The IUCN global assessments: partnerships, collaboration and data sharing for biodiversity science and policy (original) (raw)
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Is the global conservation status assessment of a threatened taxon a utopia?
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2008
The signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to signiWcantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. How will we know, however, if we have achieved this goal? Eight groups of hindrances in evaluating the global conservation status of threatened taxon are identiWed: (1) the extreme heterogeneity and (2) restricted availability of relevant data; (3) the uncertainty in species number and taxonomic division of the given taxon (Linnean shortfall); (4) the fragmentary distribution knowledge (Wallacean shortfall); (5) the incomplete or incorrect red-listing across the whole distribution area; (6) the lack of homogeneous and exhaustive population trend data; (7) the threat knowledge shortfall; (8) the incomplete general biological knowledge on a given taxon. The Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls lay the foundation of all other hindrances. So long as this dramatic shortfall situation does not change, the adequate assessment of the global status for overwhelming majority of extant taxa will remain a utopia.
IUCN and perspectives on biodiversity conservation in a changing world
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2013
Biodiversity conservation is not a clear-cut practice and there is no blueprint solution to the question how to best halt the loss of biological diversity. Various conservation approaches are surrounded by a variety of basic assumptions about the world, nature and the human-nature relationship. These assumptions are more often implicitly hidden in practices and discourse than purposefully produced and deployed at a conscious level. The aim of our paper is to contribute to the on-going discussion on how to halt the loss of biodiversity in a dynamic global socio-ecological system. We will present an analysis of the worldview(s) and management style(s) of the oldest and largest global conservation organization: the International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN). Popular in many conservation organisations is the strategy of integrating conservation in policy, business and society. Our discourse analysis demonstrates that although IUCN employs a strongly pluralistic practice of conservation, it is difficult to speak of a truly integrative approach yet.
A Brief History of Iucn and the World Conservation Congress
2000
This issue is written and edited by Leanne Burney <leanne@iisd.org>, Laura Ivers <laura@iisd.org>, Violette Lacloche <violette@iisd.org> and Alison Ormsby <alison@iisd.org>. The Editor is Lynn Wagner, Ph.D. <lynn@iisd.org>. The Digital Editor is Andrei Henry <andrei@iisd.org>. The Director of IISD Reporting Services (including Sustainable Developments) is Langston James "Kimo" Goree VI <kimo@iisd.org>. Funding for coverage of this meeting has been provided by IUCN. The authors can be contacted at their electronic mail addresses and at tel: +1-212-644-0204. IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in Sustainable Developments are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD and other funders. Excerpts from Sustainable Developments may be used in other publications with appropriate academi...
2019
Hien T. Ngo (IPBES), Maximilien Guèze (IPBES); John Agard (Trinidad and Tobago), Almut Arneth (Germany), Patricia Balvanera (Mexico), Kate Brauman (United States of America), Stuart Butchart (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland/BirdLife International), Kai Chan (Canada), Lucas Garibaldi (Argentina), Kazuhito Ichii (Japan), Jianguo Liu (United States of America), Suneetha Mazhenchery Subramanian (India/United Nations University), Guy Midgley (South Africa), Patricia Miloslavich (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela/Australia), Zsolt Molnár (Hungary), David Obura (Kenya), Alexander Pfaff (United States of America), Stephen Polasky (United States of America), Andy Purvis (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Jona Razzaque (Bangladesh/United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Belinda Reyers (South Africa), Rinku Roy Chowdhury (United States of America), Yunne-Jai Shin (France), Ingrid VisserenHamakers (Netherlands/United States of America), Ka...
Conservation Biology, 2005
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) endorsed the Hague Ministerial Declaration that calls for a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional, and national levels by 2010. We argue that there is a shortage of standardized, regularly repeated measurements of the state of biomes and their biota that could be used to monitor progress toward this goal. In particular, there are few data that directly or indirectly measure the delivery of ecosystem services that depend on biodiversity. Given the link made in the declaration between biodiversity and poverty alleviation, this deficiency is of special concern. We suggest that greater attention should be given to defining the questions about changes in biodiversity that are relevant to CBD and WSSD goals and propose a framework through which the links between these questions and programs of monitoring and research could be made stronger and more explicit. The framework consists of three stages. First is a scoping stage in which reviews of existing knowledge and interactions with stakeholders help to define the subject of the evaluation and lead to a preliminary model of the system of interest. Second is a design stage in which the types of measurement and sampling strategies are selected by evaluating their fitness for purpose and the resources available to conduct the work. The final stage is implementation and reporting, which considers data collection and storage and the evaluation and dissemination of results. This framework can be applied across a broad range of biodiversity attributes and scales and, if combined with a systematic review of the most important and relevant questions about changes in biodiversity, would improve the coverage, fitness for purpose, and value for money of biodiversity monitoring. Slowing the rate of loss of biodiversity requires conservation action, but to know where this is most needed and whether it is working requires better and more comprehensive monitoring.
Improving collaboration in the implementation of global biodiversity conventions
Conservation Biology
Eight conventions make up the biodiversity cluster of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) that provide the critical international legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of nature. However, concerns about the rate of implementation of the conventions at the national level have triggered discussions about the effectiveness of these MEAs in halting the loss of biodiversity. Two main concerns have emerged: lack of capacity and resources and lack of coherence in implementing multiple conventions. We focused on the latter and considered the mechanisms by which international conventions are translated into national policy. Specifically, we examined how the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the associated Aichi Biodiversity Targets have functioned as a unifying grand plan for biodiversity conservation. This strategic plan has been used to coordinate and align targets to promote and enable more effective implementation across all biodiversity-related conventions. Results of a survey of 139 key stakeholders from 88 countries suggests streamlining across ministries and agencies, improved coordination mechanisms with all relevant stakeholders, and better knowledge sharing between conventions could improve cooperation among biodiversity-related conventions. The roadmap for improving synergies among conventions agreed to at the 13th Convention on Biological Diversity's Conference of Parties in 2016 includes actions such as mechanisms to avoid duplication in national reporting and monitoring on conventions and capacity building related to information and knowledge sharing. We suggest the scientific community can actively engage and contribute to the policy process by establishing a science-policy platform to address knowledge gaps; improving data gathering, reporting, and monitoring; developing indicators that adequately support implementation of national plans and strategies; and providing evidence-based recommendations to policy makers. The latter will be particularly important as 2020 approaches and work to develop a new biodiversity agenda for the next decade is beginning.
Sustainable Biodiversity Databasing: International, Collaborative, Dynamic, Centralised
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
The World Register of Marine Species is a sustainable model of international collaboration around a centralised database that provides expert validated biodiversity data freely online. This model could be replicated for the over 1.2 million terrestrial and freshwater species to improve quality control and data management in biology and ecology globally.