriate category to use for plants and fungi that are now only represented by seeds or spores in storage facilities.

Please make sure you have the latest version of this important document by going to the Red List Guidelines page on the IUCN Red List website. The new tools for calculating the probability of a species now being extinct are also available to download from the Red List website.

The IUCN SSC Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) is pleased to share their strategy for addressing species extinctions in Southeast Asia, focusing on:

1. Catalysing conservation

2. Increasing funding

3. Strengthening capacity

4. Promoting species

ASAP is an alliance of organisations aiming to focus urgent conservation attention on the most neglected at-risk species in Southeast Asia.

The Bear Specialist Group, in collaboration with the Conservation Planning Specialist Group, Free the Bears, and TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia, officially launched a 10-year (2019-2028) action plan for the conservation of sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). This is the first range-wide conservation strategy for a terrestrial bear species. It is an output of the 1st International Symposium on Sun Bear Conservation & Management, held in Kuala Lumpur in September 2017, which was immediately followed by a smaller conservation planning workshop, and then over a year of work by an even smaller team of editors. The plan includes an implementation task force to monitor and coordinate activities on the 19 objectives and 63 recommended conservation actions aimed at both in situ and ex situ populations, and interactions between the two.

For further information about this strategy and its implementation, please contact Brian Crudge, the Sun Bear Action Plan Implementation Coordinator.

Register for CPSG's Annual Meeting

The 2019 CPSG Annual Meeting will take place 31 October - 3 November in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hosted by Fundación Temaikèn. The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting is Engaging Governments in Species Conservation Planning. More information, including a listing of less costly accommodation near the meeting venue, is on the CPSG website. If you plan to attend and would like to suggest a topic for a working group, please fill out this Google form.

CPSG Webinars

If you missed it, you can watch the September installment in our webinar series, “The IUCN Green List: An Optimistic and Ambitious New Vision for Conservation” on the CPSG website. Or, register for “Working with Indigenous People: Healthy Country Planning” on October 2. This upcoming webinar will introduce key concepts, use, and lessons learned from Healthy Country Planning, an adaptation of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation developed with and for working with indigenous communities.

Conservation Facilitation Course

Whether you’re involved in creating conservation plans, or you aspire to, CPSG’s “Facilitating Species Conservation Planning Processes” course could help you build skills in facilitating effective workshops and meetings, applying the One Plan Approach to conservation processes, dealing with conflict, effective listening, and providing useful feedback to improve relationships.

The next available course will be between 14 - 17 October 2019 at Chester Zoo, UK. This particular course is EAZA accredited.

Read more about the courses and register on the Chester Zoo website.

IUCN Red List Assessment Workshop

The Global Shark Trends Project held another IUCN Red List Assessment Workshop from 17-21 June 2019, generously hosted by the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI), the Bahamas. The workshop successfully assessed the extinction risk of 114 sharks and rays endemic or near-endemic to the Northwest and Western Central Atlantic.

This is part of the global reassessment of all sharks, rays, and ghost sharks for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species that is being undertaken through the Global Shark Trends Project running from 2018 to 2020 and is funded through the Shark Conservation Fund. The Shark Specialist Group and the Global Shark Trends team would like to thank all workshop participants and our hosts at CEI.

The IUCN SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group has had success in securing support for two identified key species. It has received a Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund grant for crucial work on the Russian Desman (Desmana moschata), plus a Chicago Zoological Society - Chicago Board of Trade Endangered Species Fund grant for the Namdapha Flying Squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi) project, which will be added to the money already raised through a crowd-funding campaign earlier this year.

The Species Moniotring Specialist Group's projects have been advancing significantly in the first three quarters of 2019.

The group completed the global audit of biodiversity monitoring, a multi-agency collaboration co-led with BirdLife International, and are about to submit the results for publication. The findings were also shared by Louise McRae at the International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) in July and will soon be disseminated more widely.

The work with the IUCN Global Business & Biodiversity Programme has expanded to involve the coffee company Nespresso.

