Species e-Bulletin

News from the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the IUCN Species Programme
October 2009

The monthly e-Bulletin supplements Species, the published newsletter of the Species Programme and the SSC. It aims to keep staff, members and the wider IUCN network up-to-date with Species news and announcements. 2008 issues are available on the Species homepage.

Headline News
Extinction crisis continues apace
The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction. The results reveal 21 percent of all known mammals, 30 percent of all known amphibians, 12 percent of all known birds, and 28 percent of reptiles, 37 percent of freshwater fishes, 70 percent of plants, 35 percent of invertebrates assessed so far are under threat. Full story

La crise de lextinction gagne encore du terrain UICN

Selon la dernire mise jour de la Liste rouge des espces menacesTM de lUICN, 17 291 espces sur les 47 677 espces rpertories sont menaces dextinction. Les rsultats rvlent que 21 pour cent de tous les mammifres connus, 30 pour cent de tous les amphibiens connus, 12 pour cent de tous les oiseaux, 28 pour cent des reptiles, 37 pour cent des poissons deau douce, 70 pour cent des plantes, 35 pour cent des invertbrs rpertoris ce jour sont menacs. Click ici pour plus d'info

La crisis de extincin de especies contina a ritmo acelerado UICN

La ltima edicin actualizada de la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas MC de la UICN muestra que, de las 47.677 especies evaluadas, 17.291 estn en peligro de extincin. Los resultados indican que el 21% de los mamferos conocidos, el 30% de los anfibios conocidos, el 12% de las aves conocidas, y el 28% de los reptiles, el 37% de los peces de agua dulce, el 70% de las plantas y el 35% de los invertebrados evaluados hasta ahora estn amenazados. Click aqu para mas informacin Related downloads Amphibian Facts Freshwater Fish Facts Mammal Facts Mollusc Facts Odonata Facts Plant Facts Reptile Facts

Leopards still hanging on in Yemen

Two field trips were made to Yemen to look for signs of remaining Arabian leopards, to train local scientists, and to develop a national leopard survey strategy. Yemen is a key site for conservation of the Arabian leopard because it contains a large part of the species former range. The main obstacle to an effective conservation programme is the lack of information on its current status. Full story

Our Planet Reviewed

On the eve of 2010, International Year of Biodiversity, the National Museum of Natural History and ProNatura International are working in partnership with IUCN to launch Our Planet Reviewed, an unprecedented programme of naturalist expeditions. The expeditions will span ten years to conduct a massive inventory of biodiversity in geographical areas which, up until now, have been little explored. The objective is to accelerate the scientific discovery of new species, by focusing our efforts on the regions of the planet which are considered a priority in terms of nature conservation. Full story

Education for Conservation: Establishing leopard-friendly communities.

A leopard conservation project in Northern Pakistan has advanced human-feline relations in the area through the provision of educational training schemes. The Leopard conservation project, which is supported by the IUCNs Sir Peter Scott Fund for Conservation Action and donor organization Fondation Ensemble, has launched a series of Safety Measures training initiatives, aimed at local communities as a means of combating the current negative perception of leopards, and diminishing the risks of leopard attacks on both humans and their livestock. Full story

Rhino conservationist honoured

On 19th October, the IUCN Species Survival Commission presented the Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit to Zimbabwean Raoul du Toit, in recognition of his exceptional efforts and successes in the field of African rhino conservation. The award was presented at a ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe by Dr Holly Dublin, Chair of the SSC African Elephant Specialist Group, and Dr Jon Hutton, member of the SSC Steering Committee, both representing the SSC Chair, Dr Simon Stuart who was unable to be present. Full story

Forget forests at your peril IUCN

Economic development and forest loss and degradation do not have to go hand in hand, according to IUCN. In the opening speech to the World Forestry Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, IUCN Deputy Director General Dr William Jackson said given the rate at which climate change is happening, no country, rich or poor, could afford to neglect its forests Full story

