Top news

IUCN at 70: knowledge and experience for today’s challenges
22.02.2018

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, IUCN has launched a new blog, where IUCN Members and partners will debate topical conservation issues, alongside a series of events to...

Indonesia’s last frontier: indigenous peoples’ rights key to forest preservation
19.02.2018

The forests of Papua in Indonesia have been referred to as a last frontier, and those that live in and around them are instrumental in their future. Clarifying and codifying rights to tenure and management may be the key to keeping these forests...

New research reveals a global rise in emerging invasive alien species
05.02.2018

IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) has contributed to research published today in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, which highlights the urgent need for governments to develop measures to control the spread of...

IUCN welcomes first-of-kind World Rowing pledge to avoid impacts on natural World Heritage
25.01.2018

The World Rowing Federation FISA today became the first sporting body to announce its commitment to ensuring that activities under its control will not damage natural World Heritage sites, which IUCN monitors as the official advisory body on nature to the...

An economist's view of forest landscape restoration
17.01.2018

The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology has proven effective for countries in planning their restoration actions. A large part of this process consists of comparing the costs and benefits of different restoration options, the...

Achieving successful conservation plans: revised Guidelines for Species Conservation Planning
05.01.2018

The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) has released its revised Guidelines for Species Conservation Planning, which aim to ensure conservationists can develop appropriate and realistic conservation plans for species in the current era of profound...

IUCN Statement to UN Environment Assembly, 2017
06.12.2017

On 6 December, during the third session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, IUCN Director General Inger Andersen delivered IUCN’s official statement on how addressing pollution is essential to achieving the...

Unsustainable food systems threaten wild crop and dolphin species – IUCN Red List
05.12.2017

Tokyo, Japan, 5 December 2017 (IUCN) – Species of wild rice, wheat and yam are threatened by overly intensive agricultural production and urban expansion, whilst poor fishing practices have caused steep declines in the Irrawaddy Dolphin and Finless Porpoise,...

Protected areas across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific boosted with €60 million investment
28.11.2017

The European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States have invested €60 million in the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) Programme over the next six years – making it one of the largest EU biodiversity...

IUCN statement to UN Climate Change Conference 2017
17.11.2017

During the 16 November plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany (COP23), IUCN Director General Inger Andersen delivered IUCN’s official statement on nature’s valuable contributions in addressing climate change. Read the...

Number of natural World Heritage sites affected by climate change nearly doubles in three years – IUCN
13.11.2017

Bonn, Germany, 13 November, 2017 (IUCN) – The number of natural World Heritage sites threatened by climate change has grown from 35 to 62 in just three years, with climate change being the fastest growing threat they face, according to a report released today...

Ancient ferns highly threatened in Europe – IUCN Red List
27.10.2017

Brussels, 27 October 2017 (IUCN) – A fifth of European fern and lycopod species, a group of vascular plants that underpins healthy ecosystems, are threatened with extinction and declining, as a result of urbanisation and expanding infrastructure, according to...

IUCN welcomes WWF International to the IUCN Conservation Centre
10.10.2017

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, today welcomed WWF International to its new office space at the IUCN Conservation Centre in Switzerland.

IUCN and WWF congratulate TRAFFIC on its new governance arrangements which will guide future action on wildlife trade
27.09.2017

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) congratulate TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, on the newly announced revised board structure and trustees appointed to guide its work to combat wildlife...

Paris Agreement only chance for coral reef survival – IUCN
22.09.2017

Limiting global warming to below 2°C in line with the Paris Agreement provides the only chance for the survival of coral reefs, warns David Obura, Chair of the International Union for Conservation of  Nature (IUCN)’s Coral Reef Specialist Group, writing...

Severe threats to biodiversity from neonicotinoid pesticides revealed in latest scientific review
20.09.2017

Neonicotinoid pesticides pose severe threats to ecosystems worldwide, according to an update to the world’s most comprehensive scientific review of the ecological impacts of systemic pesticides released by IUCN's Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP)...

Once-abundant ash tree and antelope species face extinction – IUCN Red List
14.09.2017

North America’s most widespread and valuable ash tree species are on the brink of extinction due to an invasive beetle decimating their populations, while the loss of wilderness areas and poaching are contributing to the declining numbers of five African...

World gears up to boost ocean protection as global congress opens in Chile
04.09.2017

Protecting the ocean from growing threats so that it can continue to feed communities around the world is the focus of the Fourth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC4), hosted by Chile’s Ministry of the Environment and the International Union...

Climate action and global food security depend on healthy drylands – IUCN
04.09.2017

Failure to up investment in protecting and restoring drylands – soils in particular – could put future food supplies at risk and hamper efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, says IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature ahead of the...

IUCN and the World Commission on Protected Areas mourn the loss of wildlife defender Wayne Lotter
18.08.2017

IUCN is shocked and saddened by the death of leading conservationist and IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) member Wayne Lotter, tragically killed in a gun attack in Tanzania on Wednesday 16 August. 

IUCN experts provide input into draft treaty recognising fundamental environmental rights
20.07.2017

A preliminary draft of a “Global Pact for the Environment” – which aims to serve as a basis for a new UN treaty to define fundamental environmental rights – was recently launched at a high-level event in Paris, with the backing of French President Emmanuel...

IUCN to assess new measures protecting endangered vaquitas in Gulf of California World Heritage site
06.07.2017

IUCN is expected to carry out a field mission with UNESCO to Mexico’s Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California, to assess the effectiveness of new measures to protect the Critically Endangered vaquita. This follows a decision by the World...

UNESCO urges Poland to immediately stop logging in the old-growth forests of Białowieża World Heritage site, following IUCN’s advice
05.07.2017

Kraków, Poland, 05 July 2017 (IUCN) – The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has adopted a decision today urging Poland to immediately halt all logging and wood extraction in the old-growth forests of Białowieża. The decision follows the advice of the...

African national park taken off World Heritage ‘danger list’ following IUCN advice
04.07.2017

Comoé National Park in Côte d’Ivoire has come off the List of World Heritage in Danger today, as its wildlife recovers from impacts of civil unrest. The decision follows a recommendation from IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature – the official...

Illegal activities threaten natural World Heritage, pushing the vaquita to the brink and depleting forests – IUCN
30.06.2017

Gland, Switzerland, 30 June 2017 (IUCN) – Illegal fishing, logging and poaching are impacting two-thirds of the 57 natural World Heritage sites monitored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) this year, putting some of the world’s most...