The aim is to develop and test IUCN Guidelines for Planning and Monitoring Corporate Biodiversity Performance, ready for a launch at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in June next year.

Other collaboration with the IUCN Species Conservation Success Task Force and the IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme has involved testing and developing guidelines for the IUCN Green List of Species and the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, two new tools to assess the progress of conservation actions.

The group’s project with the Centre for African Wetlands, University of Ghana and Ghana Wildlife Division has also moved into its implementation phase, with vertebrate and invertebrate monitoring schemes being established in Shai Hills Reserve.

In October at the SSC Leader meeting in Abu Dhabi, the group Chair will facilitate a session to see how best the group can support other SSC bodies in improving biodiversity monitoring.

For more details and the latest news on our projects, follow us on Twitter @Monitor_Species and keep an eye on the group’s website.

As part of the IUCN SOS African Wildlife initiative - funded by the European Union - SOS is supporting Civil Society Organisations in responding to conservation emergencies facing terrestrial threatened species in continental Sub-Saharan Africa. These Rapid Action Grants are designed to enable responses to new and emerging threats.

Recently, SOS awarded the first two of these grants to projects responding to urgent threats facing Cape Vultures in Botswana and Lions in Cameroon.

Rapid Action Grants of up to €25,000 are still available for organisations looking to respond to a conservation emergency facing any terrestrial threatened species in continental Sub-Saharan Africa.

In collaboration with Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), Amphibian Ark and Amphibian Survival Alliance, the Amphibian Specialist Group and IUCN SSC Chair's Office published a press release on Tuesday 20 August 2019: "Rescue Team Evacuates World’s Last Few Loa Water Frogs from Perilously Dry Habitat in Chile".

(From left to right, a healthy Loa frog, photo by Claudio Soto Azat, compared with a malnourished Loa Frog, photo by the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile.)

Do you know the answers to any of these questions?

· What is the greatest threat to Afrotheria species according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species?

· What does a lowland streaked tenrec look like?

· Are opportunistic heterotherms like some afrotheres better placed to adapt to climate change?

· What needs to be done to save golden-rumped sengis in Arabuko-Sokoke forest, Kenya?

· How long is an aardvark tongue?

· Why was the eastern tree hyrax down-listed?

· When is the next edition of Afrotherian Conservation due out?

The answers to all these questions and more can be found @Tweeting_tenrec, the official Twitter feed of the IUCN SSC Afrotheria Specialist Group. The social media outlet is used to share news and the latest research on the Afrotheria and their habitats, as well as useful facts and figures and relevant job offers, scholarship and funding opportunities. Follow us today and stay informed. And if you have any relevant material you would like to see reported on the site, please contact PJ Stephenson – or send us a Tweet!

The IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group  (ASG) and the Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) are both proud to launch their respective new websites, www.iucn-amphibians.org and www.amphibians.org!

The ASG and ASA have shared the same domain, amphibians.org, since 2013. Originally ASG’s home, the intent behind this was to show the close collaboration that exists between both groups. Over the years, however, this was leading to some confusion regarding the identity and function of both groups and was not serving our different audiences to the best of our ability. After a period of consultation with communications experts and website users, it has been decided to establish separate online homes for each group so as to better serve the groups' respective audiences and to minimise confusion between ASG and ASA.

Please note, however, that ASA and ASG continue to work very closely together and will continue to link extensively between both groups. As you browse through the websites you will notice that there is some common content; this is because of joint programmes and projects.

ASG and ASA invite you to visit both websites and to provide feedback, to help better serve you as a member of the amphibian research and conservation communities!

The IUCN SSC Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group has launched social media accounts. Follow them on Instagram @cactusandsucculents_sg, Twitter @CssgSsc, and Facebook at IUCN SSC Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group.

Their June newsletter is available here.

The CSSG needs your help to collect beautiful cactus and succulents photos during a photo-sharing event they will be launching soon. Stay tuned to @CssgSsc on Twitter to find out where to submit your photos.

Cat News 69 and Cat News Special Issue 13 have been published. The Special Issue features the Pallas's Cat.

