IUCN

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International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN)
logo
legal form Non-governmental organization
founding October 5, 1948 in Fontainebleau , France
Seat Gland , Switzerland
main emphasis Nature conservation and species protection
Action space Worldwide
people Zhang Xinsheng
(President since 2012)
Grethel Aguilar
(Managing Director General since 2019)
sales 112.5 million CHF
Employees 1100
Members > 1400
Website www.iucn.org
The headquarters in Gland

The IUCN ( I nternational U nion for C onservation of N ature ; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ; German International Union for Conservation of Nature ), and the World Conservation Union , is an international NGO and umbrella organization of numerous international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The aim is to sensitize human societies to nature conservation and species protection and to influence them in such a way that a sustainable and careful use of natural resources is ensured. Among other things, the association creates the Red List of Endangered Species and categorizes protected areas by means of the World Commission on Protected Areas ('World Commission for Protected Areas '). In addition, the IUCN publishes numerous position papers on environmental and nature conservation issues and develops international standards, such as B. the standard for the identification of key biodiversity areas ('key areas of biological diversity'). It has observer status at the UN General Assembly .

history

The IUCN was founded on October 5, 1948 after an international conference in Fontainebleau , France as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN). In 1956 it changed its name to International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), which is still legally valid today, but officially only used by the IUCN in the shortened form International Union for Conservation of Nature . Between 1990 and 2008 the name World Conservation Union was also used.

The seat is in Gland in Switzerland . It also has branches in 62 countries.

Members

The current membership of 1373 is made up as follows:

National members in Germany

According to the IUCN member database, the following are members from Germany:

National members in Austria

According to the IUCN member database, members from Austria are:

National members in Switzerland

According to the IUCN member database, members from Switzerland are:

In addition to the paying members mentioned above, the organization consists of a “Knowledge Network” of around 16,000 volunteer members worldwide who are organized into six commissions. The largest commission is the Species Survival Commission (SSC) with more than 10,000 members.

tasks and activities

Congresses

Since 1948 the members have come together regularly for a general assembly, which has been organized as the World Conservation Congress since 1994 . The conference currently takes place every four years, most recently in 2016 in Hawaii , United States . Around 10,000 representatives from authorities and NGOs from almost every country in the world took part in the conference. In 2016, the focus was on the situation of elephants worldwide. The next congress is planned for 2020. Numerous resolutions are passed during the congress that determine the priorities of the IUCN and its members for the next quadrennium.

The IUCN has held the World Parks Congress (' World Park Congress ') about every ten years since 1962 , in which strategies for protecting nature in protected areas are defined. The sixth World Parks Congress last took place in November 2014 in Sydney , Australia .

Risk levels according to the Red List

The risk levels according to IUCN:
EX Extinct (only from 1500) ( extinct )
EW Extinct in the Wild (extinct in nature)
CR Critically Endangered (critically endangered)
EN Endangered (endangered)
VU Vulnerable (endangered)
NT Near Threatened (potentially endangered)
LC Least Concern (not endangered)
RE Regionally Extinct (regionally or nationally extinct)
DD Data Deficient (insufficient data basis)
NE Not Evaluated (not assessed)

The IUCN has held the international Red List of Endangered Animal and Plant Species since 1964. It differentiates between the risk levels shown opposite. Both endangered and non-endangered species are assessed.

The endangerment status of all birds , mammals and amphibians has been assessed, whereas this has so far only been the case with 18,000 (of the approx. 1.4 million described) species of invertebrates . In 2017, 8170 vertebrates , 4553 invertebrates and 11,674 plants were assigned to one of the hazard levels - vulnerable, critically endangered or threatened with extinction . A total of 24,440 animal and plant species were considered threatened.

Red list evaluations follow strict scientific criteria that have been in force since 2001. They are drawn up by experts for the species group concerned and examined using a peer review process before they are published in an online database. The specialist groups of the Species Survival Commission are responsible for most species groups. The bird protection organization BirdLife International compiles the Red List of Endangered Species of Birds on behalf of the IUCN.

Categorization of protected areas

The IUCN uses a system introduced in 1978, the IUCN Protected Areas Categories System , in which protected areas are categorized in a comparable manner worldwide. It does not represent a hierarchy, but a classification of the protection goal and management .

There are also other, more modern concepts of protected areas, the IUCN co-developed, such as the dark-sky preserve ( Dark sky places , DSP ) as categories of protected areas from light pollution. This agenda is supervised by the IUCN  Dark Skies Advisory Group  (DSAG, since 2009).

The IUCN is a co-initiator of the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), the most comprehensive database of all terrestrial and marine protected areas on earth. As a joint project of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the IUCN, the database is managed by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC). The ProtectedPlanet.net page is the freely accessible online interface for the WDPA.

