IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The IUCN Global Species Programme produces, maintains and manages The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™. It implements global species conservation initiatives, including Red List Biodiversity Assessment projects to assess the status of species for the IUCN Red List.

Managed from IUCN’s international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, it has  technical units based in:

• Cambridge, UK (Red List Unit and Freshwater Biodiversity Unit) 
• near Washington DC, USA (Biodiversity Assessment Unit)

The Species Programme also supports the activities of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and its constituent Specialist Groups, and acts as Secretariat focal point for SSC. It is an integral part of the IUCN Secretariat.

The Species Programme and SSC work together with a wide variety of partners, including the IUCN Red List Partnership and other IUCN members such as the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a science-based network of more than 7,500 volunteer experts from almost every country of the world, all working together towards achieving the vision of, “A world that values and conserves present levels of biodiversity." Read more