Species Survival Commission E-Bulletin - October 2001

This bulletin, as a supplement to Species, SSC's published newsletter, aims to keep staff, members, and the wider IUCN network up-to-date with news and announcements from the Commission.

Previous issues:

NEW IUCN/SSC SPECIALIST GROUPS
SALMON SPECIALIST GROUP
The new IUCN/SSC Salmon Specialist Group (SSG) will work towards conservation of native stocks of salmonid fish that are at risk of extinction throughout much of their ranges in both the northern Pacific and northern Atlantic oceans. Despite broad support for salmon protection and recovery, there is no international forum dedicated to salmon science, monitoring and conservation. The SSG will initially focus on the native range of Pacific salmon, including the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, China and Korea. Activities will include the creation of a network of salmon scientists and managers, joint publication of a report on the status and threats to anadromous salmonid fish (those that spend most of their lives at sea but migrate to freshwater to spawn) along the Northern Pacific Rim, and publication of a conservation strategy and action plan for Russian steelhead (Oncorhynchus/Parasalmo mykiss). In the long term, the group will assess the status of salmonid fish for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; contribute information to the Species Information Service (SIS); and provide expertise on the unique needs of anadromous fish to an overall assessment of freshwater biodiversity decline. Group Chair is Guido Rahr, President of the Wild Salmon Center in Portland, USA.

AFRICAN TREE SPECIALIST GROUP
The African Tree Specialist Group which had been without a leader for several years following the premature death of Dr. Abdou-Salam Ouedraogo, has been re-established. The membership, for the first time, extends widely into French-speaking Central and Western Africa, which will fill a significant gap in the SSC plant network. Despite some potential overlap with currently the Southern African and Eastern African Plant Specialist Groups, this Group will work closely with the regional groups. It offers the added advantages of evaluating trees with wider distributions and including more forestry and trade based experts in its network. The Chair is Dr. Bienvenu Sambou of the Institute of Environmental Sciences in Dakar, Sénégal. The Group's first tasks will include a regionalisation of the network with the nomination of regional/country coordinators. A funding proposal will be developed to organise a preliminary meeting on tree conservation in Africa. Members will then be able to form a more detailed work programme for the Group and plan their activities for tree conservation, whether these focus on contributing to the Red List Programme or developing Action Plans for specific threatened species.

GALAPAGOS PLANT SPECIALIST GROUP
A new Galapagos Plant Specialist Group represents an extremely important addition to the SSC network. It is the first plant Specialist Group in the Pacific, and covers a particularly threatened flora. Chaired by Dr. Alan Tye, Head of the Botany Department at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in the Galapagos, Group membership will be largely drawn from a well-established informal network of Galapagos botanists from CDRS and visiting scientists. The first project will be the completion of the evaluation of all Galapagos endemic vascular plant taxa according to the 2001 Red List Categories and Criteria together with the publication of a status and distribution checklist. Management plans for all endemic taxa will be published. The Group's future role will be to promote and carry out research into the ecology and conservation of the most threatened plants, and more generally of all endemic plant species. A range of new monitoring projects will be established in key vegetation zones as funds become available. Work will also be carried out on invasive species, a major threat to the Galapagos flora.

LEGUME SPECIALIST GROUP
The new Legume Specialist Group will be Chaired by Dr. Nigel Maxted, a legume specialist and Senior Lecturer and Consultant in the Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources at the University of Birmingham, U.K. Creation of this Group is a major move to cover one of the world's largest and most important plant groups, and one that is a vital component of the proposal to use Red Listing as an indicator of global biodiversity health, given the very broad geographical and ecological range of this family. Legumes also make up a significant component of crop wild relatives, the conservation of which has been recognized by the IUCN/SSC Plant Programme as a priority. The Group will work closely with ILDIS, the International Legume Database and Information Service, an extensive and efficient network of specialists on Leguminosae. This network had been previously mostly involved in taxonomic work, but will now add conservation activities to its programme. Part of the Specialist Group membership will be drawn from ILDIS.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL TAPIR SYMPOSIUM
The first International Tapir Symposium takes place in San Jose, Costa Rica, 3-8 November, organised by the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Tapir Taxon Advisory Group and the Tapir Preservation Fund. It aims to conduct an overview of current tapir research (in situ and ex situ), education, husbandry and management issues, as well as tapir conservation issues and approaches to solving them. The symposium will bring together tapir specialists and conservationists worldwide. More information