IUCN congratulates Nobel Prize winner

IUCN congratulates Professor Elinor Ostrom, a member of IUCN's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, for winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Professor Ostrom, who is involved with the theme on Governance, Equity and Rights in the Commission, shared the prize with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons". She is the first woman to win the prize in this category Full story

Specialist Group News

Salmon
View the Fall edition of the Wild Salmon Centre newsletter here

Rhinos
The Asian Rhino Specialist Group has just posted on the IUCN website the report for their 2009 Meeting on the Conservation of Sumatran and Javan Rhino in South East Asia. The meeting brought together fifty experts from the region to discuss conservation and management of these Critically Endangered species and facilitated the development of a strategy for their conservation within range countries. More info Access the latest newsletter from the Rhino Resource Centre here

Primates
All issues of the PSG newsletters and Primate Conservation have now been scanned and uploaded onto the PSG website. The complete list comprises: Primate Conservation from No 1. 1981 Asian Primates Newsletter from 1(1) 1991 Asian Primates Journal from 1(1) 2008 Neotropical Primates from (1(1) 1993 African Primates from 1(1) 1995 Lemur News from No. 1 1996 All are now available, open access here: primate journals Some of the pdf files are quite large (sizes are given beside the link) and so downloading the issues sometimes takes a few seconds. Thanks to John

Aguiar (former coordinator for the PSG), Jill Lucena (Presidents Office Conservation International CI) and to web experts Alexandre Dinnouti and Cary Lewis (both of CI) for completing this significant task.

Tapirs
Terra Incognita Ecotours, Inc. continues to support the work of the Tapir SG. Patricia Medici, Chair leads an ecotourism expedition to the Pantanal to encounter wild jaguars and tapirs. Departure Dates 10-18 July, 2010 - Sponsored by the Houston Zoo and 2-10 August, 2010 - Escorted by Gerard Ged Caddick. More info here

Camelidos Sudamericanos
Download the latest newsletter from the South American Camelids Specialist Group here

Announcements
Obituary: Simon Jeremy Thirgood (1962-2009)

The death of Simon Thirgood at the age of just 46 marks the loss of one of the UKs leading ecologists and
conservation biologists. Simon worked tirelessly to conduct and support ecological science that was useful, that made a difference, and that could be used to develop practical, scientifically informed environmental management strategies for a diverse range of conservation problems, both in the UK and overseas. Full Obituary; and see A Tribute to Simon Thirgood (from the editorial team of the Journal of Applied Ecology, for which Simon served as editor from May 2005 until his passing).

International White Shark Symposium: Re-setting Research and Conservation Objectives:

7-10 February 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii Through technological advances and sheer perseverance, white sharks are suddenly revealing some aspects of their secret lives. What was once an exceptionally difficult animal to study in the field has now been thoroughly tracked moving between coastal and pelagic habitats. What was once an impossible animal to maintain in captivity, it can now be displayed in public with success. These major advances define the purpose of this meeting: a gathering of leading white shark researchers from around the world to share the latest findings and discuss how they should influence modern research and conservation goals. More info

International Elephant Conservation and Research Symposium

25 - 29 January 2010, Kwalata Game Ranch, South Africa Organised by The International Elephant Foundation and the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa this important symposium will concentrate on the research and conservation needs of captive and wild populations of elephants. Researchers from around the world will present conservation projects and research results on human-elephant conflict, population management, health, nutrition, reproduction and behavior. More info

2010 Young Conservationist Award

Co-sponsored by the International Ranger Federation and IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas, in collaboration with Parks Victoria and the George Wright Society, the award aims to recognize and raise awareness of the outstanding contributions made to the management of protected areas, and leadership shown, by young conservationists. It also seeks to encourage young professionals and help them develop networks by inviting winners to attend one of the global conservation events and become a member of the Young Conservationists Global Community. Nominations/applications are invited for/from: young people (under the age of 35) working in conservation and actively managing protected areas. This includes all people working in protected areas, such as (but not limited to) rangers, interpreters, people working with local communities, policy makers, and scientists, who deal directly with protected area management and policy. More information and the online application form here. Deadline December 1, 2009.

