IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The first-ever meeting of the SSC Specialist Group Chairs took place on 11-14 February 2008 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates and was generously sponsored by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (with the SSC, D. Swarovski & Co and Conservation International as co-sponsors).

QUICK LINKS

About the meeting

Meeting Report

Agenda

Species Contacts

Specialist Group Chair and RLA Focal Point Photo Guide

Powerpoint Presentations from the Meeting

Meeting Documents

Photos from the Meeting

Carbon Emissions Off-Setting

Contact Details of Participants (Scroll to the bottom of the page)

About the Meeting

The first-ever meeting of the SSC Specialist Group Chairs took place on 11-14 February 2008 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates and was generously sponsored by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (with the SSC, D. Swarovski & Co and Conservation International as co-sponsors).

The meeting was designed to celebrate the voluntarism of the Chairs, acknowledge their enormous contribution to global species conservation over the last six decades and to re-focus our efforts on species conservation. The meeting was attended by 122 delegates - over 80 Specialist Group chairs as well as key IUCN Secretariat from headquarters and regions.

The meeting was a resounding success and topics on the agenda included the SSC design for the future, IUCN policy, the World Conservation Congress, tools for species and area-based conservation planning, communications, Red Listing and assessment work, and networking - allowing the Chairs to share their knowledge and experience with each other.

Meeting Report

Download the Executive Summary

Download the Final Meeting Report

Consolidated Meeting Feedback Forms (Scroll to the bottom of the page)

Agenda

Download the agenda

Species Contacts

Click here to see Species contact details.

Specialist Group Chair and RLA Focal Point Photo Guide

Click here to see a photo guide of all the SSC Specialist Group Chairs and Red List Focal Points.

Powerpoint presentations from the meeting

All presentations have been converted to encrypted PDF. You will be unable to copy text or images from these files.

• Overview of Species Programme (Jane Smart)
• Communication Ideas from the Species Programme (Julie Griffin and Dena Cator)
• Communication Ideas from the Cat Specialist Group (Christine Breitenmoser)
• CEC Communication Ideas (Frits Hesselink)
• Red List Experiences of Specialist Groups (Domitilla Raimondo and Yvonne Sadovy)
• Red List Tools (SIS) (Jim Ragle)
• Redesigning SSC (Luigi Boitani)
• Pat McLagan Redesign Input Discussion (Patricia McLagan)
• World Conservation Congress (Bill Jackson and Dena Cator)

Click below for more presentations from the meeting (Zip files)

	Welcome Presentation by Holly Dublin	ZIP Document 3.51MB
	SSC: Where we have been and where we are headed by Holly Dublin	ZIP Document 3.61MB
	Keeping species high on the agenda by Jeff McNeely	ZIP Document 6.01MB
	Collaboration with SSC by Aban Kabraji and Mohammad Rafiq	ZIP Document 1000KB
	Networking and SG Membership	ZIP Document 6.16MB
	Fundraising 1	ZIP Document 1.98MB
	Fundraising 2	ZIP Document 2.44MB
	Red List 2008 by Craig Hilton-Taylor	ZIP Document 3.08MB
	Red List Priorities and Uses 1	ZIP Document 1.13MB
	Red List Priorities and Uses 2	ZIP Document 1.26MB
	Red List Priorities and Uses 3	ZIP Document 2.93MB
	UAE Presentation Fred Launay	PDF Document 2.23MB
	UAE Bird Conservation Presentation	PDF Document 3.94MB
	UAE Marine Environment Presentation	PDF Document 755KB

Species Conservation Strategic Planning

• Vision (Simon Hedges)
• Implementing Action (Bob Lacy)
• Multi species (Phil McGowan)
• African Rhino Specialist Group (Martin Brooks and Richard Emslie)
• Bear Specialist Group (Dave Garshelis)
• Tapir Specialist Group (Patricia Medici)
• Cheetahs and African Wild Dogs (Claudio Sillero)

Plants Specialist Group Side Meeting Documents

• SSC and the Plant Conservation Network
  

Meeting Documents

Meeting pack documents

• Meeting Pack 1 - Meeting Agenda, Delegate List (397KB)
• Meeting Pack 2 - Plant Specialist Group Profiles (3MB)
• Meeting Pack 3 - Mammal Specialist Group Profiles (3MB)
• Meeting Pack 4 - Amphibian, Fish, Invertebrate Specialist Group Profiles (1MB)
• Meeting Pack 5 - Bird Specialist Group, Disciplinary Group, Working Group, Red List Authorities Profiles (2MB)
• Meeting Pack 6 - IUCN Programmes, Regional Offices, Commissions Profiles (3MB)
• Meeting Pack 7 - Indian Sub Continent Plant Specialist Group (89KB)
  
• Meeting Pack 8 - Goose Specialist Group (644KB)

Important background reading documents
The following documents were background reading for various sessions at the meeting:

• For the discussions on the proposed redesign of the SSC, please download (these have been online since December 2007 and are the same versions): 
  The IUCN SSC - Design for the Future (413KB)
  SSC's New Design - Questions and Answers (271KB)
• For some interesting new developments on conservation planning, please download the following documents (background to Session 27):
  WCPA-SSC Joint Initiative on Conservation Planning - summary
  An Overview of Species Conservation Strategic Planning
• For an update about the Species Information Service, please download the following document (background to Session 26): Species Information Service Brief
• For an update on the SSC/Species Programme strategic planning for the new IUCN Quadrennium (2009-2012), please download the following document (comments on the draft plan to be gathered at the meeting): 
  Draft Framework for IUCN Strategic Plan on Species - 2009-2012
• For an update about collaboration on future funding opportunities from the ex-situ community for prioritized field projects, please download the following document (background for Sessions on fundraising): 
  Criteria for Funding from the ex-situ community re prioritized field projects 

Photos from the meeting

Photo web-page on Yahoo!

A photo-sharing site has been set up through Yahoo! Groups where you can upload your favourite photos of the meeting for us all to see. You will have to create a Yahoo! user name and password, but this is a simple process.
You can also use the Yahoo! Group for posting some comments about the meeting (or in fact anything you would like to discuss).

Instructions for the Yahoo! Group:

1. Click on the link from the SSC SG Chairs' Meeting website under the photo section. Then click the "Join this group" button.
2. You will be directed to the Yahoo login page. If you do not have a Yahoo ID already, you will need to click "Sign up".
3. This takes you to a page where you need to fill in a few details - it only takes about 2 minutes to do, and you will need to select a user name and password.
4. Click "Continue", then complete your preferences (whether you want to have email updates or not) for your group membership (takes about 30 seconds) and again "Continue".
5. You will then be directed back to the group's home page.
6. You can now post messages as well as read other people's messages. We have started a thread called "Meeting Highlights", so please feel free to add in your main highlights of the meeting. Use the menu on the left of the screen to either "Post" a new thread or go to "Messages" to reply to an existing thread.
7. To look at photos, use the "Photos" link in the left menu. You can then look at the existing albums we have created, create your own album, or simply add your photos to one of our albums (remember to reduce your photos in size before adding them!). To download a picture, click on the small thumbnail version, and then choose "large". Once the large version has loaded, you can copy the picture by right-clicking and choosing "save picture as...".

Carbon emissions off-setting

All carbon emissions for flights paid for by the meeting budget have been offset using the IUCN Carbon Emission Calculator. The total offset amount of CHF 3,299.34 was paid into the IUCN Carbon Fund after the meeting. The IUCN Carbon Fund contributes to a project chosen at the discretion of the IUCN Director General and staff.