Protecting Europe’s veteran tree hoverflies - IUCN SOS - GSAP SKILLS Online Knowledge Platform

2006

Global invasive species database (GISD)

The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) is a free source of information about invasive alien species. It covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants, in all ecosystems. The GISD aims to increase public awareness about introduced species that negatively impact biodiversity, and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities by providing easy access to authoritative invasive species information.

Important Plant Areas (IPAs)

IPAs are key sites for exceptional botanical richness. They are identified using three criteria: threatened species, botanical richness (including socially, economically, and culturally valuable plants), and threatened habitats. IPAs contribute to implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework and are a component of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.

African Wildlife Poisoning Database

The Vulture Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission gathers and collates data on historical and current incidents of wildlife poisoning to assess the scope and impact of this threat to vultures and other scavenging birds and wildlife on the African continent. The Database is accompanied by a map of poisoning incidents in Africa. A webform and a data submission template have been designed to facilitate simple uploading of records of poisoning incidents.

The Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW)

CPW is a voluntary partnership of several international organizations that have mandates and programmes for the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. The CPW was Current members are the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Center for International Forestry Research, CITES, CMS, FAO, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), the International Trade Centre (ITC), IUCN, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, TRAFFIC, and UNEP. The goal of CPW is to increase cooperation between partners and other stakeholders and promote the conservation of terrestrial vertebrate wildlife through sustainable management. Its main working areas are the provision of knowledge and support for issues related to wildlife, food security and sustainable livelihoods as well as on solving human–wildlife conflict and illegal and unsustainable hunting.

Forest Stewardship Council certification

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has 10 principles that are relevant to different kinds of forest ecosystems and in diverse cultural, political, and legal settings. These require management of certified forests to be legal, maintain or improve the social and economic well-being of workers and local communities; uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples; maintain, conserve, or restore the ecosystem services and environmental values of managed forests; establish a management plan; and maintain or improve high conservation values. The FSC label verifies sustainable sourcing of products from the forest to store shelves.

How to use

Complete descriptions of the FSC principles, criteria, and certification can be accessed and downloaded at: https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/392

To register for the FSC newsletter: https://fsc.org

The Terra Viva Grants Directory

The Terra Viva Grants Directory is an online information service on funding opportunities for the developing world in (1) Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry; (2) Biodiversity, Conservation, Wildlife; (3) Energy, Climate Change; (4) Water Resources; and (5) Cross-Cutting Subjects. The platform lists current grant opportunities and profiles of over 800 grant programs, including application deadlines by month, subject area, and form of grant support. Funding News is a blog of open calls for proposals that is updated regularly.

Basic access for project funding or scholarships is free resources. Full access requires a paid subscription.

IUCN Guidelines on the Use of Ex Situ Management for Species Conservation

As habitats and ecosystems become increasingly altered and populations evermore impacted by human activities, a growing number of species will require some form of management of both individuals and populations to ensure their survival. Ex situ management is one possible option that can contribute to the conservation of threatened species. The aim of these guidelines is to provide practical guidance on evaluating the suitability and requirements of an ex situ component for achieving species conservation objectives.

The Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable use of Biodiversity

The Addis Ababa principles were adopted by the CBD in 2004 and they provide an overall framework to assist Governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders ensure that the use of species and other elements of biodiversity is sustainable in the long-term. They contain 14 interdependent principles covering policies, laws, adaptive management, research, the needs of indigenous communities, participatory approaches, and education and awareness. The principles are each supported by a set of operational guidelines. The principles are all of general relevance, but each one may not apply equally in all situations and their application will vary according to the species, local conditions, and the institutional and cultural context.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund The Fund was established in 2008 with an initial endowment of €25,000,000 to: Provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives; Recognize leaders in the field of species conservation; and Elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate. The Fund provides small grants to boots-on-the-ground, in-the-field species conservation projects for the world’s most threatened species.

The Fund is open to applications for funding support from all parts of the world for direct conservation projects focused on threatened plant, animal, and fungus species. Grants are awarded according to criteria set by the Species Fund, and are for a maximum of $25,000.

CITES Trade database

The CITES trade database currently holds 7 million records of trade in wildlife and 50,000 scientific names of taxa listed by CITES. It is managed by UNEP-WCMC on behalf of the CITES Secretariat. Trade data can be searched by year, taxon, purpose, or importing / exporting country. The complete database can be downloaded (version 2023.1).

The CITES Trade Database can be queried using the novice querying route (a step by step by wizard) or the expert query route (for those already familiar with CITES trade data).