A Unite for Literacy booklet for children, Manul: Little Ghost Cat, has been published. It is available in English, Swedish, Mongolian and Russian, so far. Find the book here, and go to "Navigation" in the top left corner of the browser to access different languages.

CPSG welcomes new communications officer

Fran Webber comes to CPSG from the US federal government. She's worked as a communicator for various U.S. agencies with scientific missions, including the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institue of Science and Technology (NIST), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA). Read more about Fran on the CPSG website. Please contact her at fran@cpsg.org with any communications-related needs for CPSG.

CPSG Annual Report

The CPSG Annual Report 2018 is availabe here.

The Climate Change Specialist Group has a new website at: http://ccsg-iucn.com, as well as new social media accounts. Follow them on Twitter @IUCN_CCSG and Facebook at IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group.

The Climate Change Specialist Group is very excited to share the first volume of their new newsletter. This newsletter will be issued regularly to help highlight the work of CCSG members, share key events, celebrate accomplishments, and share information to promote communication and collaboration with the CCSG.

The CCSG Webinar with Brian Huntley, co-leader of the IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group's work on species' vulnerability to climatic change, was a success, joined by 21 participants from around the world. You can watch the presentation here.

The Deer Specialist Group Newsletter No. 23 is now available.

The report from the Chinese Gibbon Conservation and Population Management Workshop, held in Guangzhou, China, in April 2018, is now available online in English and Chinese. Find it here.

Cultural references to gibbons, including stories, legends and myths, have been collated here.

Founded in 1988, the Reintroduction Specialist Group is one of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s oldest thematic groups. International Guidelines on Reintroductions, created in 1998, became the gold standard for responsible reintroductions and one of the most utilised guideline documents of IUCN. However, emerging challenges and improvements in knowledge necessitated their refinement through a 4-year process that led to the publication of the 2013 "IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations". These Guidelines, now available in 8 languages and widely integrated into policy, put particular emphasis on three other conservation translocations beyond reintroductions such as reinforcement, ecological replacement, and assisted colonisation. Perhaps, controversially, the latter deals with moving species beyond their indigenous range to evade inescapable threats or to be proactive against imminent challenges such as climate change.

Not only has the volume of conservation translocations increased exponentially over the last 30 years, involving upwards of 2,000 species, but this trajectory is expected to increase further into the future. The complexity of issues has also increased substantially, now including those associated with buzz words of ‘Rewildling’ and ‘DeExtinction’ for example. It was agreed that reference only to ‘Reintroduction’ in the group name and strategies no longer represented the true breadth of the Specialist Group’s activities. As a consequence, the group has evolved into the newly named Conservation Translocation Specialist Group and now deals with the planning, application, and evaluation of any human-mediated translocation for conservation purposes.

This change was announced at the 2nd International Wildlife Reintroduction Conference. The Conservation Translocation Specialist Group has launched a new website which is being expanded imminently, at: www.iucn-ctsg.org.

The website for the IUCN SSC Skink Specialist Group is now live at www.skinks.org.

Sally Walker

We are saddened by the passing of one of the most long-standing & influential members of the CPSG family: Sally Walker, on 22 August 2019. Her dearest friend & colleague, Sanjay Molur, shares her many contributions to conservation in this tribute.

Samuel H Gruber (aka “Sonny” or “Doc”)

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of one of the world’s greatest shark scientists on 18 April 2019.