CITES CoP15 and Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the Appendices

One of IUCN's main deliverables is contributing to key multi-lateral agreements, one of which is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES CoP15 will take place 13-25 March in Doha, Qatar, and IUCN is now fully underway in preparing for it. The agenda for the meeting has now been posted on the CITES website: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/index.shtml. Also, IUCN and TRAFFIC have started working on our signature product for CITES CoP15, the Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the Appendices, which assesses whether the proposals meet the criteria for listing

under the Appendices. Click proposals to view the list. If you have any questions about CITES and this process, please contact Dena Cator at dena.cator@iucn.org

Catalogue of Life Survey

The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth compiled from 66 taxonomic databases from around the world. The ninth edition of contains 1,160,711 species, probably just more than half of the worlds known species. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is currently carrying out a survey of CoL users (and potential users). This survey - part of a European Commission funded project - Distributed Dynamic Diversity Databases for Life project, (4D4Life) - aims to develop further the underlying technical architecture of the Catalogue in order to deliver its services to a wide range of users from the amateur naturalist to the research scientist, and organisations, including government, education, non-governmental and commercial. Sarah Oldfield, Chair of the Global Tree Specialist Group and Director of BCGI would like to bring this survey to the attention of IUCN/SSC Groups providing you with an opportunity to comment on the Catalogue of Life and to suggest improvements you would like to see. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and the closing date of Monday 30 November 2009. Access the survey

Publications
World Conservation latest issue
With the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen fast approaching, the latest issue of World Conservation explores the many ways in which nature can help us tackle climate change and become more resilient to its impacts. Leading experts explain that managing nature sustainably offers a cost-effective bridging mechanism that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while the world makes the transition to a low carbon economy. We also hear candid opinions about a range of subjects: the human rights implications of climate change; what developing nations expect from wealthier parts of the world; the dilemma faced by conservationists over renewable energy; how to achieve a green development path for India, and many more.

Plante Conservation
Copenhague sapprte recevoir la runion des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques : ce nouveau numro de Plante Conservation explore les mille et une manires par lesquelles la nature peut nous aider lutter contre les changements climatiques et mieux rsister leurs effets. Pour les meilleurs experts, la gestion durable de la nature est un mcanisme intrimaire rentable qui peut nous aider rduire les missions de gaz effet de serre dans une priode de transition vers une conomie sobre en carbone. Des profanes s'expriment aussi sur de nombreux sujets: la question des droits de l'homme et des changements climatiques; ce que les pays en dveloppement attendent des pays plus riches; le dilemme des cologistes fasse l'nergie renouvelable; comment mettre l'Inde sur un chemin de dveloppement cologique et bien

Conservacin mundia
Ante la proximidad de la reunin de las Naciones Unidas sobre cambio climtico en Copenhague, el ltimo de nmero de Conservacin Mundial explora las diferentes soluciones que la naturaleza nos ofrece para abordar el cambio climtico y le permiten tener una mayor capacidad de recuperacin frente a sus impactos. Destacados expertos explican que la gestin sostenible de la naturaleza ofrece un mecanismo 'puente' eficaz en funcin de los costos, que puede ayudar a reducir las emisiones mientras el mundo realiza la transicin hacia una economa baja en carbono. Tambin encontrar opiniones francas sobre una gama de temas: las repercusiones del cambio climtico en los derechos humanos; lo que los pases en desarrollo esperan del mundo desarrollado; el dilema que afrontan los conservacionistas con respecto a la energa renovable; cmo lograr una ruta de desarrollo verde para la India, y mucho ms. Read or download the full issue in pdf format English Franais Espagol Order a free printed copy of this issue or request a free regular subscription by writing to worldconservation@iucn.org.