FIRST INTERNATIONAL ORCHID CONSERVATION CONGRESS
SSC played a key role in the First International Orchid Conservation Congress held in Perth, Australia, September 24-28 which proved a great success. Over 130 orchid conservation experts from 21 countries attended; the range of expertise in orchid conservation represented was extremely impressive and encouraging. Participants discussed a range of topics including taxonomy as a basis for conservation, threatening processes, in situ and ex situ conservation techniques, orchid reintroduction and recovery planning, and trade. An Orchid Specialist Group (OSG) meeting held during the Congress resulted in several significant outcomes: recognition of the urgent need to find adequate resources for the continued operation of the OSG Secretariat, Regional Group offices and the work of the OSG thematic committees; inauguration of a new Regional Group for Tropical South East Asia, chaired by Dr Faridah Qamaruz Zaman, from University Putra, Malaysia; and establishment of the OSG In situ Conservation Committee, Chaired by Professor Raymond Tremblay, University of Puerto Rico. Philip Seaton, Chair of the OSG Ex situ Conservation Group has made great headway in establishing a network of orchid germplasm banks, particularly in the Meso- and South American regions. A strategy for supplying orchid assessments to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was discussed. Initial steps are being taken to establish a mechanism for transfer of data from Australian National Red Lists to the IUCN Red List. A three-day intensive training course in orchid conservation techniques was held before the Congress. More information on the conference outcomes.

SSC AT SBSTTA 7
A GLOBAL PLANT CONSERVATION STRATEGY
SSC will be active at the seventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to the Convention on Biological Diversity (SBSTTA) in Montreal, November 12-16, where a Global Plant Conservation Strategy will be discussed. The IUCN/SSC Plant Conservation Committee has prepared an IUCN policy recommendation paper which is available in English, French, and Spanish at: http://iucn.org/themes/biodiversity/sbstta7/index.html. Further information about the meeting.
WILD MEAT - ADDRESSING THREATS TO LIVELIHOODS AND BIODIVERSITY
In line with the main theme of the SBSTTA 7 meeting - Forest Biological Diversity - the results of the IUCN/FAO/TRAFFIC workshop in Cameroon on the sustainable use of wild species for meat are being communicated in a brochure that will be distributed to all SBSTTA participants. The IUCN delegation will be promoting multi-stakeholder cooperation in implementing the recommendations that emerged from the workshop. More information

SOUTHERN AFRICA SUSTAINABLE USE POLICY DIALOGUE
A full report of the Sustainable Use Policy Dialogue workshop held in Botswana in August is now available. The workshop was organized by IUCN's Sustainable Use Team in conjunction with the IUCN Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) and the IUCN Botswana Office. The aim of the Dialogue: Governance: Equity and Sustainable Use of Living Natural Resources in Southern Africa, was to highlight some factors that are important in the Southern African region and foster a sharper sense of regional priorities and agendas. It aimed to provide a useful counter-balance to other efforts to identify and articulate elements of sustainable use, such as the workshops organized by the Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD). Several of the organizers and participants of the Gaborone Dialogue attended the SCBD workshop in Mozambique in September to transmit the results of the IUCN Dialogue. The Dialogue led to an understanding of key regional perspectives on several aspects of governance relating to sustainability: international economic processes and their effects on the nation-state, and mis-matches between scales of use and scales of decision-making. The process will assist IUCN and its constituents to improve their understanding of the status of these discussions in Southern Africa. The report is available from the IUCN/SSC Sustainable Use Specialist Group website.

SSC COMMUNICATIONS MEETING
SSC communicators Anna Knee and Carolina Caceres were joined by Ling Ling Lee of the SSC Executive Committee, in Ottawa, Canada in early October to discuss SSC's strategic approach to communications in the current intersessional period. The meeting benefited from invaluable input from Medicinal Plant Specialist Group Chair, Danna Leaman; Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group Chair and PCC member, Bertrand von Arx; Sustainable Use Team Communications Officer, David Beamont and Orchid Specialist Group North American Vice-Chair, Marilyn Light. A work plan has been drawn up which sets priorities for the coming year including greater support to Specialist Groups, particularly in website and listserv development, essential to Group communications. The meeting confirmed the urgent need to help Groups share their experiences with fundraising, profile raising and regionalization, for example. One idea is to devote a section of Species, the Commission's newsletter, to "lessons learned". Further ideas of topics to include should be sent to Team Species (Email: ssc_iucn@ec.gc.ca). The meeting also stressed the importance of personal contact between Groups, as well as with SSC staff. Every effort should be made to find opportunities for Chairs to get together.

IUCN INPUT TO CITES CRITERIA REVIEW
IUCN has submitted comments, coordinated by the IUCN/SSC Wildlife Trade Programme on the review of the CITES Listing Criteria which will be considered by the Chairs of the CITES Animals and Plants Committees in compiling their report to the Standing Committee. The Standing Committee will then prepare a draft resolution for consideration by the Parties at the 12th Conference of the Parties in Chile (COP 12). There will be another opportunity for the wider IUCN network to comment during preparation of the IUCN Statement to the Parties for COP 12.

If you would like more information on any of the items included in this issue or wish to submit an item to future issues, please contact Anna Knee at alk@iucn.org; tel: +41 (0)22 999 0153.