A Guide to Interpreting Outputs from the UNEP-WCMC CITES Trade Database is available.

2024

Agriculture and conservation

In 2021, IUCN launched the IUCN Flagship Report Series, to help demonstrate the importance of conserving nature for human well-being and all life on Earth. This report, the second in the series, focuses on agriculture and nature. The interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between the two sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for ending hunger and ensuring food security while also mandating the protection and restoration of nature. Whether the two can be achieved simultaneously, and if so how, are crucial questions for humanity and our planet. IUCN therefore explores the positive and negative relationships between agriculture and nature conservation and mobilises new modelling approaches to examine both imperatives within a range of realistic policies.

IUCN Important Marine Mammals Areas (IMMAs)

Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) are defined as discrete portions of habitat important to marine mammal species that have the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation. IMMAs consist of areas that may merit place-based protection and/or monitoring. IMMAs are identified through an independent, expert process.

EDGE metric and EDGE lists

A consistent methodology for prioritising species conservation efforts based on extinction risk data (the Red List) and phylogenetic information; EDGE lists, representing the most evolutionarily distinct and threatened species on Earth, are currently available for all amphibians, birds, mammals, ray-finned fish, reptiles, sharks and rays, freshwater crayfish, and gymnosperms, with lists for other groups, including all angiosperms, forthcoming

BIOFIN The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed this guide to assist countries in assessing to what extent government subsidies are having harmful impacts on biodiversity, and to create action plans to repurpose them to become more nature-positive and enhance positive impacts for both people and nature. The BIOFIN Catalogue of Financing Solutions summarizes over 150 possible financing mechanisms to help countries understand which financing mechanisms are already used around the world. Countries can use this Catalogue to determine priorities for their national biodiversity finance plan.

How to use

The step-by-step guide can be downloaded at:

https://www.biofin.org/knowledge-product/nature-subsidies-step-step-guide-repurpose-subsidies-harmful-biodiversity-and

Further information on BIOFIN and the Catalogue of Financing Solutions are available at:

https://www.biofin.org/

2021

Guidelines for planning and monitoring corporate biodiversity performance

These guidelines offer an approach for developing a corporate-level biodiversity strategic plan, including measurable goals and objectives and a set of core linked indicators, that will allow companies to measure their biodiversity performance across their operations. The Guidelines can be used by any company in any sector that has impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, whether large or small, national or multinational. They are aimed at sustainability teams, managers and other company staff whose roles include strategic planning and reporting related to biodiversity. The focus is on a full-cycle, results-based management approach (not just risk analyses, goal setting or indicator development), since assessing pressures on biodiversity, and planning and developing measurable goals, are key prerequisites for monitoring. They also explain how, by choosing and using appropriate core indicators and building internal capacity and partnerships, companies can aggregate and use biodiversity data at the corporate level in a meaningful way.

The Checklist of CITES Species

This checklist provides the official list of species listed on the CITES appendices and associated information, including scientific names and synonyms; common names in English, French and Spanish (where available), the CITES Appendix in which they are currently listed, distribution, and history of listings. Over 4000 Identification resources sourced from the CITES Identification Manual and the CITES Virtual College are also available. Users can search and filter by name (including higher taxa), CITES Appendix and country/territory/region of occurrence (“All locations”).

How to use

The checklist, CITES listing information, and Identification materials can be viewed or downloaded in different formats at: https://checklist.cites.org
A full guide to all the materials can be found on the “About” page of the CITES Checklist at: https://checklist.cites.org/#/en/about

International Whaling Commission (IWC) programmes on ocean noise

Anthropogenic ocean noise is identified as one of the priority threats in the Strategic Plan of the IWC Conservation Committee. In 2018, the IWC agreed a Resolution that recognised the increasing concern over ocean noise, and clarified next steps to better understand and manage the threat. In 2022 the IWC endorsed a Workplan on Anthropogenic Ocean Noise. The Scientific Committee is also undertaking research on the impact of noise on cetaceans, and the effectiveness of different approaches to reduce exposure.

Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) aims to provide global access to knowledge about life on Earth by collecting and sharing knowledge in an open, freely accessible digital resource. EoL identifies sources of biodiversity knowledge that are legally and practically shareable and enriches their structure with modern data tools to integrate them with other data.

EoL works with open access biodiversity knowledge providers around the world, including museums and libraries, universities and research centers, individual scientists, graduate students and citizen science communities, and a suite of international open data hubs. EOL receive information from many sources, and format and annotate it so that search tools can find similar content from different sources.