In 1983, Doc founded the American Elasmobranch Society (AES), shortly before he had to abandon a six-year research study of juvenile Lemon Sharks after they slowly but relentlessly disappeared from the Florida Keys. This led in 1990 to Doc founding the Bimini Biological Field Station and a long-term field training programme studying the behavioural ecology and population dynamics of Lemon Sharks. He trained hundreds of young shark scientists and gave many people their first chance to see and study sharks at the “Shark Lab” on Bimini Island, the Bahamas. Virtually simultaneously, Doc founded the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, becoming one of the world’s first shark conservationists and railing against the increasing persecution of sharks, unmanaged shark fisheries, rising landings and the coincident rise in international demand for shark fins from China. He calculated the famous ‘100 million sharks killed each year’ statistic for an Audubon article. Doc Gruber’s eloquent and persuasive statement on behalf of imperiled shark populations played a crucial role in the adoption of the first CITES Shark Resolution at 9th Convention of the Parties in 1994. This brought shark conservation onto the international stage that it occupies today. By Nicholas K. Dulvy, Co-Chair of the Shark Specialist Group, and Sarah L. Fowler, Scientific Advisor at Save Our Seas and Vice Chair for International Treaties at IUCN.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress is where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action. IUCN’s 1,300+ government, civil society and indigenous peoples’ Member organisations vote on major issues, action that guides humanity’s relationship with our planet for the decades ahead. Registration will open in October 2019.

If you would like to be informed about the registration launch and receive Congress updates, please sign up to the Congress newsletter here.

2019 IUCN Regional Fora

South and East Asia, Karachi, Pakistan 4 - 8 November 2019

Open opportunities

Exhibition - book your Congress exhibit.

Log in to the IUCN Congress Website and find out which opportunities are open to you.

IUCN is developing a "Green List of Species" to assess species' progress toward recovery, and the impact of conservation action on recovery. For a more detailed explanation of the concept, visit the project website here or read the framework paper here. The Green List will work in parallel with the Red List of Threatened Species to provide a fuller picture of species conservation status: The Green List of Species will help show how close, or far, a species is to an ambitious conservation goal: achieving viable, ecologically functional populations across its range.

The proposed Green List of Species protocol requires extensive testing across the full range of taxa, biomes and continents before it can be launched. The SSC Task Force on Species Conservation Success invites you to participate in a test species assessment. While all are welcome, we could especially use help representing the following groups: herbaceous plants, non-vascular plants, invertebrates, fungi, marine organisms, and freshwater organisms.

If you are interested in participating, or would like to learn more, please contact Molly Grace, Testing Coordinator.

The International University of Andalucia is organising the 14th edition of its Master's course on Management
and Conservation of Species in Trade: the International Framework. 

The Master’s course is open to graduate students with university degrees. The deadline for pre-registration
phase is 30 October 2019. The enrolment period is open up to 16 December 2019, subject to availability.

Find application information under No. 2019/031 here.

Managing and Leading Conservation Projects,
Cambridge, UK

21 – 25 October 2019

This five-day course is designed to strengthen your leadership and management skills. The course draws on the theory and practice of management and leadership, and applies it to the context of wildlife conservation projects through the use of case study scenarios, guest lectures from leading conservation professionals and practical tools to improve your work. There is a strong emphasis on practical skills which you will be able to apply to your own work.

Who is it for?

The course is aimed at conservation and natural resource professionals who are currently or will be managing or leading staff and projects, often under challenging conditions. It is also relevant to researchers charged with developing and managing diverse research teams.

Please contact academy@durrell.org for any enquiries.

Course on molecular ecology and ecological niche modelling (in Spanish)

This November, the Deer Specialist Group is organising a course that will focus on training field and veterinary biologists in the newest tools in molecular ecology and ecological niche modelling.

Registrations are open from 1 October to 15 November 2019.

The course is free and for postgraduate students and advance undergraduate students. The course is funded by PEDECIBA-Uruguay. Find more information here.

Call for nominations of experts to assist with the scoping of a thematic assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health.

Deadline for applications: 15 October 2019

Deadline for nominators to approve applications and submit nominations: 29 October 2019

All Governments and relevant organisations or institutions are encouraged to submit nominations. Organisations or institutions wishing to nominate are not required to have the status of an observer to the Plenary of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to make a nomination.

Interested experts (Nominees) are encouraged to contact their IPBES National Focal Point regarding any country-specific processes or deadlines.

Detailed information on the procedure is available here.

If you need assistance on any IPBES-related matters, please contact Ms Flore Lafaye de Micheaux, newly appointed IPBES Programme officer in IUCN Secretariat.

