Background
In February 2008, the leadership of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) met in Abu Dhabi for the first of a series of transformative meetings which heavily influenced the functioning, growth, and integration of species conservation work across both IUCN and the SSC.
A second meeting in February 2012, served to consolidate the SSC Leaders’ Meeting as a central feature of planning, thinking and cooperating within SSC and with the other components of the Union and beyond.
The meeting provided an open platform for all Specialist Group (SG), stand-alone Red List Authority (RLA), and Task Force Chairs in the SSC and the IUCN Global Species Programme to meet, share their experiences, and discuss ways forward on key conservation issues.
Held every four years, this meeting aims at leveraging the expertise and experience of the SSC Groups to facilitate knowledge-sharing and collective action, with the ultimate goal of advancing the mission of species conservation.