Story 04 Aug, 2025

Towards the first national IUCN Red List: Progress of the national Species Specialist Group in Spain

Spain’s national species specialist group: a year of coordinated conservation under IUCN’s one programme approach

Photo: @ Elena Tena

Murciélago ratonero forestal (Myotis bechsteini)

In February 2024, the Spain Species Specialist Group (EsSSG) was officially established—the first national group of its kind within the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC). This milestone marks significant progress in Spain’s scientific conservation structure and is a concrete example of IUCN’s effective “One Programme” approach, which fosters collective efforts, alignment, and collaboration among IUCN Members, Commissions, and the Secretariat. This initiative was made possible through the joint efforts of the IUCN Spanish National Committee, the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN Med), and the SSC itself—an unprecedented articulation in Europe in favor of biodiversity.

Group consolidation and capacity expansion

Since its establishment in February 2024, the EsSSG has become a key instrument in the development of Spain’s National Red List. The group has expanded rapidly, growing from 14 to 18 working groups and registering over 120 specialists on the IUCN portal, all organized by taxonomic groups. IUCN-Med played a crucial role in identifying these experts and providing technical and methodological training, thereby facilitating harmonization of criteria and the application of IUCN’s international standards across the working teams.

Synergies with MITECO and support for overlooked taxa

One of the key milestones of the past year has been the alignment of EsSSG’s work with a mandate from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), carried out through the public company Tragsatec. As part of this national project, various scientific societies are updating Red Data Books and atlases of threatened species, many of which have become working groups within the EsSSG.

For entities without direct funding, the group secured complementary support through the project “Towards the National IUCN Red List: Evaluation of hidden taxa in Spain,” funded by IUCN Member Loro Parque Fundación. This initiative has enabled progress in assessing less-visible taxa such as cave invertebrates, spiders, and sharks.

As a starting point, 790 endemic species with recent assessments in the Global or Regional Red List were identified. These form the first batch of species included in the initial version of the National Red List, published in March 2025 on the IUCN National Red List Project Portal. Additional evaluation efforts have been added through specific projects, including those commissioned by MITECO or funded by the SSC and Loro Parque Fundación. New species assessments are expected to be published by the end of 2025, with updates scheduled semiannually, in April and December, mirroring the Global Red List.

Impact on other conservation tools and forums

Coordination with the IUCN Red List Unit in Cambridge has been essential for registering 344 new species -mostly endemics- in the Species Information System (SIS). Additionally, 239 national experts have been proposed for the official Red List assessors directory, some of whom already serve as reviewers in regional assessments across Europe.

The group is also actively involved in testing the new sRedList tool, offering suggestions for improvement based on real-world species assessment practice.

Lastly, the group continues to contribute to Spain’s National Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Coordination Group, leveraging species assessment data to support the identification of new conservation priority areas within Spanish territory.

Looking ahead to the official launch in 2025

This collective effort has begun gaining international visibility, with presentations at key forums such as the IUCN Regional Conservation Forum in Bruges and the SSC Leaders’ Meeting in Abu Dhabi. The goal is clear: to officially launch the National Red List in 2025, making it accessible via the IUCN Spanish National Committee’s website and ensuring it reflects a significant share of Spain’s biodiversity. Like any Red List, it is not an endpoint, but the beginning of a continuous process of evaluation and updating in the years to come.