Call for nominations of experts to assist with the scoping of a thematic assessment of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and the determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity (“the assessment on transformative change”).

Deadline for applications: 15 October 2019

Deadline for nominators to approve applications and submit nominations: 29 October 2019

As above, all Governments and relevant organisations or institutions are encouraged to submit nominations. Organisations or institutions wishing to nominate are not required to have the status of an observer to the Plenary of IPBES to make a nomination.

Interested experts (Nominees) are encouraged to contact their IPBES National Focal Point regarding any country-specific processes or deadlines.

Detailed information on the procedure is available here.

If you need assistance on any IPBES-related matters, please contact Ms Flore Lafaye de Micheaux.

Online conferences

An online conference to seek input for the scoping process for the nexus assessment will take place between 30 September - 2 October 2019. Learn more here.

And online conference to seek input for the scoping process for the transformative change assessment will take place between 9 - 11 October 2019. Stay tuned to the IPBES Calendar for further announcements.

IUCN conservation internships have been featured in the new guide: Top Conservation Internships | PAID or FREE Opportunities.

This guide aims to make talented early career conservationists aware of the great internship opportunities available worldwide. It is part of a new series of free, in-depth resources for conservationists.

The website for the International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence, to be held in Oxford, UK, on 1 - 3 April 2020 is now live. It includes a Call for Contributions, the deadline for which has been extended to Friday 4 October 2019.

This conference will bring together representatives from governments, NGOs, intergovernmental organisations, academic institutions, and indigenous and local communities, to work together towards effective solutions for human-wildlife conflict management worldwide.

It will be an interdisciplinary event involving fields such as ecology, animal behaviour, psychology, law, conflict analysis, mediation, peacebuilding, international development, economics, and anthropology to understand human-wildlife conflict through various viewpoints, learn from each other, and build new links and collaborations.

Further information about the conference can be found at hwcconference.org.

The application period for the 2020 - 2021 cycle of the Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme is open now until 10 October 2019. This is aimed towards future leaders in nature conservation from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The programme is extra-occupational and combines learning on international best conservation practice and policy with management training, network development and a transfer project. Over a period of 1.5 years, four training modules are conducted at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the Isle of Vilm in English language.

The Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme targets early-career conservation professionals in the natural resource sector, who have at least three years of professional experience, and preferably are not older than 35 years. Potential participants have the support of their home organisations to attend the course and are committed to playing a central role in nature conservation in their home countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

For questions, please contact Andrea Strauss.

Do you work, or do research, in conservation? The Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) would like to learn about your #lifeinconservation, and the challenges and rewards you face, through this 8-minute online survey.

This information will inform efforts to support the welfare of those in conservation.

At the end, you’ll be able to see some of your results compared to others who have taken the survey. The ICCS would like to reach a diverse group of people working in conservation and would be grateful if you could share the survey with friends and colleagues.

More details can be found by following the survey link, searching for #lifeinconservation on twitter, or emailing Thomas Pienkowski, PhD Candidate, University of Oxford.

Miami University’s Project Dragonfly is accepting applications for 2020 Earth Expeditions graduate courses offering experiences in 16 countries throughout the world. Learn more here. 

Earth Expeditions can build toward the Global Field Program (GFP), a master's degree that combines summer field courses worldwide with web learning communities so that students can complete the GFP master's part-time from anywhere in the United States or abroad. Learn more here.

Project Dragonfly also offers the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) master's degree that combines web instruction from Miami University with experiential learning and field study through several AIP Master Institutions in the U.S. Applications for Miami's 2020 cohorts are being accepted now with place-based experiences provided at zoos and botanical gardens in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, New York, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis. New for 2020: residents of the Jacksonville, Florida area can study and earn the AIP master's through Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, AIP's newest Master Institution. Learn more here.

Graduate tuition for all programs is greatly reduced because of support from Miami University.

