Story | 28 Jan, 2022
So far, UNESCO has designated 1154 World Heritage Sites, 169 Global Geoparks, and 727 Biosphere Reserves. Among them, there are nearly 200 sites that hold two of these three designations, and 8 sites with all three designations. Huangshan is one of these eight. These sites are outstanding…
Story | 28 Jan, 2022
The Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), the world’s rarest primate and the most endangered among all gibbon species in the world, rated as Critically Endangered by IUCN. With less than 10 individuals remaining in the 1980s, the population has risen to 35 in 2021. The conservation of Hainan gibbon…
Story | 06 Dec, 2021
Endangered Caspian Seal Habitat Awarded Important Marine Mammal Area Status
Today, the IUCN Task Force on Marine Mammal Protected Areas, a joint task force of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the World Commission on Protected Areas, announces that Caspian seals have been awarded three Important Marine Mammal Areas, or IMMAs, as part of a tranche of 14 new IMMAs…
Story | 02 Nov, 2021
The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas Programme (Green List for short) was officially launched in 2014 at the World Parks Congress to recognise and promote successful protected and conserved areas around the world. The main objective of the Green List is to encourage protected and…
Story | 29 Oct, 2021
This International Black Sea Action Day, 31st October, 11 habitats of Red-List Endangered Black Sea harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins as well as Vulnerable Black Sea common dolphins have been formally awarded Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) status by the…
Story | 19 Oct, 2021
Marine Heatwaves: a serious threat to marine biodiversity and livelihoods
Back in 2011, extremely warm water temperatures persisting over thousands of kilometres along the coastline of Western Australia caused coral bleaching, mass die-out of marine life and wiped out kelp forests. Since then, this phenomenon of abnormally high-water temperatures has been recorded in…
Story | 13 Oct, 2021
Plankton are the superstars of the ocean and MAPMAKER is the tool that follows them
Without marine plankton our planet would be a different place. Future projections and impact metrics of plankton diversity around the world are now able to be seen graphically through the MAPMAKER tool. MAPMAKER's new visualisation tools allow data-driven decision-making on marine biodiversity…
Story | 01 Jul, 2021
As part of the new IUCN Green List development plan, IUCN Global Protected and Conserved Areas Programme (GPAP) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) have established a ‘finance working group’ to help mobilize the Green List Standard and programme to support protected areas…
Press release | 19 May, 2021
World met target for protected area coverage on land, but quality must improve
Story | 23 Apr, 2021
Chile and IUCN kick off a historic process for the country’s National System of Protected Areas
The National Forestry and Parks Agency (CONAF) of Chile and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), on the occasion of International Earth Day 2021, are beginning a historic process towards a new era in managing the country's National System of Protected Areas (SNASPE).