Environmental law program

The Environmental Law Program (ELP) is an important program of the IUCN. It is carried out through the joint efforts of the World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL), the IUCN Environmental Law Center, a worldwide network of around 950 environmental law specialists from more than 130 countries, and the IUCN Environmental Law Center (ELC), which opened in Bonn in 1970 and is currently employs more than 15 legal, political and information science workers. In February 1999, the ELC and around 30 employees moved into a state-owned property in the Plittersdorf district of Bonn , Godesberger Allee 108–112.

The ELP encompasses a range of activities at the national, regional and global levels that provide decision-makers with information, legal analysis, advice, draft legislation, and training and capacity building. The environmental law program is also a forum for exchanging information and experience between governments, non-governmental organizations and others.

The head of the ELP and director of the Environmental Law Center in Bonn is Alejandro O. Iza, the chairman of the World Commission on Environmental Law is Antonio H. Benjamin.

Other Projects

The IUCN advises the World Heritage Committee on all aspects of nature conservation. Before sites are declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO , it evaluates the proposal. The World Heritage Committee then bases its decision on this report. The IUCN also maintains a monitoring system for all world heritage sites and issues regular reports on the state of conservation.

The IUCN's Brussels Regional Office for Europe has been coordinating the activities related to the European Green Belt , a project to create a biotope network along the former Iron Curtain , and the creation of European Red Lists since 2004 .

In 2000, the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission first published a list entitled 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species with 100 invasive species considered particularly problematic .

In 2011, the so-called Bonn Challenge to restore deforested and eroded areas was started.

President of the IUCN

Leading scientists from various academic disciplines such as botany, zoology, genetics, law, psychology, politics, physics and mathematics served as IUCN presidents:

literature

  • EUROPARC and IUCN (eds.): Guidelines for Management Categories of Protected Areas . Interpretation and application of the management categories in Europe. Grafenau 2000 ( Online [PDF; 4.5 MB ; accessed on November 30, 2015] Source: Bavarian Forest National Park).

Web links

Commons : IUCN  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Former IUCN Presidents . IUCN , 2019, accessed September 1, 2019 .
  2. ^ Former Directors General . IUCN , 2019, accessed September 1, 2019 .
  3. ↑ IUCN financial report of December 31, 2010 (PDF file; 637 kB)
  4. ↑ About. IUCN, accessed July 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety : The World Conservation Organization IUCN
  6. ↑ About IUCN. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  7. ↑ Key Biodiversity Areas. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  8. ↑ About IUCN. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  9. ↑ About IUCN. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed December 24, 2009.
  10. ↑ IUCN Switzerland
  11. ↑ a b c d International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Members Database. In: iucn.org. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  12. ^ IUCN welcomes 21 new members. In: iucn.org. IUCN, May 5, 2014, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on January 11, 2017 (English).
  13. ^ Commissions. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  14. ^ The Species Survival Commission. In: iucn.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  15. ^ IUCN Congress 2016: Protection for Elephants and the Extended Red List. (No longer available online.) In: br.de. Bayerischer Rundfunk , September 12, 2016, archived from the original on September 25, 2016 ; Retrieved September 25, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.br.de
  16. ^ IUCN: World Parks Congress History . ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: worldparkscongress.org. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / worldparkscongress.org
  17. ↑ Jean-Claude Monney, Andreas Meyer: The Red List of IUCN . In: same: Red list of endangered reptiles in Switzerland. 2005 edition , Federal Office for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (BUWAL), Bern 2005, pp. 15–21, online PDF 230 kB, accessed on January 13, 2014.
  18. ↑ classification standards of IUCN (Engl.)
  19. ↑ Introduction. In: iucnredlist.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  20. ↑ Summary Statistics. In: iucnredlist.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  21. ^ Categories and Criteria. In: iucnredlist.org. IUCN Switzerland, accessed on May 18, 2017 (English).
  22. ↑ Protected Areas Categories. In: iucn.org. IUCN, accessed January 12, 2017.
  23. ↑ European Environment Agency (Ed.): Protected areas in Europe - an overview . EEA Report No 5/2012. 2012, ISBN 978-92-9213-329-0 , ISSN  1725-9177 , 4.1.3 The IUCN categories for types of protected area management , p. 54 ff., esp. 55 , col. 1 u. 2 , doi : 10.2800 / 55955 ( pdf , eea.europa.eu).
  24. ^ World Database on Protected Areas . In: IUCN . August 11, 2016 ( iucn.org [accessed August 23, 2018]).
  25. ^ About the Environmental Law Program. (No longer available online.) In: iucn.org. IUCN, April 17, 2008, archived from the original on September 20, 2012 ; accessed on September 15, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iucn.org
  26. ^ Karl Schmitz Scholl Fund
  27. ↑ Environmental Law Center (ELC) remains in Bonn. In: bmub.bund.de. Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety , December 7, 1998, accessed on January 12, 2017.
  28. ^ World Heritage Program. In: iucn.org. IUCN, September 11, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012 .
  29. ^ Former IUCN Presidents. IUCN, July 9, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 24 '55.4 "  N , 6 ° 16' 40.8"  E ; CH1903:  510 767  /  141111