The PBNF supports small, preferably local initiatives worldwide towards the conservation of endangered species (flora and fauna), or initiatives that in other ways promote the conservation and wise use of nature and our natural resources base.

Learn more about their grants here. The next application deadline is 1 February 2020.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Drylands Conservation Programme confirmed the presence of a population of Riverine Rabbits on the western side of the Baviaanskloof in late May this year. This population represents a completely new distribution of the species not anticipated by any previous population modelling.

Read the latest Synchronicity Earth newsletter here.

The next Interventions in Wild Animal Health Field Course, run collaboratively between ZSL, Wildlife Institute of India, University of Edinburgh and Royal Veterinary College will be taking place in India 27 January - 13 February 2020.

Candidates ideally have a recognised veterinary qualification to attend this course. Veterinary students in their clinical years of study may be considered if spaces become available. The course includes taught and practical sessions in population monitoring, wildlife health and disease investigation, wildlife crime and forensics, Human-Wildlife interactions and wild animal restraint and anesthesia.

For information about publishing with IUCN, please see the Commission 'Cheat Sheet' on the IUCN publishing process, which is available on the Union Portal.

For questions or more information, please contact Sarina van der Ploeg, IUCN Publications Officer.

A landscape for everyone: integrating rights-based and landscape governance approaches.

Authors: John D. Boone, Philip S. Meyer (member of IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group), Joyce R. Briggs, Valerie A. W. Benka, Dennis F. Lawler, Margaret F. Lawler, Margaret Slater, Julie K. Levy, and Stephen Zawistozski.

A number of IUCN SSC Specialist Group members have contributed to this letter about the conservation of wild relatives of domesticated animals that are important food sources for humans, in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Sustainable Development Goals targets.

Cameroon’s current land law appears to have two conflicting objectives: to attract investors through large-scale land concessions while simultaneously protecting biodiversity, defending local people’s rights and promoting rural development. Based on recent research, this policy briefing suggests land law reforms that the government of Cameroon could implement to effectively address these issues.

The International Institute for Environment and Development has published an issue paper, "Biodiversity loss is a development issue - a rapid review of the evidence".

You can also read a shorter briefing paper on the subject.

The lead author Dilys Roe, Chair of the Sustanable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group, has published a blog that provides a summary.

We are surrounded by new information every day. When deciding how much weight to give to a new piece of information, we consider not only what is being said, but who is saying it. These Good Practice Guidelines identify principles for choosing the right messenger for
communications aimed at reducing demand for illegal wildlife products.

Advertising campaigns are often more art than science. Certainly, a large amount of creativity is needed to design an effective, eye-catching, and memorable campaign. This feature looks at how applying lessons from behavioural science can be useful in informing initiatives aiming to
reduce consumer purchase and use of (or "demand" for) illegal wildlife products. 

This publication is a summary of the conservation status of the European species of mosses, liverworts and hornworts, collectively known as bryophytes.

This report encompasses the conservation
status of 262 selected endemic European shrub
species. These shrubs were selected because
they are large (over 0.5 metres in height) and
endemic to Europe.

All terrestrial molluscs in Europe have now been assessed for the European Red List.

The European Red List is a review of the status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines.

A detailed study on the effects of climate change on Lobaria pindarensis in the Himalayas has been completed, with a manuscript reporting the study prepared, submitted, and reviewed. It has been accepted and published in The Lichenologist, Cambridge Univeristy Press.

Valid laboratory results are essential for Aquatic Animal Health Services to implement a range of programmes for diagnosis, surveillance and trade. This Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals (Aquatic Manual) supports Aquatic Animal Health Services to provide effective laboratory testing for pathogenic agents that may adversely affect aquatic animals.

Published by the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group, IUCN SSC Asian Species Action Partnership, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, and IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group. Sincere thanks are extended to all the individuals and organisations that made the development of this conservation strategy possible, including the Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund.

Reviving land and restoring landscapes: policy convergence between forest landscape restoration and land degradation neutrality.

Recovery through Science-based Management. This publication documents the campaign for the conservation and long-term recovery of the Tasmanian devil,