Adrift Tales of Ocean Fragility get your copy for Christmas

Produced by the Marine Conservation Sub-Committee, this exquisite book presents issues related to conservation of some of the most interesting and least understood creatures on earth. The authors hope that

these compelling stories will inspire interest and instill concern to make the planet a better place for all. Adrift peeks under the hem of the ocean, making very authoritative information on ocean animals highly accessible and easily understandable for anyone. A few copies remain so order your copy here NOW KK Karanth et al 2009 Patterns and determinants of mammal species occurrence in India . Journal of Applied Ecology. Abstract here

Red List Workshop calendar

Asia Region
25-28 Nov 2009 30 Nov-4 Dec 2009 11-15 Jan 2010 dates tbc 2010 dates tbc (March-April) 2010 dates tbc (mid-2010) Indo-Burma Freshwater assessment training workshop. Phnom Penh, Cambodia Indo-pacific Tuna and Billfishes Marine Species Red List Assessment workshop, Taiwan Western Ghats Freshwater assessment training workshop. Coimbatore, India. Eastern Himalayas Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment review workshop Indo-Burma Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment review workshop. Location tbc Marine Species: Sea Cucumber Red List assessment workshop, Panama City, Panama. Chihuahuan Desert Cactus Red List assessment workshop, San Luis Potosi, Mexico Mexican Freshwater Fish Red List assessment workshop (dates tbc), Mexico European Molluscs - Red List assessment workshop, Budapest Marine Species Global Sciaenid Red List assessment workshop, Manaus, Brazil Red List Training workshop, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Meso America
(Date change) February2010 16-20 Nov 2009 Dec2009/Jan2010

Europe
23-27 Nov 2009

South America
09-11 Nov 2009

West Asia
31 Jan 01 Feb 2010

Other IUCN News

IUCN Global Marine Programme
The latest IUCN Global Marine Programme newsletter provides a retrospective look on the activities and achievements of both the IUCN Global Marine Programme and a selection of IUCNs marine-orientated members over the past year. Featuring the management of marine invasive species, marine protected areas, conserving marine species, new projects and much more click here to view

Building Bridges: IUCN e-newsletter with News & Views on conservation and the private sector
Click here to view the second edition of IUCNs Building Bridges e-newsletter with News & Views on Conservation and the Private Sector

New IUCN Tokyo office

IUCN officially opened an IUCN 2010 Project Office in Tokyo in May to coordinate efforts towards next years Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity where governments will review progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target and take decisions regarding the Conventions future strategy. The office is provided with the kind support of IUCN Member Nippon Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation. The office is staffed by Senior Project Officer, Naoya Furuta. Naoya will work as part of the Global Policy Unit at HQ for the next two years. You can contact him at: naoya.furuta@iucn.org

Wild Talk October edition

The monthly podcast/radio download product produced by IUCN offering environmental news and features drawing on the joint expertise of thousands of scientists and conservationists from around the world. Animal portraits under the spotlight. Taking photographs of animals in the same style as human portraits makes people consider the animal kingdom in a very different light. That's the view of photographer Joe Zammit-Lucia, who explained to Wild Talk the rationale behind his latest exhibition "Expression, Personality, Emotion", which is currently being shown at the United Nations in Geneva. Who will pay for REDD? If you found the acronym REDD, which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, confusing, prepare yourself for a new one; REDD-Plus. Consuelo Espinosa, IUCN's Senior Forest and Climate Change Officer, explains what the terms means and examines how REDD-Plus financing will work. She says that if developed countries are going to foot the bill, developing countries must be prepared to prove exactly what the funding they received achieved. REDD needs more private sector involvement. Until now most of the work on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is being led by the public sector and nongovernmental organizations in particular. This has to change, according to Chris Knight, of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who is involved in The Forests Dialogue, which IUCN helped develop. He says that REDD might not work if it is developed without significant input from the private sector. Russia's forests examined: Andrey Laletin, of the Global Forest Coalition in Russia, gives the latest lowdown on the forest situation in Russia and explains that the main problem they face is forest degradation. He says a positive result of the global financial and economic crisis is that logging companies don't have the funds to build new infrastructure into remote forests, such as roads, rendering swathes of forest in Siberia, for example, inaccessible. Download each of these podcasts at: http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/news/wild_talk/

For more information or if you wish to submit an item please contact Claire Santer SSC Membership & Administrative Assistant, Species Programme.