IPBES Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control

The IPBES Thematic Assessment of Invasive Alien Species and their Control was adopted in September 2023 and synthesizes information from over 13,000 references on IAS into a comprehensive scientific assessment and a concise summary document for policy makers. The assessment assesses the current status and trends of invasive alien species, their impacts, drivers, management, and policy options to address the challenges they pose. It results from four years of work by experts from 49 countries.

SMART monitoring

The SMART platform consists of a set of software and analysis tools designed to help conservationists manage and protect wildlife and wild places. SMART can help standardize and streamline data collection, analysis, and reporting, making it easier for key information to get from the field to decision-makers.

SMART supports a broad range of conservation management activities, including biodiversity conservation, law enforcement, tourism and visitor management, natural resources use, intelligence, and performance and threat level assessments.

Our approach covers three areas: cutting-edge technology, building conservation capacity, and empowering a global network of SMART conservation practitioners. The SMART Approach is supported by a unique, long-term alliance of leading conservation organizations, offering powerful applications in conservation practice to ensure the survival of the Earth’s biodiversity for generations to come.

Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB) TOOLKIT

The (PCCB) is the convening authority for capacity-building matters under the UNFCCC (UN Climate Change). This toolkit to assess capacity building gaps and needs to implement the Paris Agreement was developed as a resource for developing country officials and partners in the assessment of relevant capacity needs and gaps. This capacity assessment toolkit presents an overview of tools that support the assessment of capacity needed to address climate change.

It identifies key points and steps involved in the assessment process from design to evaluation, and is supported by case studies. It also includes examples of approaches that have been successfully adopted as well as links to additional resources that may be accessed via the UNFCCC capacity building portal and other online sources.

IUCN Standard on Indigenous Peoples

The Standard represents IUCN’s policy objectives with respect to indigenous peoples. It contains eight policy objectives for projects undertaken or supported by IUCN to support indigenous peoples and promote their role in conservation and management of sustainable resources.

The purpose of this Standard is to ensure that IUCN projects anticipate and avoid negative impacts on indigenous peoples or to minimise and/or compensate for impacts; take all rights and needs of indigenous peoples fully into account in project planning and implementation; and ensure that their customs, cultural and spiritual values, and perspectives on the environment are included.

2021

A global register of competences for threatened species recovery practitioners

Competence frameworks are widely used in many professional sectors, helping to develop capacity by defining and recognising the required skills, knowledge and personal attributes. Registers of competences have been developed within the conservation sector. A global register of competences for threatened species recovery practitioners is a register of competences in the form of a directory of the possible skills, knowledge and personal attributes required by practitioners working in threatened species recovery programmes around the world, in both in-situ and ex-situ contexts. This register has the potential to transform approaches to capacity development within threatened species recovery and help improve the effectiveness of this branch of conservation. Its structure largely follows that of A global register of competences for protected area practitioners (Appleton, 2016).

GEOBON Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV)

The Group on Earth Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) developed the concept of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) to advance the collection, sharing, and use of biodiversity information to aggregate, harmonise and interpret biodiversity observations collected by different methods such as in situ monitoring or remote sensing. EBVs can be visualised as biodiversity observations at one location over time, or in many locations, aggregated in a time series of maps. Essential variables to understand climate, biodiversity, and other environmental changes have already been developed (e.g. Essential Climate Variables, Essential Ocean Variables).

How to use

Details of the method, the EBVS already developed, and results are available at: https://geobon.org/ebvs/what-are-ebvs/

Protecting Europe’s veteran tree hoverflies – IUCN SOS

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Primary tools and resources

Global invasive species database (GISD)

Important Plant Areas (IPAs)

African Wildlife Poisoning Database

The Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW)

Forest Stewardship Council certification

The Terra Viva Grants Directory

IUCN Guidelines on the Use of Ex Situ Management for Species Conservation

The Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable use of Biodiversity

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

CITES Trade database

Agriculture and conservation

IUCN Important Marine Mammals Areas (IMMAs)

EDGE metric and EDGE lists

BIOFIN The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature

Guidelines for planning and monitoring corporate biodiversity performance

The Checklist of CITES Species

International Whaling Commission (IWC) programmes on ocean noise

Encyclopedia of Life

IPBES Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control

SMART monitoring

Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB) TOOLKIT

IUCN Standard on Indigenous Peoples

A global register of competences for threatened species recovery practitioners

GEOBON Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV)